Sophocles, Philoctetes
Robert Torrance, Ed.

Philoctetes
You and your comrades, stranger, as it seems,
have sailed to me with signs of suffering
405so similar to mine, that I am sure
they come from Atreus' sons and from Odysseus.
I know full well that he would lend his tongue
to any evil word or wicked deed
by which he might accomplish some injustice.
410Nothing surprises me in that - except
that Ajax could endure to see it done.

Neoptolemus
He was not living, stranger: I would never
have been despoiled if he had been alive.

Philoctetes
What? are you telling me he too is dead?

Neoptolemus
415 Be certain he will see the light no more.

Philoctetes
Oh wretched that I am! but Tydeus' son
and the bastard child that Sisyphus sold Laertes,
they will live on - for they deserve to die.

Neoptolemus
They do, most surely: but they are still living
420and prospering in the army of the Greeks.

Philoctetes
But is my old and faithful friend alive,
Nestor of Pylos? He, at least, could sometimes
restrain their evil deeds with his wise counsels.

Neoptolemus
Yes, but he lives in sorrows, for his son
425Antilochus is dead, who once stood by him.

Philoctetes
Oh, you have mentioned the two men whose death
I wanted least to hear you tell me of!
What must we look for when such men as these
have died, and yet Odysseus lives, though he
430deserves to be a corpse instead of them!

Neoptolemus
He is a shrewd contestant, Philoctetes;
but even shrewd plans often trip themselves.

Philoctetes
Tell me, I pray you, where Patroclus was -
he whom your father loved beyond all others.

Neoptolemus
435 He was dead too - and I, in short, will tell you
that war, of its own choice, will take no man
who is evil, but will always take the good.

Philoctetes
I will bear witness there! and on these grounds
will ask about a paltry, worthless man
440I knew, whose tongue was clever: how is he?