Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.10.2 · 1.10.2
Fate has not forgotten
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Ἑορτὴ δὲ ἦν ἅπας ὁ βίος αὐτοῖς καὶ μεστὰ εὐωχίας πάντα καὶ ἤδη καὶ τῶν μεμαντευμένων λήθη· ἀλλʼ οὐχὶ τὸ εἱμαρμένον ἐπελέληστο, οὐδʼ ὅτῳ ἐδόκει ταῦτα θεῷ ἠμέλει.
Their whole life was a festival, everything was full of feasting, and already even the prophecies were forgotten. But fate had not forgotten, nor did the god who had willed these things neglect them.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 10. The oracle of Apollo had foretold great suffering for the two (1.6.2).
A note on this passage
λήθη, "forgetting," and ἐπελέληστο, "had forgotten," come from one root and stand on either side of ἀλλά, "but": the prophecies are forgotten at the feast, and fate does not forget. τὸ εἱμαρμένον, "fate," is literally "what has been allotted," a form of μείρομαι, "to receive one's share." Plato joins the two ideas of this sentence in the afterlife of the Republic, where the souls travel to the plain of Λήθη, Forgetting, and camp by the river Ἀμέλης, Unheeding, a name from the same root as ἠμέλει, "neglected" (Republic 10.621a).
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