Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.13.6 · 1.13.6
Habrocomes and Anthia beg for mercy
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Ὁ δὲ Ἁβροκόμης καὶ ἡ Ἄνθεια προστρέχουσι τῷ Κορύμβῳ τῷ πειρατῇ, καὶ λαβόμενοι τῶν γονάτων αὐτοῦ τὰ μὲν χρήματα ἔφασαν, ὦ δέσποτα, καὶ ἡμᾶς οἰκέτας ἔχε, φεῖσαι δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ μηκέτι φόνευε τοὺς ἑκόντας ὑποχειρίους σοι γενομένους· μὴ πρὸς αὐτῆς θαλάσσης, μὴ πρὸς δεξιᾶς τῆς σῆς· ἀγαγὼν δὲ ἡμᾶς ὅποι θέλεις, ἀπόδου τοὺς σοὺς οἰκέτας· μόνον οἴκτειρον ἡμᾶς ὑφʼ ἑνὶ ποιήσας δεσπότῃ.
But Habrocomes and Anthia ran up to Corymbus the pirate and clasped his knees. “Master,” they said, “keep the goods, and keep us as your slaves; but spare our lives, and stop killing those who have willingly put themselves in your power. Do not, by the sea itself; do not, by your own right hand! Take us wherever you like and sell us, your slaves; only pity us, and put us under one master.”
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 13. With the crew dying around them, Habrocomes and Anthia turn to the pirate leader.
A note on this passage
Clasping a man's knees is the gesture of a suppliant in Greek custom, as when Thetis begs Zeus for her son in the Iliad (1.500–502). They call him δέσποτα, "master," the word a slave uses to an owner, and their last request, after μόνον, "only," is to be put ὑφʼ ἑνὶ … δεσπότῃ, "under one master," so that they are not sold apart. The story separates them in Book 2 and does not bring them together again until Book 5.
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