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Their business with us.

Philoctetes. Sophocles. Thomas Francklin (Translator). London. 1758–1759.

Current edition Experimental

English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) (English) (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (2)

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) — 691 focus

ἵν᾿ αὐτὸς ἦν πρόσουρος προσουργος, οὐκ ἔχων βάσιν,

οὐδέ τιν' ἐγχώρων ἐγχώριων κακογείτονα,

παρ᾽ ᾧ στόνον ἀντίτυπον

*τάν βαρυβρῶτ᾽ ἀποκλαύσειεν αἱματηρόν·

690

οὐδ᾽ ὃς θερμοτάταν αἱμάδα κηκιομέναν ἑλκέων

ἐνθήρου ποδὸς παιδός ἠπίοισι φύλλοις φύλλοισι φύλλοις

ΦΙΛΟΚΤΗΤΗΣ.

κατευνάσειεν, εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι,

φορβάδος ἔκ τε γᾶς ἑλεῖν·

εἶρπε ἕρπει γὰρ ἄλλοτ᾽ ἀλλαχᾶ ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλαι ἄλλοτ᾽ ἄλλᾳ

695

τότ᾽ ἂν εἰλυόμενος, παῖς πᾶς ἄτερ ὡς ὡς φίλας φίλος τιθήνας,

ὅθεν εὐμάρει᾽ ὑπάρχοι, πόρον ὑπάρχει πόρων ἁνίκ᾽ ἐξανείη ἐξανείησι ἐξανίησι

δακέθυμος ἄτα.

στρ. β΄.

Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 676-728 focus

Χορός

λόγῳ μὲν ἐξήκουσʼ, ὄπωπα δʼ οὐ μάλα,

τὸν πελάταν λέκτρων ποτὲ τῶν Διὸς

κατὰ δρομάδʼ ἄμπυκα δέσμιον ὡς ἔβαλεν παγκρατὴς Κρόνου παῖς·
680

ἄλλον δʼ οὔτινʼ ἔγωγʼ οἶδα κλύων οὐδʼ ἐσιδὼν μοίρᾳ

τοῦδʼ ἐχθίονι συντυχόντα

θνατῶν, ὃς οὔτʼ ἔρξας τινʼ οὔ τι νοσφίσας,

ἀλλʼ ἴσος ὢν ἴσοις ἀνήρ,
685

ὤλλυθʼ ὧδʼ ἀναξίως.

τόδε τοι θαῦμά μʼ ἔχει,

πῶς ποτε πῶς ποτʼ ἀμφιπλάκτων ῥοθίων μόνος κλύων,

πῶς ἄρα πανδάκρυτον οὕτω βιοτὰν κατέσχεν·
690

691

Χορός

ἵνʼ αὐτὸς ἦν πρόσουρος, οὐκ ἔχων βάσιν,

οὐδέ τινʼ ἐγχώρων κακογείτονα,

παρʼ ᾧ στόνον ἀντίτυπον βαρυβρῶτʼ ἀποκλαύσειεν αἱματηρόν·

ὃς τὰν θερμοτάταν αἱμάδα κηκιομέναν ἑλκέων

ἐνθήρου ποδὸς ἠπίοισι

φύλλοις κατευνάσειεν, εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι,

φορβάδος ἐκ γαίας ἑλών·
700

εἷρπε γὰρ ἄλλοτʼ ἀλλαχᾷ

τότʼ ἂν εἰλυόμενος

παῖς ἄτερ ὡς φίλας τιθήνας ὅθεν εὐμάρειʼ ὑπάρ-

χοι πόρου, ἁνίκʼ ἐξανείη δακέθυμος ἄτα·
705

707

Χορός

οὐ φορβὰν ἱερᾶς γᾶς σπόρον, οὐκ ἄλλων

αἴρων τῶν νεμόμεσθʼ ἀνέρες ἀλφησταί,

πλὴν ἐξ ὠκυβόλων εἴ ποτε τόξων
710

πτανοῖς ἰοῖς ἀνύσειε γαστρὶ φορβάν.

ὦ μελέα ψυχά,

ὃς μηδʼ οἰνοχύτου πώματος ἥσθη δεκέτει χρόνῳ,

λεύσσων δʼ ὅπου γνοίη στατὸν εἰς ὕδωρ,

ἀεὶ προσενώμα.

