Neoptolemus
What if they destroy my country?
Philoctetes
I shall be at hand.
Neoptolemus
1410 How can you assist me?
Philoctetes
With the bow of Heracles.
Neoptolemus
How?
Philoctetes
I will prevent them.
Neoptolemus
Bless this land, then, and depart.
Heracles appears above.
Heracles
Not yet, until you have heard the words
which I will speak to you, son of Poeas.
1410Be certain that you are hearing the voice
and beholding the presence of Heracles.
For your sake I have departed from
my heavenly home,
to tell you the counsels of Zeus on high,
1415and prevent you from making this journey.
Now hear my words, and obey them.
First I will say that in my varied fortunes
I have passed through many sufferings and toils,
and won, as you may see, eternal glory;
and now it is ordained for you as well
1420to build from suffering a noble life.
First you will travel with this man to Troy
and there will find release from your disease;
and then, foremost among the ranks in courage,
you will slay Paris with that bow of mine,
1425Paris, who was the cause of all these hardships,
and conquer Troy, and choose the prize of valor
from all the army's spoils, and take them to
your father Poeas by the plains of Oeta.
But when you bring these spoils home from the army,
1430take some, in gratitude for my bow, to
my funeral pyre. You too, son of Achilles,
must listen: for without him you cannot
take Troy, nor he apart from you. Like lions
you roam together, and together guard
1435each other's lives. And I will send to Troy
Asclepius to cure you of your illness;
for it is fated Troy shall be once more
captured by my bow. When you spoil the land,
remember this: to reverence the gods;
1440for of all things that is the most important
to father Zeus. Such reverence will not die
with men, but go with them in life and death.
Philoctetes
O voice which I long have yearned to hear,
revealed to me now,