Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.2.1 · 1.2.1
Eros arms himself with love drugs
Read the full text in our reader
Μηνίει πρὸς ταῦτα ὁ Ἔρως· φιλόνεικος γὰρ ὁ θεὸς καὶ ὑπερηφάνοις ἀπαραίτητος· ἐζήτει δὲ τέχνην κατὰ τοῦ μειρακίου· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τῷ θεῷ δυσάλωτος ἐφαίνετο. Ἐξοπλίσας οὖν ἑαυτὸν καὶ πᾶσαν δύναμιν ἐρωτικῶν φαρμάκων περιβαλόμενος ἐστράτευεν ἐφ’ Ἁβροκόμην.
Eros was angered at this, for the god loves to win and has no mercy on the proud. He looked for a way to get at the youth, since even to a god he seemed hard to catch. So he armed himself, put on all the power of his love drugs, and marched against Habrocomes.
Word by word
The setting
Book 1, chapter 2. The god answers the boy's contempt.
A note on this passage
Eros goes to war like a soldier, ἐξοπλίσας, "arming," and ἐστράτευεν, "he marched," and his weapons are φάρμακα, drugs. In Greek one word covers a medicine, a poison and a love charm; English has to choose. The word returns at the center of the plot in Book 3, when Anthia asks a physician for a φάρμακον that will kill her.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.2.1 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 1.2.1 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/ephesiantale/1.2.1/