Philoctetes
Sophocles
Sophocles the plays and fragments, Part 4: The Philoctetes. Jebb, Richard Claverhouse, Sir, translator. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1898.
- what is the strange plan of the Greeks that you know.
- Pursuers are on the way in search of you with a fleet. They are the aged Phoenix and the sons of Theseus.
- To bring me back by force, or through persuasion?
- I do not know; but I have come to tell you what I did hear.
- Are Phoenix and his comrades really so eager to do this favor for the Atreids?
- Be sure that it is being done, and without delay.
- Then why was Odysseus not ready to sail on this mission, and bring the message himself? Or did some fear hold him back?
- Oh, he and the son of Tydeus were readying for pursuit of another man, just as I was leaving port.
- Who is this other after whom Odysseus himself was sailing?
- There was a man. . . . But tell me first who that is over there. And whatever you say, do speak quietly.
- There, sir, before your eyes is the renowned Philoctetes.