Philoktetes Part 6

PHILOKTETES

No, not him. I mean Thersites, who was never content to speak just once, although no one allowed him to speak at all.

Is he alive?

NEOPTOLEMOS

I do not know him, but I have heard that he lives.

PHILOKTETES

He would be. No evil man has died.

The G.o.ds, it seems, must care for them well.

It pleases them to keep villains and traitors out of death's hands; but they always send good men out of the living world.

How can I make sense of what goes on, when, praising the G.o.ds, I discover that they're evil?

NEOPTOLEMOS

For my part, Philoktetes, I will be more cautious.

I'll keep watch on the Atreids and on Troy from afar.

I will have no part of their company, where the worse is stronger than the better, where n.o.ble men die while cowards rule.

I shall not acquiesce to the will of such men.

Rocky Skyros will do very well for the future. I'll be content to stay at home.

Now I'll go to my s.h.i.+p. Philoktetes, may the G.o.ds keep you. Farewell, then, and may the G.o.ds lift this illness from you as you have long wished. Let us be off, men, to make ready for sailing when the G.o.ds permit it.

PHILOKTETES

Are you leaving already?

NEOPTOLEMOS

The weather is clearing.

Opportunity knocks but once, you know.

We must be provisioned and ready when it does.

PHILOKTETES

I beg you by your father, by your dear mother, by all you have ever loved at home: do not leave me here to live on in suffering, now that you have seen me, and heard what others have said about me.

I am not important to you.

Think of me anyway.

I know that I will be a troublesome cargo for you, but accept that.

To you and your n.o.ble kind, to be cruel is shameful; to be decent, honorable.

If you leave me, it will make for an awful story.

But if you take me, you'll have the best of men's praise, that is, if I live to see Oeta's fields.

Come. Your trouble will last scarcely a day.

You can manage that.

Take me and stow me where you want, in the hold, on the prow, on the stern, anywhere that I will least offend you.

Swear by Zeus, lord of suppliants, boy, that you will take me.

I am trying to kneel before you, a cripple, lame. Do not leave me in this lonely place, where no one pa.s.ses by.

Take me to your home, or to the harbor of Euboean Chalkis.

It is a short journey from there to Oeta, to the ridges of Trachis and smooth-flowing Spercheios.

Show me there to my beloved father.

I have long feared that he is dead, or else he would have come for me: I sent prayerful messages to him through travelers who happened along here, begging him to come himself and take me home.

He is dead, then, or more likely the messengers held me in little regard, as messengers do, and hurried along to their homes.

In you I have a guard and a herald.

Save me. Have pity.

Look how dangerously we mortals live, experiencing good, experiencing evil.

If you are out of harm's way, expect horrible things, and when you live well, take extra care lest you be caught napping and be destroyed.

CHORUS

Take pity on him, lord.

He has told us of many horrible torments.

May such troubles fall on none of my friends.

If, lord, you hate the terrible Atreids, put their treatment of him to your advantage.

I would carry him, as he has asked, away with you on your swift-running s.h.i.+p, fleeing the G.o.ds' cruel punishment.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Be sure you are not too quick to plead, that when you have had your fill of the company that his illness will provide you, you do not stand by your words.

CHORUS

No. You will not be able to reproach me with that and still speak truly.

NEOPTOLEMOS

Then I would be ashamed to be less willing than you to serve this man.

If you are sure, let us sail quickly.

Make the man hurry. I won't refuse him my s.h.i.+p.

May the G.o.ds keep us safe in leaving this land and give us safe pa.s.sage where we wish to sail.

PHILOKTETES

O blessed day and dearest of men, and you, friend sailors, how can I make it clear to you, how closely you have bound me in your friends.h.i.+p.

Let us go, my son. But first let us bow down and kiss the earth in grat.i.tude, the earth of my home that is no home.

Look inside and you will see how brave I must be by my very nature.

To endure even the sight of such a place would have been too much for most men.

But I have had to learn to withstand its evils.

CHORUS

Wait, and watch! Two men approach, one of our crew and a stranger to me--- let us hear from them. Then you may go inside.

TRADER

Son of Achilles, I ordered this sailor, who was guarding your s.h.i.+p with two other men, to tell me where you were.

I came to this island not meaning to.

Accident drove me to this place.