Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.14.5 · 1.14.5
The old man gives himself to the waves
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ποῖ δὲ ἀπερχόμενος, Ἁβροκόμη; αὐτὸς ἀπόκτεινόν με τὸν δυστυχῆ καὶ θάψον· τί γάρ ἐστί μοι ζῆν ἄνευ σοῦ; Ταῦτα ἔλεγε καὶ τέλος ἀπελπίσας ἔτι Ἁβροκόμην ὄψεσθαι, παραδοὺς ἑαυτὸν τοῖς κύμασιν ἀπέθανε.
"And where are you going, Habrocomes? Kill me yourself, unhappy as I am, and bury me. For what is life to me without you?" He said this, and at last, despairing of seeing Habrocomes again, he gave himself up to the waves and died.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 14. The old man swims after the warship, calling to Habrocomes.
A note on this passage
The old man asks to die by Habrocomes' own hand and to be buried, θάψον, "bury me." He dies instead in the waves, κύμασιν, the death Hesiod calls terrible with the same word: δεινὸν δ' ἐστὶ θανεῖν μετὰ κύμασιν, "it is a terrible thing to die among the waves" (Works and Days 687). A body lost at sea had no funeral, which is why Odysseus in the storm wishes he had fallen at Troy and had his funeral rites there (Odyssey 5.306–312).
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