This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
was most renowned when living, as when dead.
Neoptolemus
1315 I am truly glad to hear you praise my father
and me; now listen to the benefit
I hope to win from you. Men must endure
the fortunes which are given them by God;
but when they willingly persist in pain,
1320like you, it is not right for anyone
to pardon them or have compassion on them.
You are too harsh, and will not hear advice;
and if one counsels you with good intentions
you hate him and consider him your foe.
1325Yet I will speak, and call God as my witness:
so hear my words and write them in your heart.
This suffering is sent on you from heaven
because you once went near to Chryse's serpent,
the secret guardian of her roofless home.
1330Be certain you will never find relief
from your hard illness while the sun continues
to rise and set again, until you come
of your own will to Troy, where you will find
the children of Asclepius among us,
1335and they will soothe your illness; then, with me,
and with our bow, you will demolish Troy.
Now I will tell you how I know all this.
We have a Trojan prisoner among us,
Helenus, best of prophets, who declares
1340that these things shall occur, and furthermore
he says it is ordained that Troy shall fall
this very summer: he will give his life
willingly if his prophecy proves false.
Now that you are aware of this, yield freely.
1345It is a fair reward to be acclaimed
1345the noblest of the Greeks, and find your way
to healing hands, and then, when you have captured
sorrowful Troy, to win immortal glory.
The women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided support for entering this text.