Philoctetes
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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And you remember these words and write them in your heart: you suffer this plague’s affliction in accordance with god-sent fate, because you came near to Chryse’s guardian, the serpent who secretly watches over her home and guards her roofless sanctuary. Know also that you will never gain relief from this grave sickness,
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as long as the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west, until of your own free will you come to the plains of Troy, find there the sons of Asclepius, our comrades, be relieved of this infection, and, with this bow’s
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aid and mine, be hailed as the sacker of Troy’s towers. How I know these things are so ordained, I will tell you. We have a Trojan prisoner, Helenus, foremost among seers, who says plainly that all this must come to pass, and further,
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that this very summer must see the complete capture of Troy. Otherwise he willingly gives himself over for execution, if these prophecies of his prove false. Therefore, now that you understand everything, give way graciously. It is a glorious addition to your gain to be singled out
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as best of the Greeks—first, for coming into healing hands, and then for taking Troy rich in tears, and so winning a matchless renown.
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Philoctetes
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Hateful life, why, why do you keep me in the light of day, instead of letting me go to Hades’ domain?
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Ah, me, what shall I do? How can I ignore this man’s words, when he has advised me with good will? But shall I yield, then? How, after doing that, shall I, ill-fated, come into men’s sight? Whom will I be able to talk to? You orbs that have watched my every suffering,
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how could you endure to see me consorting with the sons of Atreus, who caused my ruin, or with the accursed son of Laertes? It is not my resentment for what has already been done that stings me, rather it is the many troubles which I seem to foresee I must suffer at the hands of
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these men in the future. For when the mind of men has once mothered wrongdoing, it trains those men to be wrongdoers in all else thereafter. And in you, too, I wonder at this. You should never yourself revisit Troy, and should prevent me from going there, seeing that those men have done you outrage
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by stripping you of your father’s arms when, in the suit for the weapons, they judged unhappy Ajax inferior to Odysseus. After that, will you go to fight at their side, and compel me to do the same? No, do not do it, son, but, as you swore to me, escort me home. You yourself remain in Scyros, and leave those evil men to their evil doom.
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So shall you win double thanks from me, as from your father, and you will not appear through your service to bad men to be like them in your nature.
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Neoptolemus
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Your recommendation is reasonable, but nevertheless, I wish that you would put your trust in the gods and in my words,
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and sail from this land with me, your friend.
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Philoctetes
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What! To the plains of Troy and to the abhorred son of Atreus, with this miserable foot?
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Neoptolemus
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No, rather to those who will free you and your pus-filled limb from pain, and will save you from your sickness.
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Philoctetes
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You giver of frightening advice, what have you said?
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Neoptolemus
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I recognize what will be best in the end for you and for me.
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Philoctetes
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Have you no shame before the gods for saying that?
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Neoptolemus
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Why should a man be ashamed of benefiting his friends?
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Philoctetes
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Do you mean a benefit to the Atreids, or for me?
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Neoptolemus
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For you, certainly, since I am your friend and speak in friendship.
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Philoctetes
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How can that be, when you would give me up to my enemies?
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Neoptolemus
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Please, sir, learn to be less defiant in misfortune.
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Philoctetes
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You will ruin me—I know it—with these words.
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Neoptolemus
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Not I. But you, I say, will not understand.
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Philoctetes
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Do I not know already that the Atreids cast me away?
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Neoptolemus
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They cast you out, yes, but look if they will not in turn restore you.
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Philoctetes
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Never—if I must first consent to see Troy.
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Neoptolemus
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What can I do, then if my pleading fails to persuade you of anything that I recommend?
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The easiest course for me is to stop talking, and for you to live, just as you do now, without deliverance.
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Philoctetes
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Let me bear the sufferings that are fated me. But what you promised me with your right hand in mine—to bring me home,—that promise fulfil for me, son,
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and do not delay, or remind me further of Troy. I have had my fill of grief and lamentations.
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Neoptolemus
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If it is your will, let us go.
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Neoptolemus
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Now lean your steps firmly upon mine.
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Neoptolemus
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But how shall I escape blame from the Achaeans?
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Neoptolemus
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What if they ravage my country?
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Neoptolemus
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And what aid will you render?
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Neoptolemus
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What?
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Heracles
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Not yet, not until you have heard my commands,
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son of Poeas. Know that your ears perceive the voice of Heracles, and that you look upon his face. For your sake I have left my divine seat and come
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to reveal to you the purposes of Zeus, and to halt the journey on which you are departing. Hearken to my words. First I would tell you of my own fortunes—how, by toiling through and enduring so many toils to the end, I have won the glory of deathlessness, as you witness.
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And for you, be sure, this fate is ordained, that through these toils of yours you will make your life far-famed. You shall go with this man to the Trojan city, where, first, you shall be healed of your cruel sickness,
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and then, chosen out as foremost among the warriors in prowess, with my bow you shall sever Paris, the author of these evils, from life. You shall sack Troy and shall receive from the army the spoils of supreme valor to carry home
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to the heights of your native Oeta for the delight of your father Poeas. And whatever spoils you receive from that army, from them carry to my pyre a thank-offering for my bow. And these counsels hold for you also, son of Achilles,
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for you have not the might to subdue the Trojan realm without him, nor he without you. Rather, like twin lions with the same quarry, each of you must guard the other’s life. For the healing of your sickness, I will send Asclepius to Troy, since it is doomed to fall a second time
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before my arrows. But of this be mindful, when you plunder the land—that you show reverence towards the gods. Do this because Father Zeus regards all else as of less account, and because Piety does not die along with mortals. Whether they are alive or dead, their piety does not perish.