718

Χορός

νῦν δʼ ἀνδρῶν ἀγαθῶν παιδὸς ὑπαντήσας

εὐδαίμων ἀνύσει καὶ μέγας ἐκ κείνων·
720

ὅς νιν ποντοπόρῳ δούρατι, πλήθει

πολλῶν μηνῶν, πατρίαν ἄγει πρὸς αὐλὰν

Μαλιάδων νυμφᾶν
725

Σπερχειοῦ τε παρʼ ὄχθας, ἵνʼ ὁ χάλκασπις ἀνὴρ θεοῖς

πλάθει πατρὸς θείῳ πυρὶ παμφαής,

Οἴτας ὑπὲρ ὄχθων.

Translations (4)

English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 691 focus

Where neighbour there was none:

No arm to stay him wandering lone,

Unevenly, with stumbling steps and sore;

No friend in need, no kind inhabitant,

To minister to his importunate want,
690

No heart whereto his pangs he might deplore.

None who, whene’er the gory flow

Was rushing hot, might healing herbs bestow,

Or cull from teeming Earth some genial plant

To allay the anguish of malignant pain

And soothe the sharpness of his poignant woe.
695

Like infant whom the nurse lets go,
695

With tottering movement here and there,

He crawled for comfort, whensoe’er

His soul-devouring plague relaxed its cruel strain.

German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 691 focus

Hier wohnt er einzeln, ihm gebricht des Fußes Kraft,

Mangelt ein Nachbar, welchem in Thränen er
675

Den herben Schmerz an der fressenden, blutumströmten Wunde,

Rings vernehmbar, klage,

Der ihm stille das heißquellende Blut, welches die Wund' ausströmt

Am giftschwellenden Fuß, sobald der Schmerz ihn

Befiel, durch linde Kräuter, die er vom
680

Nährenden Schooß der Erde las.

Dort und hier ja schleppt er sich

Mit dem Fuß kriechend umher,

(Wie von der Amme fern ein Kind,) wo sich der Pfad bequem für ihn

Ebnete, wenn das Uebel wich, welches ihm nagt am Herzen.
685
Zweite Strophe.

English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 691 focus

ANTIS. 1. In cheerless solitude these rocks among

With pain he dragg'd his steps along;

No social friend, no partner in his pains

Attentive hears while he complains,

From mutual anguish makes his mutual moan,
690

Re-echoes sigh for sigh, and groan for groan;

None, when his fierce envenom'd wound

Bursts ope, and spouts the boiling gore,

To cull the lenient herb is found

From bounteous nature's balmy store..

But (as a child, its nurse away,
695

With tottering foot attempts to stray)
695

Where best his food he may provide:

His feebly-rolling steps are tried,

Oft as his soul-consuming pains subside.

English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 676-725 focus

Chorus

I have heard a rumor, but never seen with my eyes, how the man who once approached the bed of Zeus was bound upon a

swift wheel by the almighty son of Cronus. But of no other mortal do I know, either by hearsay or by sight, that has encountered a doom so repugnant as this of Philoctetes. For though he had wronged no one by force or thievery,
680

but conducted himself fairly towards the fair, he was left to perish so undeservedly. I truly marvel how—how in the world—as he listened in solitude to the breakers rushing around him,
685

he kept his hold upon a life so full of grief.
690

691

Chorus

Here, he alone was his own neighbor, powerless to walk, with no one in the land to be his companion while he suffered—no one to whom he could cry out a lament that would be answered

for the plague that gnawed his flesh and drained his blood—no one to lull with healing herbs gathered from the nourishing earth the burning blood which oozed from the ulcers of his
695

envenomed foot, whenever the torment attacked him. Instead he would then creep this way or that, stumbling like a child without his kind nurse, to any place from where his needs
700

might be supplied, whenever the devouring anguish withdrew.
705

707

Chorus

For food he did not gather the fruit of holy Earth, nor anything else that we mortals feed on by our labor,

except when on occasion he obtained food to ease his hunger by means of feathered shafts from his swift-striking bow. Ah, joyless was his life, who for ten years never knew the delight of wine,
710

but ever directed his path towards any stagnant pool that he could find as he gazed around him.
715

718

Chorus

But now, after those troubles, he will attain happiness and heartiness in the end

because of his meeting with this son of a noble race, who after the fullness of many months carries him aboard our sea-crossing hull to his ancestral home,
720

the haunt of Malian nymphs, and to the banks of the Spercheius in that very land where, above Oeta’s heights, the hero of the brazen shield approached the gods, illuminated by his father’s divine fire.
725

