Philoctetes
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 4: The Philoctetes. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1898.
- before my arrows. But of this be mindful, when you plunder the land—that you show reverence towards the gods. Do this because Father Zeus regards all else as of less account, and because Piety does not die along with mortals. Whether they are alive or dead, their piety does not perish.
- Ah, friend whose voice I have longed to hear, whose shape I see at long last, I will not disobey your commands!
- I, too, consent.
- Then do not long delay,
- for the occasion and the fair wind there at your stern urge you forward.
- Come, then, let me hail this land as I depart. Farewell, chamber that shared my watches. Farewell,
- nymphs of stream and meadow, and you, strong pounding of the sea-lashed cape, where often in the cavern’s inmost recess my head was wetted by the south wind’s blasts, and where many times the Hermaean mount sent an echo
- to my sad groans in the gale of my sorrow! But now, clear springs and Lycian fount, I am leaving you, leaving you at last, though such a hope had never buoyed me! Farewell, sea-wrapped Lemnos,
- and send me off with sailing fair to my heart’s content, send me to the destination appointed me by mighty Fate and the will of my friends, and by the all-taming god who has brought these things to pass.
- Now let us all leave together,
- once we have prayed to the nymphs of the sea to come be the guides of our safe return.