You sailors, will you leave me?
Do you have no pity?
CHORUS
The young lord is our master. His words are ours.
NEOPTOLEMOS
Odysseus will chide me for pitying him. You men stay here until the other sailors make ready and we have prayed to the gods of this place. Philoktetes may think better of us. Let us go, Odysseus. You men, come quickly as soon as we call for you.
PHILOKTETES
Rock hollow, cave, sunny, icy, It is true that I was not meant to leave you. You will be a witness to my life and death. Rock walls, filled with my cries of anguish, what will my daily ration be now? What hope have I of dealing with my fate, now that the birds that fled from me above will come down through the winds to destroy me? I have no strength left.
CHORUS
You brought this on yourself, unbending man. You could have found a way out when it was possible to make a sensible choice, but you took the worse over the better fate.