by Sophocles
from Ilium, to a place not far away---
Peparethos, rich in grapes and wine.
I learned that these men are your companions
and decided to stay until I'd spoken with you
and received my reward.
Perhaps you do not know your own concerns,
the new things the Greeks have in store for you,
no longer mere plans, but onrushing actions.
NEOPTOLEMOS
A blessing on you for thinking of me.
If I do not grow evil, your concern will keep you my friend.
Tell me more of what you said:
I want to know more of these new Greek tricks.
TRADER
Phoenix and Theseus's sons have sailed from Troy
and are following you with an armed flotilla.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Do they plan to take me with violence
or persuade me to return with them?
TRADER
I do not know. I tell you only what I have heard.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Are Phoenix and his friends so eager
to jump when the Atreids tell them to?
TRADER
They have already jumped.
They're not wasting a second.
NEOPTOLEMOS
And Odysseus would not bring the message himself?
Does some fear now act upon his spirit?
TRADER
When I left, he and Tydeus's son
were off chasing down another man.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Who is the man they now pursue?
TRADER
He is---wait. First tell me
who that man is, and tell me quietly.
NEOPTOLEMOS
The man is great Philoktetes, friend.
TRADER
Then ask no more questions. Get out of here,
and quickly. Run away from this place.
PHILOKTETES
What is he saying to you, boy?
Why does he bargain in the shadows,
hiding his words from me?
NEOPTOLEMOS
I'm not sure what he means by all this.
But he'll have to speak openly to all of us.
TRADER
Son of Achilles, do not upbraid me
before your men. I do much for them
and get much in return,
as a poor man must.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I am the Atreids' enemy.
He also hates them and so is my greatest friend.
You have come in friendship,
and you must speak openly.
Do not hide what you have heard.
TRADER
Think of what you're doing, boy.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I have been thinking.
TRADER
Then I will make this your responsibility.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Very well. Now speak.
TRADER
The two men you have heard of,
Tydeus's son and Odysseus,
hunt for Philoktetes.
They are bound by oath to bring him back
by persuasion or naked violence.
And all the Greeks heard Odysseus swear to this,
since he loudly boasted of sure success.
NEOPTOLEMOS
What can they hope to win, those men,
to turn their thoughts after so many years
to Philoktetes, whom they made an outcast?
Do they miss him now? Or have the gods
brought vengeance upon them, since they punish crime?
TRADER
I will tell you. You may not know this story.
There was a seer from a noble family,
one of Priam's sons, in fact, called Helenos.
He was captured one night on a reconnaissance
by Odysseus himself, who bears all our curses
as a badge of dishonor.
Odysseus tricked him, and paraded him
before the whole Greek army.
Helenos then poured out a flood of prophesy,
especially about Troy, and how the Greeks
would never take it until they were able
to persuade Philoktetes to come to their aid,
after he had been rescued from this place.
The minute Odysseus heard him say this,
he promised to fetch this man,
either by persuasion or by force.
If he failed, he said, they could punish him.
Boy, now you know
why I've urged you and those whom you care for to leave.
PHILOKTETES
Ah! He swore he would persuade me
to sail off with him, the bastard?
He'd sooner persuade me to come back from the grave,
when I am dead, to rise up,
as his father did.
TRADER
I don't know that story. I must leave you now.
May the gods help you all.
PHILOKTETES
Isn't it shameful, boy, that Odysseus
thinks his words are wondrous enough to persuade me
to let him cart me back to Troy, and parade me too
before the whole Greek army?
I would sooner trust my enemy, the viper that bit me
and crippled me at Chryse.
Let him try what he will, now that I know he's coming.
Let us go now, boy, and hope
that a great seaswell will rise and crest
and keep our ship from Odysseus's.
To be quick at the right occasion, you know,
makes for untroubled sleep when work is done.
NEOPTOLEMOS
When the headwind dies down, we will sail.
The powers of the air work against us now.
PHILOKTETES
Whenever you flee evil men, that is good sailing.
NEOPTOLEMOS
True, but the wind is against them as well.
PHILOKTETES
In the minds of pirates, no wind is against them
so long as they can steal and pillage.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Let us go away, then. Fetch from your cave
the few things you most need or want.
PHILOKTETES
I do need a few things. I don't have many to choose from.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Things that we do not have on board?
PHILOKTETES
I have an herb to ease my pain,
to put it to sleep.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Get it, then. What else do you want?
PHILOKTETES
Any arrows I may have left lying around.
I cannot leave any for another man to find.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Is that your famous bow?
PHILOKTETES
Yes. I have never set it aside.
NEOPTOLEMOS
May I hold it? May I cradle it in my hands?
PHILOKTETES
Only you. Hold it,
and take whatever is useful to you.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I would love to hold it, if that is no violation,
if it is lawful. If not, let it be.
