Philoktetes - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Stand up, then. Hold on to me.
PHILOKTETES
No need. I am used to it.
Once I am up, I can manage.
NEOPTOLEMOS
It is time.
What must I do?
PHILOKTETES
Your words stray off course. What is it, boy?
NEOPTOLEMOS
I do not know where to turn my powerless words.
PHILOKTETES
Powerless? Do not say such things.
NEOPTOLEMOS
But I am mired in powerless thoughts.
PHILOKTETES
Does this come from nausea at the sight of my illness?
Does this push you not to take me?
NEOPTOLEMOS
Everything is nauseating to one who casts off his nature to do things that are out of character.
PHILOKTETES
It would not have been out of character for your father, the man who gave you your nature, to help a good man, both in word and in deed.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I will be shown to be evil.
The very thought of it frightens me.
PHILOKTETES
The things you do now are not ign.o.ble.
The words you speak, though, give me pause.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Zeus, what will I do? Will I twice be proven evil, hiding what I should not, saying the worst?
PHILOKTETES
If I am not a poor judge, it seems to me that this man will abandon me, and sail away.
NEOPTOLEMOS
I will not abandon you. It's the trip you'll be making that will be ample cause for grief.
PHILOKTETES
I do not follow you. What are you saying?
NEOPTOLEMOS
I won't keep it from you any longer. You must sail to Troy, to the Achaeans, to the armies of the Atreids.
PHILOKTETES
Ah! What are you saying?
NEOPTOLEMOS
Do not groan until you learn.
PHILOKTETES
What must I learn?
What are you planning to do with me?
NEOPTOLEMOS
First, to cure you of this misery. Then you and I will destroy the Trojan nation.
PHILOKTETES
Is this the truth? Is this what you wanted?
NEOPTOLEMOS
A great need forces these things upon us.
Quell your anger.
