Sophocles' Philoctetes and the Great Soul Robbery

7. The Second Episode (Verses 730–826)

7 The Second Episode (Verses 730–826) T he stasimon comes to a close as Philoctetes and Neoptolemus emerge from the cave. Everything is ready at last for departure . But a new aporia emerges. Philoctetes stops. He stands transfixed. Sophocles uses the word apoplectos, “struck out of his wits,” a word that the medical writers used for “paralysis” (v. 731). What troubles him, Neoptolemus asks. Nothing. Philoctetes urges Neoptolemus to keep walking, but something is seriously amiss. It is, of course, the serpent’s venom, which is making an attack on his system. So far we have seen the disease in its secondary effects, in Philoctetes’ labored movements and in the effect of the disease on his livelihood, but now we are to witness the disease in its more dire manifestation. Philoctetes lets out an involuntary cry. He does his best to reassure Neoptolemus that all is well. But the serpent’s venom overwhelms his self-control. He cries out: “O Gods!” “Why are you groaning?” Neoptolemus asks. “Why are you calling upon the gods?” “That they may come near and vouchsafe to be our kindly saviors.” Another cry breaks from Philoctetes’ lips. “What is it?” Neoptolemus asks again. Now the disease itself explodes: ajpovlwla, tevknon, kouj dunhvsomai kako;n kruvyai par∆ uJmi`n, ajttatai`: dievrcetai, dievrcetai. duvsthnoı, w] tavlaı ejgwv. ajpovlwla, tevknon∑ bruvcomai, tevknon: papai`, ajpappapai`, papà, papà, papà, papai`. (vv. 742–46) 118 [I am undone, my boy, and I will not be able to hide my evil from you. Ah, ah ah! It comes upon me. Oh, wretch that I am, I am destroyed. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!] Neoptolemus is about to hear that cry that caused Philoctetes to be expelled from human society. The friendship between Philoctetes and Neoptolemus will surely be shattered once the loathsome nature of this disease is revealed to the young man who is as yet unpracticed in witnessing such horrors. Philoctetes’ scream begins in words, but then the words are shredded by the pain. At the very center of the play, verse 745, Philoctetes abandons language altogether and lets the pain speak for itself, a sheer inhuman noise.1 papai! apappapai! papa! papa! papa papai! Sophocles, obliged to represent a sound that transcends human language , indicates its force by making Philoctetes shout in a continuous stream of explosive syllables—PA PA PA and AI mimicking a scream, repeated several times. At this point in the play it is as necessary for Neoptolemus to hear this sound at full volume as it was deemed necessary to have it suppressed in the Greek army ten years earlier. Neoptolemus must see and hear exactly the person to whom he has offered his friendship. So appalling is this involuntary sound that not one person in the whole Greek army, hearing it, could accept Philoctetes as his friend. This is the dysphemia with which the plot begins. The rest of the episode deals with the consequences of this scream, which can be seen as framed by two questions. First, will Neoptolemus, exposed to this dysphemia, do what his elders had done ten years earlier when they ejected Philoctetes from their midst? Will his horror and disgust undo the whole scheme? The other question concerns the bow. What is to be done with the bow? The two questions are but the obverse and reverse of the same coin, and both depend on the character of Neoptolemus.2 When Philoctetes regains the power of speech, he hands his bow over to Neoptolemus because he knows that he will fall asleep after the attack of the disease abates. He must be allowed to sleep, and Neoptolemus must consent to hold the bow and to yield it to no one, The Second Episode 119 whatever the inducements or provocations. At every juncture now the two contradictory plays are in motion. Philoctetes passes his bow to the man whom he takes for his true friend, but when Neoptolemus receives the bow and gives his word that he will surrender it to no one, he speaks with a forked tongue. In his one persona he speaks as Odysseus ’s agent. The bow, the object of their mission, is now in his hands. But in his other persona Neoptolemus is a youth who has just been through a profound religious initiation. For the moment the two personas speak as if in synchronicity, but in fact, they are about to break...