Aristotle twice refers to Neoptolemus from Sophocles’ Philoctetes to illustrate complex nuances of the notion of self-control and its opposite in book seven of the Nicomachean Ethics. Neoptolemus becomes a paradoxical case of "noble" akrasia: he does not truly lack self-control, although he appears to do so at a superficial glance. Aristotle's close reading of the Sophoclean play in the ethical treatise but lack of interest in it in the Poetics reveals something about what the philosopher finds intriguing in tragedies beyond his technical recommendations concentrating on plot-structure.