PHILOKTETES
You speak piously, child. It is lawful,
for you alone have granted me
the light of the sun that shines above us
and the sight of Oeta, my beloved land,
the sight of my father, and of my dear friends.
You have taken me away from my enemies,
who stood above me. Courage, boy.
Hold this bow, then give it back to me,
and proclaim to everyone that you alone could hold it,
a merit won by strength of character.
That is how I won it myself:
for an act of kindness long ago.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I am glad I found you and became your friend.
One who knows how to give and
receive kindness
is a friend worth more than any possession.
Go inside.
PHILOKTETES
Come inside with me. My sickness desires
to have you alongside as its helper.
CHORUS
I have heard the story, although I did not see it myself,
of the one who stole up to Zeus's bed, where Hera slept;
how Zeus caught him and chained him to a whirring fiery wheel.
But I have seen or heard of no other man
whom destiny treated with such enmity
as it did Philoktetes, who killed no one,
nor robbed, but lived justly,
a fair man to all who treated him fairly,
and who fell into evils he did not deserve.
It amazes me that he, alone,
listening to the rushing waves pounding on the shore,
could cling to life
when life brought him pain, and so many tears.
He was crippled and had no one near him.
He was made to suffer, and no one could ease his burden,
answer his cries,
mourn with him the savage, blood-poisoning illness
that was devouring him.
He had no neighbor to gather soft leaves
to staunch the bleeding, hideous sore
that ran, suppurating, maggoty, on his foot.
He writhed and scrawled upon the hard ground,
crying like a motherless child,
to wherever he might find relief
when the spirit-killing illness attacked him.
He gathered no grain sown in holy earth,
nor the food that living men enjoy,
except when he shot his feathered arrows
and filled his stomach with what he took.
In ten years, he has had no succoring wine;
he searched for puddles and drank from them instead.
But now fortune has come with victory for him. He has found
the son of a great man, who will himself be great,
when this is over. Our lord will carry him over the seas,
after these ten years, to his father's home
in the land of the nymphs of Malia,
by the banks of sweet-running Spercheios,
where Herakles the archer ascended to Olympos,
bronze-armored, engulfed in holy fire,
there above the hills of Oeta.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Come on, then, if you want to. Why do you stand there,
seized by silence?
PHILOKTETES
Ah! Ah! Ah!
NEOPTOLEMOS
What is it?
PHILOKTETES
Nothing to fear. Come now, boy.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Does your illness now bring you pain?
PHILOKTETES
No. I seem to be better now. O, gods!
NEOPTOLEMOS
Why do you cry out to the gods in anguish?
PHILOKTETES
I cry that they might come and soothe me.
Ah! Ah! Ah!
NEOPTOLEMOS
What is it? Tell me! I can see you're in pain.
Do not keep it from me.
PHILOKTETES
I am destroyed, child. I am unable
to hide this evil from you any longer.
Aaaah! Aaaah! It sears through my blood!
I am destroyed! I am being devoured!
Aaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah!
By the gods, boy, if you have a sword,
cut off my foot! Cut it off now! You cannot save me!
Do it, boy.
NEOPTOLEMOS
What is this terrible thing that attacks you,
and makes you scream in such misery?
PHILOKTETES
Don't you know?
NEOPTOLEMOS
What is it?
PHILOKTETES
How can you not know? Aaaah! Aaaah!
NEOPTOLEMOS
It is the terrible pain the disease sets upon you.
PHILOKTETES
Terrible indeed, more than words can tell. Pity me.
NEOPTOLEMOS
What should I do?
PHILOKTETES
Do not be afraid. Do not leave me.
The disease comes and goes, perhaps when it has gorged itself
in its other wanderings.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Poor man. You have endured such miseries,
and still you live on. Should I help you up?
Do you want me to hold you?
PHILOKTETES
Of all things, do not touch me. Take my bow instead,
as you asked a while ago, until my pain
diminishes. Keep the bow, keep it safe, my boy.
Sleep overtakes me when the spell has passed;
until then I'll have pain.
You must let me sleep for a while.
If my enemies come while I lie sleeping,
I beg you, by the gods, do not give up my bow,
willingly or unwillingly, by force or some trick.
If you do, boy, you'll be a murderer,
your own and mine, your suppliant.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Do not worry. I will be on my guard.
No one but we will touch your bow.
Give it to me now, and may the gods' fortune go with it.
PHILOKTETES
Take it, boy. Pray to the gods, lest they be jealous,
and the bow become your sorrow, as it has been mine
and its former master's.
NEOPTOLEMOS
O gods, grant what he asks, and grant us also
a swift journey home on a sheltering wind,
home, where Zeus bids us to go.
PHILOKTETES
Your prayer, I'm afraid, will be in vain.
The murderous blood is running now
from its deep well. I expect a new attack.
It comes. Aaaah! Aaaah! It comes!
O, foot, you do me evil!
