Philoctetes
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 4: The Philoctetes. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1898.
- by a storm of pain are senseless.
- Come with us, then, poor man, as we bid you.
- Never, never—of that be certain! Not even if the lord of the fiery lightning comes to wrap me in the blaze of his thunderbolts!
- Ilium be damned, and as many of the men before its walls as dared reject this foot of mine! But oh, friends, grant me one wish!
- What would you ask?
- A sword, if you can find one, or an axe, or any weapon—
- please, pass it to me!
- That you may execute what scheme?
- Mangle all this body, and sever limb from limb with my own hand! Death, death is my thought now!
- Why, why ever would you—
- I am seeking my father—
- In what land?
- In Hades; he dwells in the sunlight no more. Ah, my city, city of my fathers! I crave to see you, unhappy man that I truly am
- for leaving your sacred stream and going to help the Danaans, my enemies! I am nothing now, nothing anymore!Exit Philoctetes into the cave.
- Long ago I would have left you to go to my ship, had I not seen
- Odysseus approaching, and the son of Achilles, too, coming here for us.
- Will you not tell me why you make this return journey with such eager speed?
- I come to undo the mistake that I made earlier.
- Your words alarm me—what mistake was that?
- The one I made when I obeyed you and all the army.