Epeisodion 2
Philoctetes
It seems that you have come to me, friends, well commended by a grief that matches my own.
Your story is in harmony with mine, so that I can recognize the work of the Atreids and of Odysseus. For well I know that he would put his tongue to any base tale and to any mischief-making, if thereby he could hope to accomplish something criminal in the end.
405
No, that is not at all a wonder to me, but rather that the elder Ajax, if he was there, could bear to see this.
410
Neoptolemus
Ah, friend, he was no longer alive—I would never have been plundered like that while he lived.
Philoctetes
What do you say? Is he, too, dead and gone?
Neoptolemus
Think of him as of one who sees the sun’s light no more.
415
Philoctetes
Oh, no! But the son of Tydeus, and Sisyphus’ offspring that was bought by Laertes—they will not die, since they do not deserve to live!
Neoptolemus
No, indeed, be sure of it. On the contrary, they prosper now
—yes, and greatly—in the Argive army.
420
Philoctetes
And what of my brave old friend, Nestor of Pylos—is he not alive? He often checked the crimes of those two, if not others, by his sage counsels.
Neoptolemus
He has his own troubles now, since Antilochus,
the son that was at his side, left him for Hades.
425
Philoctetes
Ah, me! These two, again, whom you have named, are men of whose death I had least wished to hear. Gods! What are we to look for, when these men have died, but Odysseus here again lives, when
in their place he should have been announced as dead?
430
Neoptolemus
The man is a clever wrestler. But even clever schemes, Philoctetes, are often blocked.
Philoctetes
Now, by the gods, tell me—where was Patroclus when you needed him, he whom your father loved beyond all others?
Neoptolemus
He, too, was dead. And in a brief maxim I would teach you this: War takes no evil man by choice, but always the good men.
435
Philoctetes
I will attest to that, and with that very truth in mind, I will ask you how fares a man of little worth, but sharp of tongue and clever.
Neoptolemus
Surely the man of whom you ask is no one but Odysseus?
440
Philoctetes
I did not mean him; there was one Thersites, who could never be content to speak once and briefly, even though no one wanted him to speak at all. Do you know if he is alive?
Neoptolemus
I never saw him, but I heard that he is still alive.
445
Philoctetes
He would be—no evil thing has ever been known to perish. No, the gods take excellent care of their kind. They find a strange joy in turning back from Hades all things criminal
and crooked, while they are always dispatching the just and the good from life. How am I to regard these doings? How can I praise them, when in the very act of praising the ways of the gods, I find that the gods are evil?
450
Neoptolemus
I, at least, son of Oetean Poeas, will be on my guard hereafter against Ilium
and the Atreids, and look on them only from afar. And where the worse man is stronger than the good, where nobility goes to ruin and the vile man dominates—among such men I will never make my friends. No, rocky Scyros shall suffice for me
455
from now on to make me delight in my home. Now to my ship! And you, son of Poeas, farewell—as best you can, farewell! May the gods free you of your disease, just as you wish! But we must be going, so that we
460
may set sail whenever the god permits our voyage.
465
Philoctetes
Are you setting out already, son?
Neoptolemus
Yes, since opportunity bids us watch near our ship for a fair wind, rather than from afar.
Philoctetes
Now by your father and by your mother, son, by all that you cherish at home—