You have the bow, boy. You know what is happening.
Do not leave me! Aaaah! Aaaah!
O, Odysseus, I wish it were you,
I wish it were your spirit that these pains now gripped!
Aaaah!
Agamemnon, Menelaus, I hope it is you,
your two bodies, generals,
that this savage pain holds for as many years.
Death, black death, how can I call on you again,
and you not come to take me away?
Boy, take my body and burn it away
on a Lemnian pyre, in the volcano's heart.
I did this for a man, a child of Zeus,
and won the weapons you now keep safe.
Will you do it, boy? Why don't you speak?
Where are you, boy?
NEOPTOLEMOS
I grieve for you, sir. Your pain is mine.
PHILOKTETES
No, boy, be brave. The disease
comes quickly and leaves me with equal speed.
I beg you, do not leave me here.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Don't worry. We will stay here with you.
PHILOKTETES
You'll stay?
NEOPTOLEMOS
Surely.
PHILOKTETES
I find it unfitting to make you swear to it.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I cannot leave this place without you.
PHILOKTETES
Give me your hand on that.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I give it to you, and with you it stays.
PHILOKTETES
Now take me away.
NEOPTOLEMOS
What do you mean?
PHILOKTETES
Up there...
NEOPTOLEMOS
What madness is now upon you?
Why do you look at the summit above us?
PHILOKTETES
Let me go!
NEOPTOLEMOS
Where
?
PHILOKTETES
Let me go.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I cannot allow it.
PHILOKTETES
Touch me, and you kill me.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I am letting go. You are saner now.
PHILOKTETES
O Earth, take my body from me now.
The illness no longer allows me to stand.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Soon, I think, sleep will overcome him.
He nods his head.
Sweat drenches his body, and a black
bitter flood of pus and blood has broken
and runs from his foot.
Let us leave him to sleep, friends.
Let us leave him quietly.
CHORUS
Sleep, stranger to pain and suffering,
descend upon us kindly now.
Cover his eyes with your radiance,
come down, Healer, come down.
Boy, look now at where you stand,
at where you are going, at what I hold for the future.
Do you see him?
He sleeps. Why are we waiting?
The right moment decides everything
and wins many sudden victories.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Yes, he hears nothing. But we have needlessly hunted,
captured nothing if we take the bow, and sail without him.
The crown of victory belongs to the one
whom Zeus commanded that we bring back.
A boast that cannot be carried out
is a lie. That boast is a shameful disgrace.
CHORUS
Zeus will attend to such things, my boy.
Answer me now;
whisper softly.
The sleep of a sick man, aware of all things,
sees all. It is a sleep that is no sleep.
Think as far ahead as you can
of how you might secretly do as I say.
You know of whom I am thinking now.
If your decision is the same as his,
then anyone with eyes can see trouble ahead.
A fair wind is rising.
The man is blind and helpless now,
stretched out in the darkness---
he is master not of hand, not of foot, not of anything.
He is one lying down in Hades's chambers.
Look to see if the time is right
for what you intend:
the best work is that which causes no fear.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Quiet, now! Have you lost your senses?
The man's eyes are opening. He raises his head.
PHILOKTETES
Blessed is the light that follows sleep,
blessed is a friend's protection.
These things are beyond my wildest hopes,
that you would pity me and care for my sorrows,
that you would remain by me and endure my woes.
The Atreids, the noble generals, would not do this.
They would have no tolerance for my distress.
Your nature is truly noble, for it comes from noble parents.
You took this burden easily, a burden heavy with howls
and foul smells. Now I can put aside this illness.
I can rest. Raise me up in your arms, my boy,
put me on my feet, and let me gather my strength,
so that we can go to your ship
and sail off immediately.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I am glad to see you
with open eyes, unpained, alive.
Your symptoms seemed those of a dead man,
when taken with your sufferings.
Arise now. If you wish,
these men will lift you.
They will do all they can for you
now that you and I are shipmates.
PHILOKTETES
Thank you. But lift me up yourself,
as you once suggested. Do not trouble the men.
Let the stench not disturb them so early on---
my being aboard will be bother enough.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Stand up, then. Hold on to me.
PHILOKTETES
No need. I am used to it.
Once I am up, I can manage.
NEOPTOLEMOS
It is time.
What must I do?
PHILOKTETES
Your words stray off course. What is it, boy?
NEOPTOLEMOS
I do not know where to turn my powerless words.
PHILOKTETES
Powerless? Do not say such things.
NEOPTOLEMOS
But I am mired in powerless thoughts.
PHILOKTETES
Does this come from nausea
at the sight of my illness?
Does this push you not to take me?
NEOPTOLEMOS
Everything is nauseating to one who casts off his nature
to do things that are out of character.
PHILOKTETES
It would not have been out of character
for your father, the man who gave you your nature,
to help a good man, both in word and in deed.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I will be shown to be evil.