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chorus
I would have left you long ago and gone
down to my ship, if I had not beheld
1220Odysseus approaching us; and with him
Achilles' son is also coming toward us.
Neoptolemus enters rapidly, followed immediately by Odysseus.
Odysseus
Will you not tell me why you are returning
along this pathway with such earnest speed?
Neoptolemus
To undo the error which I made before.
Odysseus
1225 Your words are strange: what "error" do you mean?
Neoptolemus
Obeying you and yielding to my sailors.
Odysseus
What have you done that was not proper for you?
Neoptolemus
I have snared a man by shamefulness and guile.
Odysseus
But whom? Oh, what new plan are you now making?
Neoptolemus
1230 No new plan: I will give the son of Poeas . . .
Odysseus
What do you mean? I am suddenly afraid.
Neoptolemus
. . . his bow, which I took from him, back again.
Odysseus
O God! what are you saying? Give it back?
Neoptolemus
I took it shamefully, and not with justice.
Odysseus
1235 In God's name, are you saying this to mock me?
Neoptolemus
Only if telling truth is mockery.
Odysseus
Son of Achilles, tell me what you mean.
Neoptolemus
How many times must I repeat my words?
Odysseus
I wish I had never heard them even once!
Neoptolemus
1240 Now you may rest assured you have heard all.
Odysseus
There is, I say, there is a way to stop you!
Neoptolemus
What are you saying? Who can stop me now?
Odysseus
The army of the Greeks - and I among them.
Neoptolemus
Shrewd though you are, your words are far from shrewd.
Odysseus
1245 Surely your speech and deeds are not so shrewd!
Neoptolemus
If they are right they do no need your shrewdness.
Odysseus
How is it right to give back what you took
on my advice?
Neoptolemus
I made a shameful error,
and I must now endeavor to retrieve it.
Odysseus
Do you not fear the army of the Greeks?
Neoptolemus
1250 With justice on my side I have no fears;
and I will not submit to do your bidding.
Odysseus
Then must I fight with you instead of Troy?
Neoptolemus
If you so wish.
Odysseus
Look: do you see my hand
upon my sword-hilt?
Neoptolemus
Yes. And do you wish
to see my hand on mine - without delay?
Odysseus
Well, I will let you be. But I am going
1255to tell the army: they will punish you.
The women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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