Philoctetes

Sophocles

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

  1. What do you mean, Neoptolemus? What are you saying?
Neoptolemus
  1. Must I repeat the same words twice and three times?
Odysseus
  1. I would not have wished to hear them even once.
Neoptolemus
  1. Know for certain that I have nothing more to say.
Odysseus
  1. There is someone, I tell you, who will prevent your deed.
Neoptolemus
  1. What do you mean? Who will oppose me in this?
Odysseus
  1. The whole host of the Achaeans, and I for one.
Neoptolemus
  1. Wise though you were born, your threats are void of wisdom.
Odysseus
  1. And your words are not wise, nor is that which you want to do.
Neoptolemus
  1. And yet if they are just, they are better than wise.
Odysseus
  1. And how is it just for you to give up what was won by means of my plans?