Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.4.3 · 1.4.3
He resolves to resist Eros
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⟦νῦν⟧ οὐδὲν ὄντα θεὸν νικῆσαί με δεῖ. Καλὴ παρθένος· τί δέ; τοῖς σοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς, Ἁβροκόμη, εὔμορφος Ἄνθεια, ἀλλ’, ἐὰν θέλῃς, οὐχὶ σοί. Δεδόχθω ταῦτα· οὐκ ἂν Ἔρως ποτέ μου κρατήσειε.
"I must conquer a god who is nothing. The girl is beautiful. But what of it? To your eyes, Habrocomes, Anthia is lovely, but, if you choose, not to you. Let this be decided: Eros would never master me."
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 4. Habrocomes tries to argue himself out of his love for Anthia.
A note on this passage
Habrocomes now speaks to himself by name, in the second person, as if he were two people: Anthia is lovely "to your eyes, Habrocomes," and need not be lovely "to you." He closes the debate with δεδόχθω ταῦτα, "let this be decided," the verb a Greek city used for its decrees (ἔδοξεν τῷ δήμῳ, "the people decided," Thucydides 4.118.11). The editor of our Greek text prints νῦν, "now," at the start of the section and marks it for deletion, so the English reads around it.
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