Philoctetes

Sophocles

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

  1. The one I made when I obeyed you and all the army.
Odysseus
  1. What did you do that was unworthy of you?
Neoptolemus
  1. I captured a man by disgraceful deceits and treachery.
Odysseus
  1. What man? Oh! Can you be planning something rash?
Neoptolemus
  1. Rash, no. But to Poeas’ son—
Odysseus
  1. What are you going to do? Suddenly a certain fear comes over me.
Neoptolemus
  1. —From whom I took this bow, back to him—
Odysseus
  1. Zeus! What will you say? Certainly you do not intend to give it back?
Neoptolemus
  1. Yes, I do, because disgracefully and unjustly I got hold of it.
Odysseus
  1. In the name of the gods, are you saying this to mock me?
Neoptolemus
  1. If it is mockery to speak the truth.