Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.5.7 · 2.5.7
Manto accuses Habrocomes
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ὁ γὰρ σώφρων Ἁβροκόμης ἐπείρασε μὲν παρθενίαν τὴν ἐμὴν ἀφανίσαι, ἐπεβούλευσε δὲ καὶ σοί, λέγων ἐρᾶν μου. Σὺ οὖν ὑπὲρ τηλικούτων τολμημάτων εἴσπραξαι παρʼ αὐτοῦ τιμωρίαν τὴν ἀξίαν, ἢ εἰ δίδως ἔκδοτον θυγατέρα τὴν σὴν τοῖς οἰκέταις, ἐμαυτὴν φθάσασα ἀποκτενῶ.
"For the chaste Habrocomes tried to destroy my virginity, and he plotted against you too, saying that he loved me. You, then, exact from him the punishment he deserves for such great outrages; or if you hand your daughter over to the slaves, I will kill myself first."
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The setting
Book 2, chapter 5. Manto goes on with the story she tells her father, Apsyrtus.
A note on this passage
ὁ σώφρων Ἁβροκόμης, "the chaste Habrocomes," is a sneer, and the reader knows it is true: his chastity is the reason she lies. He gave himself the same title when he surrendered to Eros, "Habrocomes the self-controlled" (1.4.4). Her story is an old one. In the Iliad, Anteia, the wife of King Proetus, could not persuade Bellerophon to sleep with her, so she told her husband that he had tried to force her, and gave him a choice like Manto's: "Die, Proetus, or kill Bellerophon" (Iliad 6.160–165).
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