Philoctetes
Choose a text
id="mobileReaderAuthor" class="mobile-reader-author" href="/authors/sophocles" aria-label="More works by Sophocles">
—
⋯
Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
319
319
Chorus
319
Well, the god must look to that, son. But when you answer me again,
320
softly, please, softly whisper your words. For sick men’s restless sleep is quick to vision. But, please, use your utmost care to win that prize,
321
that great prize, by stealth. For if you maintain your present purpose towards this man—you know what purpose I mean—then truly there are irremediable troubles in store, which a shrewd mind can foresee.
322
322
Chorus
322
Now, son, a fair wind blows you on your way: sightless and helpless, the man lies stretched in darkness—sleep in the heat is sound—
323
with no command of hands or feet, but stripped of all his powers, like one who rests with Hades. Take note, see if your pronouncements are seasonable. So far as my thoughts can seize the truth, boy, the best strategy is that which stirs no alarm.
324
324
Neoptolemus
324
Quiet, I say, and do not abandon your wits—the man is opening his eyes and lifts his head.
325
325
Philoctetes
325
Ah, light succeeding upon sleep! Ah, friendly watchers, sight unlooked for even in my dreams! I could never have expected this, son—
326
that you would have the patience to wait so tenderly upon my sufferings by staying close beside me and helping to relieve me. The Atreids, certainly, those valiant generals, had no heart to bear this burden so lightly. But your nature is noble and drawn of a noble line,
327
and so you have made little of all this, though loud cries and stenches afflicted you. And now, since the plague seems to allow me a space of forgetfulness and peace at last, lift me up yourself and set me on my feet,
328
so that, when the faintness releases me at length, we may set out to the ship, and not hold back our sailing.
329
329
Neoptolemus
329
It pleases me to see you living unpained and breathing still, however contrary to my expectation. For in view of your persistent sufferings,
330
your symptoms seemed to speak of death. But now lift yourself, or, if you prefer, these men will carry you. The labor will not be grudged, since you and I are of one mind.
331
331
Philoctetes
331
Thank you, son, and help me up, as you will.
332
Yet do not trouble your men, so that they may not suffer from the foul stench before it is necessary. It will be trial enough for them to live on board with me.
333
333
Neoptolemus
333
So be it. Now stand up, and take hold of me.
334
334
Philoctetes
334
Do not worry, my habitual method will help me to my feet.
335
335
Neoptolemus
335
God! What am I to do next?
336
336
Philoctetes
336
What is the matter? Where strays your speech?
337
337
Neoptolemus
337
I do not know where to turn my tongue when my thoughts are so confused.
338
338
Philoctetes
338
Confused? How so? No, do not say it!
339
339
Neoptolemus
339
My mind is indeed brought to that condition.
340
340
Philoctetes
340
It cannot be that offense at my sickness has persuaded you not to take me aboard your ship?
341
341
Neoptolemus
341
All is offense when a man has abandoned his true nature and does what does not suit him.
342
342
Philoctetes
342
But you, at least, are not departing from your begetter’s
343
example either in word or deed, when you help a man who is noble.
344
344
Neoptolemus
344
I shall be found to have no honor—this is the thought that long torments me.
345
345
Philoctetes
345
Not because of your present deeds, at least. But because of your words, I worry.
346
346
Neoptolemus
346
O Zeus, what shall I do? Must I be twice found base—by disloyal silence, as well as by shameful speech?
347
347
Philoctetes
347
Unless I am lacking in judgment, he means to betray me, leave me behind and sail away!
348
348
Neoptolemus
348
Leave you? No, not I. Rather, to your pain, I will bring you along. That is my torment.
349
349
Philoctetes
349
What do you mean, son? I do not understand.
350
350
Neoptolemus
350
I will conceal nothing. You must sail to Troy, back to the Achaeans and the forces of the Atreids.
351
351
Philoctetes
351
Ah, no! What have you said?
352
352
Philoctetes
352
Understand what? What do you intend to do to me?
353
353
Neoptolemus
353
Save you, first, from this misery, and then,
354
together with you, go and plunder Troy’s plains.
355
355
Philoctetes
355
And this is your true intent?
356
356
Philoctetes
356
I am destroyed—ah, misery!—betrayed! What have you done to me, stranger? Return my bow at once!
