Part 18

NEOPTOLEMOS

I will not abandon you. It's the trip you'll be making that will be ample cause for grief.

PHILOKTETES

I do not follow you. What are you saying?

NEOPTOLEMOS

I won't keep it from you any longer. You must sail to Troy, to the Achaeans, to the armies of the Atreids.

PHILOKTETES

Ah! What are you saying?

NEOPTOLEMOS

Do not groan until you learn.

PHILOKTETES

What must I learn? What are you planning to do with me?

NEOPTOLEMOS

First, to cure you of this misery. Then you and I will destroy the Trojan nation.

PHILOKTETES

Is this the truth? Is this what you wanted?

NEOPTOLEMOS

A great need forces these things upon us. Quell your anger.

PHILOKTETES

I am destroyed. I am betrayed. Why, stranger, have you done these things? Give me back my bow.

NEOPTOLEMOS

I cannot. Duty and my own ambition force me to obey those men who command me.

PHILOKTETES

O fire, o utter terror, o terrible craftsman of all wickedness, the things you have done to me! How you have betrayed me! Are you not ashamed to look down on me, who have kneeled to you, the suppliant, you bitter ones?

You have taken away my life with my bow. Return it. I beg you, boy, return it now. By your ancestral gods, do not take my life.

He does not speak. He merely turns away, as though he will never give it back.

Caves, promontories, hordes of wild beasts, rocky headlands, I speak to you now, for there is no one else to whom I can speak. You have always been at my side and heard me. Hear what Achilles's son has done! He promised to take me home. Instead he will take me to Troy. He gave me his hand and then robbed me of my holy bow, Herakles's bow, the son of Zeus's, to hold it up to the Greeks and boast that he had taken it from a strong opponent, that he had taken it from his prisoner. He is killing someone who is already dead, a corpse, a smoky shadow, a ghost. Were I strong he would not have won. Even so, he had to trick me to get it away. I have been tricked, and I am destroyed. What is left for me to do?

Return my bow. Recall your nature. No? You are silent, and I am nothing.