Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.11.7 · 2.11.7
Lampon spares Anthia
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Λαβὼν δὲ τὴν κόρην ὁ αἰπόλος φονεῦσαι μὲν οὐκ ἠνέσχετο, φράζει δὲ πρὸς αὐτὴν τάδε. Ἄνθεια, οἶδας ὅτι ἡ δέσποινα Μαντὼ ἐκέλευσέ μοι λαβεῖν καὶ φονεῦσαί σε· ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ θεοὺς δεδιὼς καὶ τὸ κάλλος οἰκτείρας βούλομαί σε μᾶλλον πωλῆσαι πόρρω ποι τῆς γῆς ταύτης, μὴ μαθοῦσα ἡ Μαντὼ ὅτι οὐ τέθνηκας, ἐμὲ κακῶς διαθήσει.
The goatherd took the girl, but he could not bring himself to murder her, and he said this to her: "Anthia, you know that my mistress Manto ordered me to take you and murder you. But I fear the gods and I pity your beauty, and I would rather sell you somewhere far from this land, for fear that Manto may learn that you are not dead and treat me badly."
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The setting
Book 2, chapter 11. The goatherd Lampon has been ordered to kill Anthia.
A note on this passage
Lampon finds the way out taken by the shepherd in the story of Oedipus. Ordered to destroy the infant, that shepherd gave him instead to a man from another country, κατοικτίσας, "out of pity," a word from the same root as Lampon's οἰκτείρας; he expected the child to be carried off to another land (Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1178). Selling Anthia far away saves her life, and it also keeps Manto from learning that she is alive.
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