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Philoctetes
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Ah, friend whose voice I have longed to hear, whose shape I see at long last, I will not disobey your commands!
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Neoptolemus
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I, too, consent.
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Heracles
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Then do not long delay,
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for the occasion and the fair wind there at your stern urge you forward.
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Philoctetes
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Come, then, let me hail this land as I depart. Farewell, chamber that shared my watches. Farewell,
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nymphs of stream and meadow, and you, strong pounding of the sea-lashed cape, where often in the cavern’s inmost recess my head was wetted by the south wind’s blasts, and where many times the Hermaean mount sent an echo
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to my sad groans in the gale of my sorrow! But now, clear springs and Lycian fount, I am leaving you, leaving you at last, though such a hope had never buoyed me! Farewell, sea-wrapped Lemnos,
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and send me off with sailing fair to my heart’s content, send me to the destination appointed me by mighty Fate and the will of my friends, and by the all-taming god who has brought these things to pass.
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Chorus
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Now let us all leave together,
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once we have prayed to the nymphs of the sea to come be the guides of our safe return.
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Odysseus
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You must cheat the mind of Philoctetes by means of a story
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Chorus
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For my part, I pity him when I think how,
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with no one to care for him, and seeing no companion’s face, but suffering eternally alone, he is plagued by fierce disease and bewildered by each need as it arises.
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How, how does he endure his bitter fate? Ah, contrivances of the gods! Ah, unhappy tribes of mortals, whose life-portion exceeds due measure!
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Chorus
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That man—inferior in no way, probably, to any man belonging to the oldest families—lies alone without companions and stripped of all life’s gifts
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among the dappled or shaggy beasts. He is a man to be pitied for his torments and his hunger alike, enduring anguish that has no cure. But to his bitter cries the mountain nymph, babbling Echo, coming from afar,
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gives answer.
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Chorus
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For food he did not gather the fruit of holy Earth, nor anything else that we mortals feed on by our labor,
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except when on occasion he obtained food to ease his hunger by means of feathered shafts from his swift-striking bow. Ah, joyless was his life, who for ten years never knew the delight of wine,
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but ever directed his path towards any stagnant pool that he could find as he gazed around him.
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Chorus
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But now, after those troubles, he will attain happiness and heartiness in the end
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because of his meeting with this son of a noble race, who after the fullness of many months carries him aboard our sea-crossing hull to his ancestral home,
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the haunt of Malian nymphs, and to the banks of the Spercheius in that very land where, above Oeta’s heights, the hero of the brazen shield approached the gods, illuminated by his father’s divine fire.
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Philoctetes
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Alas! No doubt sitting on the white ocean shore
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he mocks me, brandishing the weapon that nourished my unhappy life, the weapon which no one else had carried! Cherished bow, ah, friend forced from my loving hands,
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if you have the power to feel, surely you see with pity that the comrade of Heracles will now no longer use you anymore!
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Now you are handled by another, a man of craftiness; you see the shameless deceptions and the face of that hated enemy by whom countless wrongs, springing from shameless designs, have been contrived against me. O Zeus!
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Chorus
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A man must always assert what is right. But, when he has done so, he must not let loose malignant, stinging taunts. The man was the sole representative of the whole army, and at their mandate
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he achieved a universal benefit for his friends.
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Philoctetes
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Ah, my winged prey, and you tribes of bright-eyed creatures held by this place in its upland pastures, leap no more
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in flight from your lairs, for I do not grasp in my hands those shafts which were once my strength—but now, gone, are my undoing! Roam at will now; the place has no more terrors—for you!
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The time is ripe for you to take blood for blood, to sate yourselves to your heart’s desire on my discolored flesh! Soon I will leave life, for from what source can I find the means to live? Who can feed, as I will have to,
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on the winds, when he no longer owns any of the bounty that the life-giving earth supplies?
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Chorus
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In the name of the gods, if you have any reverence for a friend who approaches you in all kindness, approach him!
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But know this, and know it well: it is in your power to escape this plague. Cruel is it that you feed it with your own flesh, and that there is no way for you to learn to endure the countless torments that dwell with it.
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Chorus
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Hush,boy!
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Neoptolemus
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What is it?
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Chorus
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I heard a sudden thud, one that might naturally come from a man worn by pain. From there it came, I think—or there.
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It strikes, strikes hard on my ear, the sure sound of someone creeping along his way as if tortured. I cannot miss that grievous cry of a man hard-pressed, even from afar—its tone is too clear.
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Chorus
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But listen, son—
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Neoptolemus
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To what? Tell me.
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Chorus
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To my latest thoughts. For he is not far from his home, but nearby. And not with music of the flute, like a shepherd pasturing his flocks, does he come,—
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no—but crying out a far-sounding howl as he stumbles, perhaps, from tortuous pain, or as he scans the haven unvisited by any ship. His cries are loud, and terrible.
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Neoptolemus
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Yes, since opportunity bids us watch near our ship for a fair wind, rather than from afar.
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Neoptolemus
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I am well aware.
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Neoptolemus
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Do so, but speak.
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Philoctetes
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Agreed, and I will bring you also.
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Neoptolemus
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What is it?
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Philoctetes
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You know, boy.
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Neoptolemus
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What ails you? I do not know.
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Philoctetes
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How could you not know? Oh, oh!
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Philoctetes
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Do not betray me because of fear. This plague comes only now and then,—perhaps when she has been sated with her roamings elsewhere.
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Neoptolemus
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Ah, poor wretch! Poor man, truly for all your sufferings! Shall I support you, or somehow offer a helping hand?
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Philoctetes
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Will you?