Philoctetes

Sophocles

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

  1. Mangle all this body, and sever limb from limb with my own hand! Death, death is my thought now!
Chorus
  1. Why, why ever would you—
Philoctetes
  1. I am seeking my father—
Chorus
  1. In what land?
Philoctetes
  1. 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
  2. for leaving your sacred stream and going to help the Danaans, my enemies! I am nothing now, nothing anymore!Exit Philoctetes into the cave.
Chorus
  1. Long ago I would have left you to go to my ship, had I not seen
  2. Odysseus approaching, and the son of Achilles, too, coming here for us.
Enter Neoptolemus and Odysseus.
Odysseus
  1. Will you not tell me why you make this return journey with such eager speed?
Neoptolemus
  1. I come to undo the mistake that I made earlier.
Odysseus
  1. Your words alarm me—what mistake was that?