Epeisodion 5
Neoptolemus
I shall be found to have no honor—this is the thought that long torments me.
Philoctetes
Not because of your present deeds, at least. But because of your words, I worry.
Neoptolemus
O Zeus, what shall I do? Must I be twice found base—by disloyal silence, as well as by shameful speech?
Philoctetes
Unless I am lacking in judgment, he means to betray me, leave me behind and sail away!
910
Neoptolemus
Leave you? No, not I. Rather, to your pain, I will bring you along. That is my torment.
Philoctetes
What do you mean, son? I do not understand.
Neoptolemus
I will conceal nothing. You must sail to Troy, back to the Achaeans and the forces of the Atreids.
915
Philoctetes
Ah, no! What have you said?
Neoptolemus
Do not wail in grief, before you understand!
Philoctetes
Understand what? What do you intend to do to me?
Neoptolemus
Save you, first, from this misery, and then,
together with you, go and plunder Troy’s plains.
920
Philoctetes
And this is your true intent?
Neoptolemus
A harsh necessity governs these events, so do not be angered at hearing of them.
Philoctetes
I am destroyed—ah, misery!—betrayed! What have you done to me, stranger? Return my bow at once!
Neoptolemus
No, it is not possible. My duty and my interest alike constrain me to obey those in power.
925
Philoctetes
You destroying fire, you utter monster, you hateful masterpiece of astounding wickedness! What treachery you have done to me! How thoroughly you have deceived me! And are you, you wretch, unashamed to look at me,
the suppliant who turned to you for mercy? In taking my bow, you have robbed me of my life. Return it, I beg you, return it, I pray you, son! By the gods of your fathers, do not rob me of my life! Ah, me! He speaks to me no more.
930
He looks away, as if he will never give it up! O you inlets and headlands, you wild creatures of the hills who have shared my life, and you jagged cliffs, to you—for you alone hear me—to you my accustomed companions,
935
I bewail the treacherous treatment I have received from the son of Achilles. Although he swore to take me to my home, it is to Troy that he takes me. Although he gave me his right hand in pledge of his word, he has taken my bow, the sacred bow, once belonging to Zeus’s son Heracles, and he keeps it, and wants to show it to the Argives as his own.
940
