Philoctetes

Sophocles

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

  1. Ha! Yes, and here besides are some rags drying in the sun, stained by some severe infection.
Odysseus
  1. The man inhabits these regions, clearly, and is somewhere not far off. How could he go far afield when his foot is maimed by that old plague? No, he has gone out in quest of food, or of some soothing herb that he may have noted somewhere.
  2. Send your attendant, therefore, to keep watch, lest he come upon me unawares, since he would rather take me than all the Greeks together.
Neoptolemus
  1. The man is going, and the path will be watched. And now, if you need anything else, say so.Exit Attendant, on the spectators’ left.