Asteroid 1869 Philoctetes is a Trojan asteroid associated with Jupiter(which orbits in the same orbit as that planet). It was discovered on September 24, 1960, by C.J. Van Houten, Ingrid Van Houten-Groeneveld, and Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory near Pauma Valley, California. Philoctetes has a period of 12 years, 69 days. It was named for a Greek archer and armor-bearer for Hercules who was the subject of a play by Sophocles. Bitten by a snake on the island of Lemnos, his cries of pain and the foul odor of his wound caused his shipmates to abandon him on the island. For ten years he brooded on what his compatriots had done to him, until Odysseus and Achilles' son Neoptolemus returned, prompted by an oracle which said that Troy would never be taken except with the aid of Philoctetes and Hercules' bow, which Philoctetes had inherited from Hercules after he, at Hercules' request, lit the legendary strongman's funeral pyre after Hercules was poisoned by the shirt the centaur Nessus had given Hercules' wife Deianira. Philoctetes at first angrily refused to go with Odysseus and Neoptolemus, but Hercules, who had been translated to Olympus from the funeral pyre and made a god, came and convinced Philoctetes that it was his duty and the will of Zeus that he go. After Troy was finally taken with Philoctetes' help, he turned his back upon the other Greeks and went off to Sicily.
Philoctetes
Astrologically, Philoctetes signifies the need or capacity to put animosities and personal differences aside for a common goal or for the common good, placing duty ahead of self-interest, the capacity for forgiveness.
Bill Clinton has Philoctetes in the fourth house, semiundecimal Pallas(politics) and Ceres(nurturance); trinovem the South Node(old habit patterns); undecimal the Black Moon(wildness) and Lilith(bringing the marginalized into the mainstream, having to resign oneself to something); sextile Lacrimosa(living to regret something); squile the Part of Fortune(development of the life); square Venus(values), Chiron(to teach, to learn), and the Vertex(significant or ideal relationships); trine Fortuna(fortune), Mallory(taking on challenges), and Persephone(transitions); quincunx Compassion and Weaver(to assemble something); quincinovem/triseptile the North Node(to rise above the past); triseptile Pluto(power); quintundecimal Saturn(career, hard work, rewards and consequences); and opposite Pandora(having an impact).
Marlene Dietrich, who fled her native Germany rather than work for the Nazis on propaganda films, and never returned, had Philoctetes in the seventh house, cusping the eighth, forming the following aspects: conjunct Heracles(to fight against) and Solidarity(to stand with); semisextile Dominiona(dictatorship); undecimal Venus(beauty, righteous indignation); semisquare the South Node(past conditioning); sesquidecile the Sun(to shine, celebrity); sextile the Midheaven(career, reputation), Mars(anger), Jupiter(philosophy, foreign or long-distance travel), Tutenchamun(regard for things long past, the exaltation of the lowly and the humbling of the proud), Fisher(soliciting somebody for something), Jabberwock(slain monsters), and Kafka(fiction); biundecimal Saturn(hard work, career, rewards and consequences); square Uranus(activism, breaking loose), Whiterabbit(drawn into something), Hidalgo(promoting one's own agenda), Aesculapia(healing something), Symmetria(need for everything to be just right), Tara(smoothly flowing), and McAuliffe(a strike, or three strikes, against something); trine the Black Moon(wildness), Prudentia(prudence), Lacrimosa(something to regret), and Magnanimity(to be generous); quadraundecimal the North Node(to rise above past conditioning); sesquiquadrate the Moon(women, the public); opposite Volta(to electrify, to excite); parallel Ramirez(invasion by evil) and Chariklo(glamor); and contraparallel Weaver(to cast a spell).
Jane Fonda, who is despised by many Vietnam vets for her support of the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, has Philoctetes in the third house, conjunct Pia(piety) and Stephengould(hardheaded skepticism); undecimal Chariklo(glamor); decile South Node(past conditioning) and Whiterabbit(drawn into something weird); sextile Mars(the military, anger), Chiron(lessons learned), and Ceres(letting go of something); square Jupiter(religion, the law, long-distance travel, philosophy), Pluto(self-damaging behavior), Pallas(politics), the Ascendant(personal appearance or interests), Compassion, and Jansky(epiphany); trine the Sun(to shine), the Vertex(significant others), Lilith(having to accept something), Fortuna(fortune), Pest(to be hounded) and Solidarity(to stick together); biquintile the North Node(to move beyond something); opposite Vesta(dedication); and contraparallel Juno(marriage), Rockefellia(to pay the price for being irresponsible) and Skepticus(skepticism).
Ted Kennedy, who works well with people of many political persuasions, not just fellow liberals, has Philoctetes in the tenth house, conjunct Thersander(to come out on top); sesquidecile Ceres; sextile Fortuna; sesquiseptile the East Point; square Jupiter, Bandersnatch, Hygeia(to act with clean hands), Whiterabbit, Magnanimity, and Skepticus; biseptile Mars; tredecile the Sun; trine Vesta, Juno, the Part of Fortune, Chariklo, and Roddenberry(broadmindedness, a spirit of accommodation); opposite Chiron and Stephengould; parallel Lilith and Pia; and contraparallel Harris(to bdrive others nuts).
The glyph for Philoctetes, recalling the snake that bit the mythical Philoctetes on the foot, is my own conception.