Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.1.2 · 2.1.2
Habrocomes blames his old pride
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Ὦ πάτερ ἔλεγον, ὦ μῆτερ, ὦ πατρὶς φιλτάτη καὶ οἰκεῖοι καὶ συγγενεῖς. Τελευταῖον δὲ ἀνενεγκὼν ὁ Ἁβροκόμης ὦ κακοδαίμονες ἔφησεν ἡμεῖς, τί ἄρα πεισόμεθα ἐν γῇ βαρβάρῳ, πειρατῶν ὕβρει παραδοθέντες; Ἄρχεται τὰ μεμαντευμένα· τιμωρίαν ἤδη με ὁ θεὸς τῆς ὑπερηφανίας εἰσπράττει· ἐρᾷ Κόρυμβος ἐμοῦ, σοῦ δὲ Εὔξεινος.
"O father," they kept saying, "O mother, O dearest homeland, and household and kin!" At last Habrocomes recovered himself and said: "Oh, how ill-fated we are! What, then, will we suffer in a barbarian land, handed over to the violence of pirates? The prophecy is beginning to come true. The god is already exacting punishment from me for my arrogance: Corymbus loves me, and Euxinus loves you."
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The setting
Book 2, chapter 1. In their room the captives call out to the parents and the city they left behind in Ephesus.
A note on this passage
When Habrocomes fell in love, the narrator said that Eros "was planning to exact a great punishment from Habrocomes for his contempt" (1.4.5). Now Habrocomes says it of himself, with the same noun and verb, τιμωρίαν ... εἰσπράττει, "is exacting punishment." He names his fault ὑπερηφανία, "arrogance," the noun of ὑπερήφανος, "proud": at the start of the story Eros was "merciless to the proud" (1.2.1). "What was prophesied" is Apollo's oracle, which foretold chains among "sea-mingled men" (1.6.2).
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