Xenophon of Ephesus, An Ephesian Tale 2.6.1 · 2.6.1
Apsyrtus believes his daughter
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Ἀκούσας ὁ Ἄψυρτος καὶ δόξας ἀληθῆ λέγειν αὐτὴν ἠρεύνησε μὲν τὸ πραχθὲν οὐκέτι, μεταπεμψάμενος δὲ τὸν Ἁβροκόμην ὦ τολμηρὰ καὶ μιαρὰ εἶπε κεφαλή, ἐτόλμησας εἰς δεσπότας τοὺς σοὺς ὑβρίσαι καὶ διαφθεῖραι παρθένον ἠθέλησας οἰκέτης ὤν; ἀλλ’ οὔτι χαιρήσεις· ἐγὼ γάρ σε τιμωρήσομαι καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις οἰκέταις τὴν σὴν αἰκίαν ποιήσομαι παράδειγμα.
When Apsyrtus heard this, he believed she was telling the truth and looked no further into what had been done. He sent for Habrocomes and said: "You bold, foul creature, did you dare to commit outrage against your masters? Did you want to ruin a girl, you, a slave? You will not get away with it. I will punish you, and I will make your torment an example for the other slaves."
Word by word
The setting
Book 2, chapter 6. Refused by Habrocomes, Manto has told her father, the pirate chief Apsyrtus, that the slave tried to force himself on her.
A note on this passage
Manto's lie follows an old story pattern: a woman refused by a young man accuses him of trying to force her, and the man of the house believes her. In Genesis, Potiphar's wife accuses the slave Joseph, and when his master heard her words "his wrath was kindled" (Genesis 39:19). In Euripides' Hippolytus, Theseus accuses his son in almost the words Apsyrtus uses here: "you dared to commit outrage against your father's wife" (ἐς πατρῴαν ἄλοχον ὑβρίζειν ἔτλης, Hippolytus 1073). Apsyrtus, like them, believes at once, and the Greek says so: ἠρεύνησε οὐκέτι, "he looked no further."
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