357
357
Neoptolemus
357
No, it is not possible. My duty and my interest alike constrain me to obey those in power.
358
358
Philoctetes
358
You destroying fire, you utter monster, you hateful masterpiece of astounding wickedness! What treachery you have done to me! How thoroughly you have deceived me! And are you, you wretch, unashamed to look at me,
359
the suppliant who turned to you for mercy? In taking my bow, you have robbed me of my life. Return it, I beg you, return it, I pray you, son! By the gods of your fathers, do not rob me of my life! Ah, me! He speaks to me no more.
360
He looks away, as if he will never give it up! O you inlets and headlands, you wild creatures of the hills who have shared my life, and you jagged cliffs, to you—for you alone hear me—to you my accustomed companions,
361
I bewail the treacherous treatment I have received from the son of Achilles. Although he swore to take me to my home, it is to Troy that he takes me. Although he gave me his right hand in pledge of his word, he has taken my bow, the sacred bow, once belonging to Zeus’s son Heracles, and he keeps it, and wants to show it to the Argives as his own.
362
By force he drags me away, as if he had captured a strong man, and does not see that he is cutting down a corpse, the shadow of smoke, a mere phantom. In my strength he could not have taken me—no!—nor even in my present condition, save by deceit. But now, because of my rotten fate, I have been tricked. What should I do?
363
Wait, give it back! Now, at least, recover your true self! What do you say? Silence! I am nothing! Double-gated cave, back, back again I return to you, but now stripped and lacking the means to live. Yes, in that chamber I will wither away alone,
364
bringing down with that bow no winged bird, no beast that roams the hills. Rather I myself shall die in misery, and supply a feast for those who fed me, becoming the prey of those on whom I preyed. Ah, in requital for blood my own blood will flow,
365
shed at the hands of a man who seemed all unknowing of evil! May destruction seize you!—but no, not yet, not before I learn whether you will change your mind. But if not, may you die a cruel death!
366
366
Chorus
366
What shall we do? It rests with you, my king, whether we now sail, or move forward to answer his pleas.
367
367
Neoptolemus
367
A startling pity for him has come upon me—and not now for the first time, but long ago.
368
368
Philoctetes
368
Show mercy, boy, for the love of the gods, and do not give men cause to reproach you for having cheated me.
369
369
Neoptolemus
369
Ah, no, what shall I do? I wish I had never left
370
Scyros, so pained am I by these doings.
371
371
Philoctetes
371
You are not in and of yourself wicked, but you seem to have come to me after learning the shameless lessons of wicked masters. Now leave such behavior to others, whom it suits, and sail from here—once you have given me back my weapons.
372
372
Neoptolemus
372
What shall we do, friends?
373
373
Odysseus
373
Traitor, what are you doing? Come back here and surrender that bow to me!
374
374
Philoctetes
374
Who is that? Do I hear Odysseus?
375
375
Odysseus
375
Yes, Odysseus, be sure of it. Here I am before your eyes.
376
376
Philoctetes
376
Ah, me, I am sold, destroyed! It was he, then, who entrapped me and robbed me of my arms.
377
377
Odysseus
377
Yes, I and no other. I avow it.
378
378
Philoctetes
378
Give back my bow, boy, give it up.
379
379
Philoctetes
379
Me, you basest and boldest of scoundrels,
380
they will take me by force?
381
381
Philoctetes
381
O Lemnos, and you all-conquering flame kindled by Hephaestus, will you indeed endure it that this man should take me from your domain by force?
382
382
Odysseus
382
Zeus it is, I tell you, Zeus, who rules this land,
383
and it is by Zeus that these actions are decreed. I am his servant.
384
384
Philoctetes
384
Hated creature, what clever pleading you devise! By sheltering yourself behind the gods, you make the gods liars.
385
385
Odysseus
385
No, but true prophets. Now our march must begin.
386
386
Philoctetes
386
Never!
387
387
Philoctetes
387
Ah, misery! Clearly, then, my father sired me to be a slave and no free man.
388
388
Odysseus
388
Not so, but to be the peer of the best and bravest, with whom you are destined to take Troy and force it to the ground.
389
389
Philoctetes
389
No, never—even if I must suffer every torment,
390
so long as I have this island’s steep cliffs beneath me!
391
391
Odysseus
391
What do you plan to do?
