Epeisodion 4
Neoptolemus
prosperous and unimpeded, to whatever goal the god may deem right and that our mission provides!
780
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!
785
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
790
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,
795
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?
800
Why this silence? Where are your thoughts, son?
805
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.
810
Philoctetes
Will you?
810
Neoptolemus
Be sure of it.
810
Philoctetes
Indeed, I do not think it right to put you under oath.
Neoptolemus
Rest assured; it is not lawful for me to leave without you.
Philoctetes
Give me your hand in pledge!
Neoptolemus
I give it—to stay.
Philoctetes
Now take me there, over there!
Neoptolemus
Where do you mean?
Neoptolemus
What is this new delirium? Why do you gaze at the dome above us?
815
Philoctetes
Let me go, let me go!
Neoptolemus
Where will you go, if I do so?
Philoctetes
Let me go, I say!
Philoctetes
You will kill me, if you touch me further.
Neoptolemus
There, then, I release you—if in fact you believe it is for the better.
Philoctetes
Wide Earth, embrace me now on the verge of death!
This pain no longer lets me stand up.
820
Neoptolemus
Sleep, I think, will take him before long. See, his head sinks backward. Yes, a sweat runs over his whole body, and a dark, hemorrhaging vein has burst from his heel.
Come, friends, let us leave him in quietness, so that he may fall asleep.
825
