Ephesian Tale

The Ephesian Tale of Anthia and Habrocomes (Greek: Ἐφεσιακά, Ephesiaka; also Τὰ κατὰ Ἀνθίαν καὶ Ἁβροκόμην, Ta kata Anthian kai Habrokomēn) by Xenophon of Ephesus is an Ancient Greek novel written before the late 2nd century AD, though in 1996, James O’Sullivan has argued the date should actually be seen as closer to 50 AD.

But Anderson suggests that "we may well find that our version is one of not two but a multiplicity of retellings of a familiar story, whose relationships to Xenophon are not easily identifiable."

Translator Jeffrey Henderson offers another reason for the disparity: "For the number of books, the itacism of έ ("five") ... is a likelier explanation of Suda's ί ("ten") than the supposition that our text is an epitome.

The soothsayer predicts that Habrocomes and Anthia will undergo travails involving pirates, tombs, fire, and flood, but their condition will improve.

When their ship stops at Rhodes, it attracts the attention of a crew of Phoenician pirates, who plunder it, set it aflame, and take Habrocomes and Anthia captive.

However, Apsyrtos, the chief of the pirate stronghold, is struck by the beauty of the young couple and concludes that they would bring an excellent price on the slave market.

While Apsyrtos is in Syria, his daughter Manto falls in love with Habrocomes and writes him a note expressing her feelings.

When the robber band is about to sacrifice Anthia to the god Ares, a body of troops, led by Perilaos, the chief law enforcement official in Cilicia, suddenly appears.

Hippothoos eventually went to Byzantium, sneaked into Aristomachos’ house, murdered the man in his sleep, and ran away with Hyperanthes.

Believing that Habrocomes must be dead, and finding marriage to another man intolerable, she conspires with Eudoxos, an Ephesian physician, to give her a poison.

In return she will give him enough of Perilaos’ possessions to buy him passage back to Ephesus, and will promise not to use the potion until he has left.

Eudoxos agrees to the plan but gives her a hypnotic drug instead of a lethal one, knowing he will be long gone by the time Anthia awakens.

But a group of robbers have heard of her rich burial and, after waiting for nightfall, break into the vault, take all the silver and gold, and carry her off as prisoner.

Meanwhile, Habrocomes, with a new band of thieves led by Hippothoos, arrives near Tarsus and hears how Anthia, after being rescued from robbers, had wed her rescuer, killed herself, and been entombed, only to have her body snatched by tomb raiders who escaped to Alexandria.

So Habrocomes waits until Hippothoos and his band are drunk and asleep before making his way to a ship bound for Alexandria, hoping to recover Anthia's body.

Anthia plays on the Indian's superstitions by pretending that she is consecrated to Isis until the proper time for her marriage, which is still a year off.

A nearby band of thieves called the Shepherds capture the crew, loot the ship, and take everyone across the desert to the Egyptian city of Pelusium.

Hippothoos, meanwhile, has enlarged his band to five hundred men and traversed Syria, Phoenicia, and Egypt to arrive at Coptos near Ethiopia, where they waylay travelers.

Aigialeus tells his own story of how, in his native Sparta, his love for Thelxinoe had caused him to elope with her before her father could have her married to another.

Recently Thelxinoe died but Aigialeus mummified her body in the Egyptian manner and now continues to eat, sleep, and talk with her.

When the governor of Egypt learns of Hippothoos’ attack on Areia, he sends a large force under the command of Polyidos to destroy his band.

When Polyidos’ wife, Rhenaia, learns of this, she has her slave take Anthia far away and sell her to a brothel keeper in Tarentum, Italy.

He purchases her from the brothel keeper, then takes her home when he learns her story, including that she is the missing wife of Habrocomes.

When Habrocomes can no longer endure stonecutting, he makes his way home to Ephesus, stopping at Syracuse to mourn the recent death of Aigialeus, then continuing on to Rhodes.

Habrocomes and Anthia make sacrifices to Artemis, raise tombs for their deceased parents, and pass the remainder of their days in Ephesus with Leucon, Rhode, Hippothoos, and Clisthenes.