Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.1.1 · 1.1.1
The most beautiful boy in Ephesus
Read the full text in our reader
Ἦν ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἀνὴρ τῶν τὰ πρῶτα ἐκεῖ δυναμένων, Λυκομήδης ὄνομα. Τούτῳ τῷ Λυκομήδει ἐκ γυναικὸς ἐπιχωρίου Θεμιστοῦς γίνεται παῖς Ἁβροκόμης, μέγα τι χρῆμα κάλλους οὔτε ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ οὔτε ἐν ἄλλῃ γῇ πρότερον γενομένου.
In Ephesus there was a man named Lycomedes, one of the most powerful men in the city. His wife Themisto, a woman of Ephesus, bore him a son, Habrocomes: a great marvel of beauty, the like of which had never been seen before, in Ionia or in any other land.
Word by word
The setting
Book 1, chapter 1. The romance opens in Ephesus, the great city of Ionia on the coast of Asia Minor.
A note on this passage
The story opens the way a folk tale does: a city, a father, a name. The phrase for the boy, μέγα τι χρῆμα κάλλους, "a great thing of beauty," is an old storyteller's idiom; Herodotus uses the same words, with the same verb, for the giant boar that appears on Mount Olympus in Mysia (ὑὸς χρῆμα γίνεται μέγα, Herodotus 1.36.1). Habrocomes' name is made of ἁβρός, "soft, delicate," and κόμη, "hair."
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.1.1 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
From the Great Library
You are reading a page of the Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.1.1 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/ephesiantale/1.1.1/