Philoctetes

Sophocles

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

  1. and when a man lives at ease, then it is that he must look most closely to his livelihood, lest it secretly suffer ruin.
Chorus
  1. Have pity, my king! He has told of a struggle with sufferings manifold and oppressive—may the like befall no friend of mine!
  2. And if, my king, you hate the hateful Atreids, then, turning their wrongdoing to this man’s gain,
  3. I would take him in your swift, well-rigged ship to the home for which he longs, and so escape the god’s just wrath.