Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.16.6 · 1.16.6
Habrocomes asks for time
Read the full text in our reader
Ἀκούσας ὁ Ἁβροκόμης εὐθὺς μὲν ἀχανὴς ἦν καὶ οὔτε τι ἀποκρίνεσθαι εὕρισκεν, ἐδάκρυε δὲ καὶ ἀνέστενε πρὸς αὑτὸν ἀφορῶν, εἰς οἷα ἄρα ἐλήλυθε· καὶ δὴ λέγει πρὸς τὸν Εὔξενον ἐπίτρεψον, δέσποτα, βουλεύσασθαι βραχύ, καὶ πρὸς πάντα ἀποκρινοῦμαί σοι τὰ ῥηθέντα.
When he heard this, Habrocomes was at once speechless and could find nothing to say in reply. He wept and groaned, looking at himself and at what he had come to. Then he said to Euxinus: "Master, let me think it over a little, and I will answer you on everything you have said."
Word by word
The setting
Book 1, chapter 16. Habrocomes answers Euxinus.
A note on this passage
ἀχανής means "not opening the mouth" (from χάσκω, "to gape"): he is too stunned to speak. When he does speak, he calls Euxinus δέσποτα, "master," the word he and Anthia used to Corymbus when they begged for their lives on the ship (1.13.6). This is the first test of the oath sworn on the voyage (1.11.4–6), and he neither yields nor refuses: he asks for a little time to think.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.16.6 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 1.16.6 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/ephesiantale/1.16.6/