Commentary

Commentary (R. C. Jebb) (OCR draft) (Commentary (R. C. Jebb))

mvp-comment-382-1 παρ’ ᾧ ¹ ἀποκλαύσειεν ²

mvp-comment-382-2 ἀντίτυπον ³

mvp-comment-382-3 βαρυβρῶτα … αἱματηρόν ⁴ στόνον ⁵

mvp-comment-383-1 ὃς τὰν ⁶ οὐδ’ ὃς τὰν ⁷ οὐδ’ ⁸ τὰν ⁹ ὃς τὰν ¹⁰ οὐδ’ ὃς ¹¹

mvp-comment-383-2 αἱμάδα ¹² κηκι—ομέναν ¹³

mvp-comment-383-3 ἑλκέων ¹⁴

mvp-comment-383-4 ἐνθήρου ¹⁵

mvp-comment-384-1 εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι ¹⁶ ἑλών ¹⁷ ἑλεῖν ¹⁸

mvp-comment-384-2 Some read εἴ τιν’ ἐμπέσοι ¹⁹ εἵ τι ²⁰ συμπέσοι ²¹ ἑλεῖν ²²

mvp-comment-384-3 φορβάδος ²³

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

675-714. mvp-comment-477-1 The preceding scene was calculated to deepen the feeling of compassion for Philoctetes, which had already been awakened both in Neoptolemus and in the Chorus. His generous willingness to trust them with his all, contrasted with their felt dissimulation, has intensified the sympathy which Neoptolemus afterwards avows, 905, 965, 6. Yet the Chorus do not imagine for a moment that their master will relinquish his purpose. Hence, while sincerely pouring forth their lament over Philoctetes' innocent sufferings (which they can only compare with the torment of the guilty Ixion), and really rejoicing in the prospect of his deliverance, they maintain, as in duty bound (since they are within hearing of the cave), the deceptive notion of the voyage to Trachis, and make no mention of Troy. But it must be borne in mind that from the prophecy of Helenus, of which they knew, they had every reason to suppose that the return to Troy, though Philoctetes was averse to it, would be for his good. While this stasimon is being sung (whether by half-choruses or by the whole together), Neoptolemus is with Philoctetes in the cave, and is finding still more cogent evidence of his misery. This stasimon consists of two strophes and antistrophes, of which the first are chiefly logaoedic, the second chiefly choriambic.

675-714. mvp-comment-477-2 α'.
1 _uu_u_u_
_uu__uu_u_
_uu_uu_
_uu_u_u_u_
5 _u_u_u_
10 __u_u_u__
_u_u_

1 Cp. Aesch. Suppl. 550. 2 Ion. anacl., infr. p. 451, β' 15 and note 3.

β'.
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_ _
_uu_u_uu__
_uu_uu__
5 __u_ _
_uu_u_uu_u_uu_u_
_u_uu___u_uu_u_
_uu__

689-691. mvp-comment-492-1 By bringing *τάν from before θερμοτάταν, where it injures the metre, to before βαρυβρῶτ', where a syllable is required, we obtain a possible construction for these lines. In whose ear he might lament, with groaning that had response (ἀντίτυπον), the disease (τάν, sc. νόσον) so cruelly gnawing, so dripping with gore.

689. mvp-comment-493-1 στόνον ἀντίτυπον is thus cognate accusative with ἀποκλαύσειεν, i.e. So as to receive groan for groan.' Cp. Ant. 592, ἀντιπλῆγες ἀκταί.

692. mvp-comment-494-1 ἐνθήρου] ( Cp. supr. 226, ἀπηγριωμένον) 'That has lost the human shape,' no longer recognizable as that of a human being. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 562, τιθέντες ἔνθηρον τρίχα. The etymological analysis of the word is difficult, perhaps = θηρσὶν ἐναριθμούμενος.

693. mvp-comment-495-1 εἴ τις ἐμπέσοι (sc. αἱμάς)] 'If any attacked him;' i.e. If the bleeding at any time came on.

Sophocles Philoctetes 691

Thomas Francklin (Translator)

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Their business with us.

Current edition Experimental

ΦΙΛΟΚΤΗΤΗΣ.

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