Sophocles Philoctetes 400

Neoptolemos.

Er lebte nicht mehr; freilich, wenn der lebte, Freund,

Dann hätte man mich meiner Waffen nie beraubt.

Philoktetes.

Wie sagst du? Ging denn dieser auch des Todes Weg?

Neoptolemos.

Ja, wisse, nicht mehr athmet er im Sonnenlicht.

405

Philoktetes.

O Jammer, weh mir! Aber Tydeus' Sohn und er, ²

Den sich Laertes einst erkauft von Sisyphos, ³

Die sollten nicht mehr leben, und sie starben nicht!

Neoptolemos.

Nein, wahrlich, dessen sei gewiß, sie blüh'n sogar

In hohem Anseh'n eben jezt in Argos' Heer.

410

Philoktetes.

Wie aber? Lebt der alte, biedre Pyler noch,

Mein theurer Nestor? Hat doch er die schädlichen

Anschläge jener oft gehemmt durch weisen Rath.

Neoptolemos.

Er lebt, gebeugt von Trauer; sein Antilochos

Schied hin im Tode, der des Vaters Stüze war. ⁴

415

Philoktetes.

Weh mir! Du nanntest Zweie da, von deren Tod ⁵

Zu hören, mehr als alles Andre mich betrübt.

Wohin die Blicke wenden, hah! wenn die der Tod

Hinrafft, Odysseus aber lebt, wo, traun, der Ruf

Von seinem Tode melden sollt' an ihrer Statt?

420

Neoptolemos.

Das ist ein schlauer Ringer; doch nicht selten auch,

Philoktetes, wird verstrict ein schlauer Sinn.

Philoktetes.

Bei allen Göttern, sage doch, wo war dir da

Patroklos, deines Vaters heißgeliebter Freund?

Neoptolemos.

Auch dieser war gestorben. Nimm die Lehre dir

425

In kurzem Worte: nimmer raubt des Krieges Wuth

Die Schlechten gerne, sondern stets die Besten nur.

Philoktetes.

Wohl hast du Recht; und ebendarum will ich noch

Nach einem Manne, fragen, der unwürdig war,

Doch klug und kühner Zunge, wie's mit diesem ist.

430

Neoptolemos.

Wer, als Odysseus, wäre der, nach dem du fragst?

Philoktetes.

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—

I solemnly supplicate you, do not leave me alone like this, helpless amid these miseries in which I live, so harsh as you see, and so numerous as I have said! Consider me a small side-task. Great is

470

your disgust, well I know, at such a cargo. Yet bear with it all the same—to noble minds baseness is hateful, and a good deed is glorious. If you forsake this task, you will have a stain on your honor; but if you perform it, boy, you will win the prize of highest honor—if I return alive to Oeta’s soil.

475

Come, the trouble will not last one full day. Endure it, take me and throw me where you will—in the hold, the prow, the stern, wherever I will least annoy my shipmates. Say yes, by the great god of suppliants, son;

480

be persuaded! I supplicate you at your knees, I am an infirm wretch, and lame! Do not leave me desolate like this, far from the paths of mankind! No, bring me safely to your own home, or to Euboea , Chalcodon’s seat;

485

and from there it will be no long journey for me to Oeta and the Trachinian heights, and fair-flowing Spercheius, so that you may show me to my beloved father, though long I have feared that he may have departed me. For often

490

did I summon him by means of those who came here, sending imploring prayers that he would himself send a ship and get me safely home. But either he is dead, or else, as I think is likely, my messengers thought my concerns of little account and hurried on their homeward voyage.

495

Now, however, since in you I have found one who can be both an escort and a messenger, save me and show me mercy, keeping in mind that all human destiny is full of the fear and the danger that prosperity may be followed by its opposite. He who stands clear of trouble must beware of dangers,

500

and when a man lives at ease, then it is that he must look most closely to his livelihood, lest it secretly suffer ruin.

505