tell thee this,—war takes no evil man by choice, but good men always.
Ph. I bear thee witness;—and for that same reason I will ask thee how fares a man of little worth, but shrewd of tongue and clever—440
Ne. Surely this will be no one but Odysseus?—
Ph. I meant not him:—but there was one Thersites, who could never be content with brief speech, though all men chafed:—know'st thou if he is alive?
Ne. I saw him not, but heard that he still lives.
Ph. It was his due. No evil thing has been known to perish; no, the gods take tender care of such, and have a strange joy in turning back from Hades all things villainous and knavish, while they are ever sending the450 just and the good out of life. How am I to deem of these things, or wherein shall I praise them, when, praising the ways of the gods, I find that the gods are evil?
Ne. Son of Oetean sire, I, at least, shall be on my guard henceforth against Ilium and the Atreidae, nor look on them save from afar; and where the worse man is stronger than the good,—where honesty fails and the dastard bears sway,—among such men will I never make my friends. No, rocky Scyros shall suffice for me henceforth, nor shall I ask a better home.460
Now to my ship! And thou, son of Poeas, farewell,—heartily farewell; and the gods deliver thee from thy sickness, even as thou wouldst! But we must be going, so that we may set forth whenever the god permits our voyage.
Ph. Do ye start now, my son?
