Philoctetes

Sophocles

Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 4: The Philoctetes. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1898.

  1. Ah, no, what shall I do? Are you to shine before the Argives graced with my arms?
Odysseus
  1. Argue with me no more. I am going.
Philoctetes
  1. Seed of Achilles, will you, too, grant me your voice no more, but leave without a word?
To Neoptolemus.
Odysseus
  1. Come on! Do not look at him, kind and noble though you are. Do not obliterate our good fortune.
To the Chorus.
Philoctetes
  1. And will you also, friends, leave me so desolate and show me no pity?
Chorus
  1. The boy commands our ship. Whatever he says to you, that is our answer also.
To the Chorus.
Neoptolemus
  1. I shall be told by Odysseus here that I am too
  2. 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.
  3. And you, when we call you, be quick to come.Exeunt Odysseus and Neoptolemus.
Philoctetes
  1. Hollow in the caverned rock, now hot, now frosty, how true it seems, then, that I was sadly fated never to leave you!
  2. 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?