Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.10.3 · 1.10.3
The fathers decide to send them away
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Χρόνου δὲ διελθόντος ὀλίγου ἔγνωσαν οἱ πατέρες ἐκπέμπειν αὐτοὺς τῆς πόλεως κατὰ τὰ βεβουλευμένα· ἤμελλόν τε γὰρ ἄλλην ὄψεσθαι γῆν καὶ ἄλλας πόλεις καὶ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ χρησμόν, ὡς οἷόν τε ἦν, παραμυθήσεσθαι ἀπαλλαγέντες χρόνῳ τινὶ Ἐφέσου.
After a little time had passed, the fathers decided to send them away from the city, as they had planned. For they were going to see another land and other cities, and, by being away from Ephesus for a while, to soften the god's oracle as far as was possible.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 10. Before the wedding, the fathers had planned to send the couple abroad for a time (1.7.2).
A note on this passage
The fathers carry out the plan they made before the wedding, in nearly the same words: παραμυθήσασθαι τὸν χρησμὸν ὡς οἷόν τε, "to soften the oracle as far as possible" (1.7.2). The oracle had said that both would "flee over the sea" (1.6.2), and the fathers' answer is to send them over the sea themselves, on a voyage of their own arranging. παραμυθέομαι is the verb for comforting a person in grief, and with a thing as its object it means to soothe or soften it.
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