Epeisodion 4
Neoptolemus
What shall I do?
Philoctetes
Do not betray me because of fear. This plague comes only now and then,—perhaps when she has been sated with her roamings elsewhere.
Neoptolemus
Ah, poor wretch! Poor man, truly for all your sufferings! Shall I support you, or somehow offer a helping hand?
Philoctetes
No, no. But take this bow of mine—as you earlier asked of me—and keep it in your care and safe
until this present bout with my disease is past. For indeed sleep takes me as soon as this pain passes away, nor can it cease before then. But you must allow me to sleep in peace. And if
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those men come in the meantime, then by the gods I forbid you willingly or unwillingly, or by any skilled trickery, to give up this bow to them, lest you bring destruction at once on yourself and on me, who am your suppliant.
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Neoptolemus
Have no fears as to my caution. The bow shall pass
into no hands but yours and mine. Give it to me, and may good luck accompany it!
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Philoctetes
There, take it boy. And humble yourself before the jealous gods, so that the bow may not prove baneful for you, as it did for me and for him who owned it before me.
Neoptolemus
O gods, grant this to the two of us! And grant us a voyage
prosperous and unimpeded, to whatever goal the god may deem right and that our mission provides!
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Philoctetes
Futile, I fear, are your prayers, boy. Look, once again the dark blood is oozing drop by drop from deep in the wound, and I look for worse to come.
Ah, me, oh, oh! Cursed foot, what torment you cause me! It creeps on me, it is coming near! Ah, misery! Now you know my condition. Do not flee, no!
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Oh, alas! Odysseus of Cephallene, once my friend, would that this anguish might stick to you, and pierce your chest! Ah, me! Ah, me! O you twin marshalls, Agamemnon, and you, Menelaus, may your flesh instead of mine
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nourish this plague, and for as long! Oh, Ah, me! O Death, Death, though I am always summoning you day after day, why do you never come? O son, noble youth, seize me,
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burn me up, true friend, in that fire famed as Lemnian. I, too, once deemed it lawful to do that very service for the son of Zeus, in return for which I received these same arms, which are now in your keeping. What do you say, boy, what do you say?
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Why this silence? Where are your thoughts, son?
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Neoptolemus
My heart has long been aching for your load of pain.
Philoctetes
Stop, then, and take courage; this visitor comes sharply, but goes quickly. Yet, I beg you, do not leave me alone.
Neoptolemus
Take heart, we will remain.
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