bow of Heracles
E461997
The bow of Heracles is the legendary weapon in Greek mythology whose possession is crucial for the Greeks’ victory in the Trojan War and which becomes the central object of contention in Sophocles’ tragedy "Philoctetes."
All labels observed (4)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| bow of Heracles canonical | 3 |
| bow and arrows of Heracles | 2 |
| Bow of Heracles | 1 |
| arrows of Heracles | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4648856 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: bow of Heracles Context triple: [Philoctetes (Sophocles), notableObjectInPlot, bow of Heracles]
-
A.
bow of Odysseus
The bow of Odysseus is the legendary, uniquely powerful weapon in Greek mythology that only Odysseus can string and use, serving as the decisive test of identity and kingship in the Odyssey.
-
B.
Shield of Heracles
Shield of Heracles is an ancient Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod that vividly describes the ornate shield and heroic exploits of the demigod Heracles.
-
C.
Hercules’ Mace
Hercules’ Mace is a natural rock formation named for its resemblance to the mythological hero Hercules’ weapon.
-
D.
Belt of Hippolyta
The Belt of Hippolyta is the magical girdle of the Amazon queen that Heracles was tasked with obtaining as one of his Twelve Labors in Greek mythology.
-
E.
Hades’s helm of invisibility
Hades’s helm of invisibility is a mythical divine helmet from Greek mythology that grants its wearer complete invisibility, famously used by gods and heroes to move unseen.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: bow of Heracles Target entity description: The bow of Heracles is the legendary weapon in Greek mythology whose possession is crucial for the Greeks’ victory in the Trojan War and which becomes the central object of contention in Sophocles’ tragedy "Philoctetes."
-
A.
bow of Odysseus
The bow of Odysseus is the legendary, uniquely powerful weapon in Greek mythology that only Odysseus can string and use, serving as the decisive test of identity and kingship in the Odyssey.
-
B.
Shield of Heracles
Shield of Heracles is an ancient Greek epic poem traditionally attributed to Hesiod that vividly describes the ornate shield and heroic exploits of the demigod Heracles.
-
C.
Hercules’ Mace
Hercules’ Mace is a natural rock formation named for its resemblance to the mythological hero Hercules’ weapon.
-
D.
Belt of Hippolyta
The Belt of Hippolyta is the magical girdle of the Amazon queen that Heracles was tasked with obtaining as one of his Twelve Labors in Greek mythology.
-
E.
Hades’s helm of invisibility
Hades’s helm of invisibility is a mythical divine helmet from Greek mythology that grants its wearer complete invisibility, famously used by gods and heroes to move unseen.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
legendary object
ⓘ
mythological weapon ⓘ object in Greek mythology ⓘ |
| arrowEffect | incurable wounds ⓘ |
| arrowProperty | dipped in the blood of the Lernaean Hydra ⓘ |
| associatedWith |
Heracles
ⓘ
Neoptolemus ⓘ Odysseus ⓘ Philoctetes ⓘ Trojan War ⓘ |
| causeOfConflictIn |
Sophocles’ Philoctetes
ⓘ
linked to:
Philoctetes (Sophocles)
|
| centralObjectOf |
Sophocles’ Philoctetes
ⓘ
linked to:
Philoctetes (Sophocles)
|
| culture | Ancient Greek ⓘ |
| era | Mythic age ⓘ |
| givenBy | Heracles ⓘ |
| givenTo | Philoctetes ⓘ |
| guardedBy | Philoctetes on Lemnos ⓘ |
| hasCapability |
kills with a single shot
ⓘ
never misses its target ⓘ |
| hasComponent | bowstring ⓘ |
| hasMaterial |
horn
ⓘ
wood ⓘ |
| hasOwner | Heracles ⓘ |
| hasProperty |
indispensable for the fall of Troy
ⓘ
sacred ⓘ supernatural accuracy ⓘ |
| locationDuringTrojanWar | Lemnos ⓘ |
| mentionedIn |
Apollodorus’ Bibliotheca
ⓘ
linked to:
Apollodorus' Bibliotheca
Epic Cycle ⓘ Hyginus’ Fabulae ⓘ Little Iliad (lost epic) ⓘ
linked to:
Little Iliad
Proclus’ Chrestomathy (summary of the Epic Cycle) ⓘ
linked to:
Proclus' Chrestomathy
Sophocles’ Philoctetes ⓘ
linked to:
Philoctetes (Sophocles)
|
| mythologicalTradition | Greek mythology ⓘ |
| prophesiedBy | Trojan War oracles ⓘ |
| prophesiedCondition | Troy cannot be taken without the bow of Heracles ⓘ |
| relatedArtifact | arrows of Heracles ⓘ |
| requiredBy | Greeks for victory in the Trojan War ⓘ |
| soughtBy |
Neoptolemus
ⓘ
Odysseus ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
heroic legacy of Heracles
ⓘ
necessity of suffering for victory ⓘ tension between expediency and morality ⓘ |
| transferContext | reward for lighting Heracles’ funeral pyre ⓘ |
| usedBy |
Heracles in his labors
ⓘ
linked to:
Heracles
Philoctetes against Troy ⓘ |
| usedToKill | Paris ⓘ |
| weaponType | bow ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: bow of Heracles Description of subject: The bow of Heracles is the legendary weapon in Greek mythology whose possession is crucial for the Greeks’ victory in the Trojan War and which becomes the central object of contention in Sophocles’ tragedy "Philoctetes."
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: bow of Heracles
linked to: bow of Heracles
linked to: bow of Heracles
linked to: bow of Heracles