392
392
Odysseus
392
Quick, seize him, both of you! Do not give him the chance!
393
393
Philoctetes
393
O my arms, what shames you suffer for lack of your cherished
394
bow, now that you are made that man’s bound quarry! And you, who cannot think one healthy or one noble thought, how stealthily you have once more ambushed and trapped me, taking this boy for your screen, because he was a stranger to me. He is too good for your company, but worthy of mine,
395
since he had no thought but to execute his orders, and he already shows remorse for his own errors and for the wrongs done me. But your corrupt mind, always on the lookout from some position of ambush, trained him well—unsuited and unwilling though he was—
396
to be cunning in evil. And now, wretch, for me you plan bonds and passage from the very shore on which you had me flung away, friendless, abandoned, citiless, a corpse in the eyes of the living. Ah! Hades take you! Indeed I have often so prayed for you.
397
But, because the gods grant me nothing that is sweet, you remain alive and you laugh, while I live miserably among countless sufferings, mocked by you and by the sons of Atreus, the two generals whom you serve on this errand.
398
And yet you sailed with them only when brought under their yoke by trickery and compulsion. But me, when, to my utter ruin, I sailed of my own accord as their mate with seven ships, me they cast out of ship and honor, as you claim, while they say that it was your doing. And now, why would you take me? Why have me led away? For what purpose?
399
I am nothing, and, as far as you were concerned, I have long been dead. You creature abhorred by the gods, how is it that you no longer find me crippled and foul-smelling? How, if I sail with you, can you burn sacrifices to the gods, or make libations any more? That was your pretext for casting me away in the first place.
400
A cruel death for you!—and die you shall for your unjust treatment of me, if the gods care for justice. But I know that they do care for it, since you would never have made this voyage for one so miserable, unless some god-sent goad had driven you after me.
401
O, fatherland, and you watchful gods, bring your vengeance, bring your vengeance on them all after so long, if at all you pity me! Yes, my life merits pity. Yet if I were to see those men overthrown, I would believe that I had escaped my plague.
402
402
Chorus
402
Bitter is the stranger, and bitter his words, Odysseus. They do not bend before the storm of his troubles.
403
403
Odysseus
403
I could say much in answer to his claims, if time allowed; but now I can say one thing only. What kind of man the occasion demands, that kind of man am I.
404
And accordingly, where the judgment at hand is of just and good men, you could find no man more pious than me. Victory, however, is my inborn desire in every field—save with regard to you. To you, in this case, I will gladly give way. Yes, release him, and lay not another finger upon him.
405
Let him stay here. We have no further need of you, now that we have these weapons. For Teucer is there among our forces, well-skilled in this craft, as am I, and I believe that I can master this bow in no way worse than you, and point it with no worse a hand.
406
So what need is there of you? Farewell! Enjoy your strolls on Lemnos! We must be going. And perhaps your onetime prize will bring me the honor which ought to have been your own.
407
407
Philoctetes
407
Ah, no, what shall I do? Are you to shine before the Argives graced with my arms?
408
408
Odysseus
408
Argue with me no more. I am going.
409
409
Philoctetes
409
Seed of Achilles, will you, too, grant me your voice no more, but leave without a word?
410
410
Odysseus
410
Come on! Do not look at him, kind and noble though you are. Do not obliterate our good fortune.
411
411
Philoctetes
411
And will you also, friends, leave me so desolate and show me no pity?
412
412
Chorus
412
The boy commands our ship. Whatever he says to you, that is our answer also.
413
413
Neoptolemus
413
I shall be told by Odysseus here that I am too
414
soft-hearted; but remain here, if that one agrees, until the sailors have readied everything on board, and we have made our prayers to the gods. In the interval, perhaps, he will obtain a better attitude towards us. And so we two are going.
415
And you, when we call you, be quick to come. Exeunt Odysseus and Neoptolemus.
416
416
Philoctetes
416
Hollow in the caverned rock, now hot, now frosty, how true it seems, then, that I was sadly fated never to leave you!
417
No, you will witness my death, too. Ah, ah, me! Sad dwelling, so long filled with the pain welling from my flesh, what will be my daily portion hereafter?
418
Where, from what provision, shall I, unhappy, find any hope of sustenance? Above my head the tremulous doves will go on their way through the whistling wind. I can stop their flight no more.