Philoktetes Part 14

PHILOKTETES

Your evil nature is beyond belief.

Will they take me off against my will?

ODYSSEUS

If you don't crawl along on your own, they will.

PHILOKTETES

O land of Lemnos and the all-powerful fire, created by Hephaistos in the great volcano, must I submit to this?

Must I let him force me to go with them?

ODYSSEUS

Zeus rules this island. Zeus has ordered this.

I am his servant. I obey his commands.

PHILOKTETES

O despicable man, the lies you spin! You call on the G.o.ds and you make the G.o.ds liars.

ODYSSEUS

The G.o.ds speak truly. This course must be followed.

PHILOKTETES

I say no.

ODYSSEUS

And I say yes. You must obey.

PHILOKTETES

Clearly we are slaves, and not freeborn men.

This is what our fathers brought us up to be.

ODYSSEUS

No, as equals of the n.o.blest men, with whom you must storm Troy's walls and demolish the city, as destiny proclaims.

PHILOKTETES

No, I'll do anything but that, Odysseus.

I still have my seacliff.

ODYSSEUS

What did you have in mind?

PHILOKTETES

To throw myself from the rocks above and break myself on the rocks below.

ODYSSEUS

Take him! Keep him from jumping!

PHILOKTETES

O hands, what you suffer for lack of a bowstring, the prey of that man!

You whose thoughts are sick and slavelike, how you have hunted me!

How you tricked me, how you stole up with this boy as a shield, unknown to me.

He deserved a better master than you.

He is at a loss to do anything but what he's told, and he suffers now for his mischief and the things he has brought upon my head.

Your evil, harmful soul has taught him to be a wily criminal, unwilling and unsuited though he was for that.

Now you have bound me and plan to take me off from this place where you had cast me away, friendless, homeless, a living corpse.

I curse you. I have cursed you many times before, but the G.o.ds have granted me nothing I want, and so you live happily, while I live in this pain, and you and the Atreids mock my anguish, those two generals, for whom you perform this deed.

You were yoked to the cause by deceit and force, while I willingly went with my seven ships, willingly to dishonor and my own destruction, to being cast away on this lonely sh.o.r.e.

You say they did it, and they blame you.

Why must you take me?

I am nothing. For you, I've been dead for years.

Blasphemous man, could it be I don't stink now; am I no longer a cripple? If I sail with you, how can you offer burnt sacrifices?

How can you pour your libations to the G.o.ds?

That was your reason for abandoning me.

May a horrible death overtake you.

It will for your crimes against me, if the G.o.ds still care for justice. I know they do, for you would not have come for my sake alone; the G.o.ds' urging must have brought you here.

Ancestral land and you G.o.ds who look on mortal crimes, take vengeance on these men when the time is right, take vengeance on them all, if you pity me.

If I could see them die, then I could also dream that the sickness within me has fled my body.

CHORUS

He is bitter, this stranger; his words are, too, for they do not bend to suffering.

ODYSSEUS

There is no time to say the things I should, and there are many things I could say to him.

Just this: I am a man who responds to occasion and adapts himself to the situation.

In times of crisis among good and just men, I can be the n.o.blest-minded of all.

To win is my overarching wish--- except against you. For you I will stand aside.

Let him go. We don't need him.