Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.2.8 · 1.2.8
All eyes turn to Habrocomes
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Ὡς δὲ παρῆλθε τὸ τῶν παρθένων πλῆθος, οὐδεὶς ἄλλο τι ἢ Ἄνθειαν ἔλεγεν· ὡς δὲ Ἁβροκόμης μετὰ τῶν ἐφήβων ἐπέστη, τοὐνθένδε, καίτοι καλοῦ ὄντος τοῦ κατὰ τὰς παρθένους θεάματος, πάντες ἰδόντες Ἁβροκόμην ἐκείνων ἐπελάθοντο, ἔτρεψαν δὲ τὰς ὄψεις ἐπʼ αὐτὸν βοῶντες ὑπὸ τῆς θέας ἐκπεπληγμένοι, καλὸς Ἁβροκόμης λέγοντες, καὶ οἷος οὐδὲ εἷς καλοῦ μίμημα θεοῦ.
When the crowd of girls had gone past, no one talked of anything but Anthia. But when Habrocomes appeared with the young men, from then on, although the sight of the girls had been beautiful, everyone who saw Habrocomes forgot them. They turned their eyes to him, shouting, amazed at the sight, saying, "Habrocomes is beautiful," and "There is no one like him, the image of a beautiful god."
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 2. The young men follow the girls, with Habrocomes at their head.
A note on this passage
The crowd gives the two young people the same word: Anthia is ἡ καλή, "the beautiful" (1.2.7), and the cry for Habrocomes is καλὸς Ἁβροκόμης, "Habrocomes is beautiful." They have not yet seen each other, and the crowd has already paired them. μίμημα, "copy, likeness," is also the word for a work of art, a statue or a painting that imitates a living thing.
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