440
Neoptolemus
Who else besides Odysseus can you mean?
Philoctetes
Not him - there was a man, Thersites, there,
who always spoke so long that all the others
refused to listen: is he still alive?
Neoptolemus
445 I never saw him, but I heard he lives.
Philoctetes
He would - for nothing bad has ever died!
The gods themselves take special care of that,
and somehow seem delighted to allow
the evil and villainous to live; but always
450banish whatever things are right and good.
How can I praise the deeds these gods have done
when I discover they themselves are evil?
Neoptolemus
Son of Oetean Poeas, as for me,
I in the future will beware of Troy
455and watch the sons of Atreus from afar;
and where the worse is stronger than the better,
and what is good dies out, and villains rule -
never will I make friends with such as they.
No, it will satisfy me after this
460to find my happiness in rocky Skyros.
Now to my ship: farewell, a long farewell,
great son of Poeas! May the gods release you
from this disease, as you yourself desire.
We must be going so that, when the gods
465grant us to sail, we may set forth at once.
Philoctetes
Child, are you leaving me?
Neoptolemus
The time commands: