Philoctetes
Hateful life, why, why do you keep me in the light of day, instead of letting me go to Hades' domain?
[1350]
Ah, me, what shall I do? How can I ignore this man's words, when he has advised me with good will? But shall I yield, then? How, after doing that, shall I, ill-fated, come into men's sight? Whom will I be able to talk to? You orbs that have watched my every suffering,
[1355]
how could you endure to see me consorting with the sons of Atreus, who caused my ruin, or with the accursed son of Laertes? It is not my resentment for what has already been done that stings me, rather it is the many troubles which I seem to foresee I must suffer at the hands of
[1360]
these men in the future. For when the mind of men has once mothered wrongdoing, it trains those men to be wrongdoers in all else thereafter. And in you, too, I wonder at this. You should never yourself revisit Troy, and should prevent me from going there, seeing that those men have done you outrage
[1365]
by stripping you of your father's arms [when, in the suit for the weapons, they judged unhappy Ajax inferior to Odysseus]. After that, will you go to fight at their side, and compel me to do the same? No, do not do it, son, but, as you swore to me, escort me home. You yourself remain in Scyros, and leave those evil men to their evil doom.
[1370]
So shall you win double thanks from me, as from your father, and you will not appear through your service to bad men to be like them in your nature.
Neoptolemus
Your recommendation is reasonable, but nevertheless, I wish that you would put your trust in the gods and in my words,
[1375]
and sail from this land with me, your friend.
Philoctetes
What! To the plains of Troy and to the abhorred son of Atreus, with this miserable foot?
Neoptolemus
No, rather to those who will free you and your pus-filled limb from pain, and will save you from your sickness.
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Sophocles. The Philoctetes of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb. Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1898.
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