Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.11.6 · 2.11.6
The goatherd is moved to pity
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Ἔλεγε ταῦτα, ὁ δὲ αἰπόλος εἰς οἶκτον ἔρχεται ἐννοῶν ὡς ἀνόσιον ἔργον ἐργάσεται κόρην οὐδὲν ἀδικοῦσαν ἀποκτείνων οὕτω καλήν.
She said this, and the goatherd was moved to pity. He thought what an unholy deed he would be doing if he killed a girl who had done no wrong and was so beautiful.
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The setting
Book 2, chapter 11. Anthia has asked the goatherd to bury her and to call on Habrocomes.
A note on this passage
Anthia appealed to the goatherd as a man who had been pious until now (εὐσέβησας, 2.11.5), and his own thoughts run the same way: killing her would be ἀνόσιον, "unholy," the opposite of ὅσιον, what the law of the gods allows. He has kept the oath he swore when Manto gave Anthia to him (2.9.4), and when he tells Habrocomes the story he will speak of his εὐσέβεια, "piety," toward her (2.12.3).
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