Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 1.5.1 · 1.5.1
Faces before their eyes
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Ταῦθʼ ἑκάτερος αὐτῶν δι’ ὅλης ⟨τῆς⟩ νυκτὸς ὠδύρετο, εἶχον δὲ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν τὰς ὄψεις τὰς ἑαυτῶν, τὰς εἰκόνας ἐπὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀλλήλων ἀναπλάττοντες· ὡς δὲ ἡμέρα ἐγένετο, ᾔει μὲν Ἁβροκόμης ἐπὶ τὰ συνήθη γυμνάσματα, ᾔει δὲ ἡ παρθένος ἐπὶ τὴν ἐξ ἔθους θρησκείαν τῆς θεοῦ.
Each of them lamented like this all through the night. They had each other's faces before their eyes, and in their souls they shaped the images of one another. When day came, Habrocomes went to his usual exercises, and the girl went to her customary worship of the goddess.
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The setting
Book 1, chapter 5. After the festival of Artemis, Habrocomes and Anthia have each spent the night alone, lamenting their love (1.4).
A note on this passage
Each lover now shapes an image of the other in the soul. εἰκών, "image," is the word for the paintings that won no praise beside Habrocomes in 1.1.6, and ἀναπλάσσω, "to mold, to shape," is a modeler's verb: Aristophanes uses it for molding a statue of Modesty (Clouds 995). By day the old routine goes on, and Habrocomes goes to his "usual exercises," the phrase used of his hunting and riding in 1.1.2.
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