Page:Sophocles (Collins).djvu/154

142 glory of taking Troy. So Ulysses leaves the stage, commending his young friend—with a calculating piety which unhappily is not peculiar to pagan dramatists—to the care of the goddess of Wisdom, his own special protectress, and to Hermes, the god of guile. The piety of Ulysses (for he was pious after his own fashion) breathes the spirit of the famous prayer in the 'Critic,'—

The Chorus, who now take up the action, are composed in this play of the crew of Neoptolemus's vessel, and appear, from their reminiscences, to be some of the veteran "Myrmidons" who had served at Troy under his father Achilles. They proceed, by the young chief's permission, to explore the island; keeping a careful watch, however, lest its solitary inhabitant should suddenly surprise them, and launch against such intruders his poisoned shafts. Neoptolemus shows them the opening in the rock which leads to the cavern, but tells them that the sufferer is not now within. They soon hear the cry of one in pain; as they listen, the sound comes nearer, and, dragging his steps painfully along the rocky pathway, Philoctetes makes his appearance. He hails the strangers, and inquires their country and their errand:—

Your outward guise and dress of Hellas speak,

To me most dear, and yet I fain would hear

Your speech; and draw not back from me in dread,

As fearing this my wild and savage look,