CHORUS O mountainous, all-nourishing Mother Earth, Mother of Zeus, our lord, himself, you who range the golden Paktolos, Mother of pain and sorrow, I begged you, Blessed Mother, borne by bull-slaying lions, on that day when the arrogant Atreids insulted him, when they gave away his weapons to the son of Laertes. Hail, goddess, the highest object of our awe. PHILOKTETES You have sailed here, clearly, with a just cause of pain. Your share of grief almost matches mine. What you say harmonizes with what I know of them--- the evil doings of the Atreids and Odysseus. I know that Odysseus spins out lies with his evil tongue, which he uses to create all manner of injustice; he brings no good to pass, I know. Still, it amazes me to learn that Ajax, seeing these things, should permit them. NEOPTOLEMOS He is dead now, friend. If he lived, they would never have stolen the weapons from me. PHILOKTETES So Ajax, too, is dead. NEOPTOLEMOS Dead. Think of it. PHILOKTETES It saddens me. But the son of Tydeus, and Odysseus, whom Sisyphos, I have heard, sold to Laertes, they who merited death are still alive. NEOPTOLEMOS You are right, of course. They are flourishing. They live in high glory among the Greeks. PHILOKTETES And my old friend, that honest man, Nestor of Pylos? Does he still live? He used to contain their evil with his wise counsel. NEOPTOLEMOS Nestor has fallen on evil times. His son, Antilochos, who was with him, is dead. PHILOKTETES O! You have told me of two deaths that hurt me most. What can I hope for, now that Ajax and Antilochos are dead and in the ground, while Odysseus walks, while he should be the one who is dead? NEOPTOLEMOS That one is a clever wrestler. Still, even the clever stumble. PHILOKTETES Tell me, by the gods, how was it with Patroklos, your father's most beloved friend? NEOPTOLEMOS He was dead, too. I will tell you in a word what happened: War never takes a bad man on purpose, but good men always. PHILOKTETES You are right. Let me ask you, then, of one who is worthless, but cunning and clever with the words he uses. NEOPTOLEMOS You can mean only Odysseus. PHILOKTETES No, not him. I mean Thersites, who was never content to speak just once, although no one allowed him to speak at all. Is he alive? NEOPTOLEMOS I do not know him, but I have heard that he lives. PHILOKTETES He would be. No evil man has died. The gods, it seems, must care for them well. It pleases them to keep villains and traitors out of death's hands; but they always send good men out of the living world. How can I make sense of what goes on, when, praising the gods, I discover that they're evil? NEOPTOLEMOS