The story of Philoctetes is in Sophocles' play Philoctetes (not in the Iliad).

Philoctetes had inherited Heracles' magical bow which according to a prophecy the Greeks needed in order to be able to conquer Troy. (Philoctetes' bow eventually killed Paris - one of the heroes who needed to be killed before the city could fall).

Since Philoctetes had been marooned on the island of Lemnos during the voyage to Troy (Philoctetes' had a septic wound, the Greeks could no longer stand the sight or the smell of it) Odysseus and Diomedes set out for Lemnos to persuade Philoctetes to lend his magical bow.

The 7 surviving plays of Sophocles are: "Antigone," "Oedipus Rex" (also known as "Oedipus the King"), "Oedipus at Colonus," "Ajax," "Electra," "The Women of Trachis" (also known as "The Trachiniae"), and "Philoctetes."

A simple example of the "Deus ex machina" motiv: In Sophocles' "Philoctetes", Philoctetes is about to hurt Ulysses and his son Neoptolemus, who came to the island of Lemnos, where Philoctetes was left by the Greek army, because he was hurt, and his wound smelled very bad. The idea to leave him in the island came from Ulysses. Now, Ulysses is sent by Agamemnon, the general of the crusade against the Trojans, to take from Philoctetes his weapons, who were given to him by Hercules himself. Philoctetes gets very frustrated, since he feels betrayed by his own army, and tries to kill Ulysses. At the very end, Hercules, a god himself, appears as "Deus ex machina" and convinces Philoctetes to swallow his anger and give his weapons to Ulysses, who will take them to Agamemnon.

Ivan M. Linforth has written:

'Solon the Athenian'

'Electra's day in the tragedy of Sophocles' -- subject(s): Electra (Greek mythology) in literature

'Studies in Herodotus and Plato' -- subject(s): Religion

'Philoctetes; the play and the man' -- subject(s): Philoctetes (Greek mythology)

'Epaphos and the Egyptian Apis' -- subject(s): Mythology, Greek, Apis (Egyptian deity), Greek Mythology

'Three scenes in Sophocles' \\' -- subject(s): Ajax (Greek mythology) in literature

'Soul and sieve in Plato's Gorgias' -- subject(s): Soul in literature, Criticism, Textual, Textual Criticism

'Philoctetes'

Paris was mortally wounded in the Trojan war by Philoctetes.