Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.4.1 · 1.4.1
Habrocomes knows he is beaten
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Λαβὼν δὴ τὴν κόμην ὁ Ἁβροκόμης καὶ σπαράξας τὴν ἐσθῆτα φεῦ μοι τῶν κακῶν εἶπε, τί πέπονθα ⟨ὁ⟩ δυστυχής; ὁ μέχρι νῦν ἀνδρικὸς Ἁβροκόμης, ὁ καταφρονῶν Ἔρωτος, ὁ τῷ θεῷ λοιδορούμενος ἑάλωκα καὶ νενίκημαι καὶ παρθένῳ δουλεύειν ἀναγκάζομαι, καὶ φαίνεταί τις ἤδη καλλίων ἐμοῦ καὶ θεὸν Ἔρωτα καλῶ.
Then Habrocomes seized his hair and tore his clothes. "Alas for my troubles!" he said. "What has happened to me, wretch that I am? I, Habrocomes, manly until now, who looked down on Eros and insulted the god, have been caught and beaten, and I am forced to be the slave of a girl. Now someone seems more beautiful than I am, and I call Eros a god."
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 4. That night, home from the festival of Artemis, Habrocomes gives way to love.
A note on this passage
The speech takes back the boasts of chapter 1. The boy who thought there was only one beauty, himself, now finds someone more beautiful than he is, and he calls Eros a god after refusing to believe it (1.1.5). The Greek also sets τὴν κόμην, "his hair," right beside his name, Ἁβροκόμης, which is built on that word (1.1.1).
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