Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.16.4 · 1.16.4
Freedom if he obeys
Read the full text in our reader
Ἴσθι γὰρ ὡς ἔνεστί σοι καὶ εὐδαιμοσύνην καὶ ἐλευθερίαν ἀπολαβεῖν, εἰ θελήσεις πείθεσθαι τῷ δεσπότῃ Κορύμβῳ· ἐρᾷ γὰρ σοῦ σφοδρὸν ἔρωτα καὶ πάντων ἕτοιμός ἐστι δεσπότην ποιεῖν τῶν ἑαυτοῦ. Πείσῃ δὲ χαλεπὸν μὲν οὐδέν, εὐνούστερον δὲ σεαυτῷ τὸν δεσπότην ἐργάσῃ.
"Know that you can win back both good fortune and freedom, if you are willing to obey your master Corymbus. He loves you with a fierce love, and he is ready to make you master of all he has. You will suffer nothing harsh, and you will make your master kinder to you."
Word by word
The setting
Book 1, chapter 16. Euxinus goes on with Corymbus' offer.
A note on this passage
πείθεσθαι, "to obey," is a form of πείθω, "to persuade": in Greek, to obey is to be persuaded, and the pirates' plan was to persuade the pair (πείθειν, 1.15.6). The form Πείσῃ in the last sentence belongs to two verbs. It is the future of πάσχω, "to suffer," as it is read here, and also the future of πείθομαι, "to obey"; read that way, the sentence would mean "you will obey in nothing hard."
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.16.4 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 1.16.4 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/ephesiantale/1.16.4/