III _THE_ EPHESIACA _OR_ HABROCOMES AND ANTHIA _BY XENOPHON OF EPHESUS_
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove:
Love's not Time's Fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd."
Shakespeare's famous CXVI sonnet is the lyric _credo_ of those whobelieve that love can triumph over adversity, old age and even deathitself. The lines just quoted are the quintessence of lyric romance.
Suppose now that the romantic novel or the modern cinema wishes tofeature this same theme: "True love lasts." How would either one conveythe idea? I am going to show you by a concrete and melodramaticillustration. Here is a script for it.[64]
A young Greek who has been seeking over the world his kidnapped bridehas come to Sicily, his resources nearly gone. An old fishermanAegialeus gives him hospitality. It is night. The young man and the oldman tell each other their sad love stories. The old man is now speaking:
"I was a wealthy young Spartan and loved a Spartan girl, Thelxinoe. Shereturned my love and presently we had, no one knowing it, our heart'sdesire. But my darling's parents proposed to marry her to anotherSpartan. So we fled secretly together and Sparta pronounced sentence ofdeath on us both. We managed to travel to Sicily. Here we lived in direpoverty, but in our happiness we forgot all else because we weretogether. Soon my dear died, but her body was not buried. I have herwith me and I love her always and I am with her." After these words heled Habrocomes into an inner room and showed him the mummy that had beenThelxinoe. She was old now, but she appeared beautiful to her husband."To her," said he, "I always talk as if she were alive. I sleep herewith her; I eat near her. If I come back tired from my fishing, thesight of her comforts me. For I do not see her as you do, my son. I seeher as she was in Lacedemon, as she was when we fled. I see the night ofour first love. I see our flight together."
The young Greek exclaims:
"O my own dearest love, shall I ever find you even dead? Here to Aegialeus the body of Thelxinoe is the great comfort of his life. Now I have learned that age sets no bounds to true love."
This story of the second or third century A.D. might seem too macabre tobe possible if the _New York Times_ of Nov. 12, 1940 had not recordedsuch a case at Key West, Florida. Karl Tanzler van Cosel, aged X-raytechnician, had removed the body of Elena Hoyas Mesa from its crypt andhad kept it in his bed-room for seven years. He said he had hoped torestore it to life. Perhaps Xenophon of Ephesus who wrote this story ofAegialeus and his mummy had heard some such "true story" which heembodied in his novel. In any case, he has given us here an illustrationof how the theme "true love is eternal" may be pictured in a realisticromance. Think how dramatic this scene would be in a movie: the smallinner bed-room of the fisherman's hut suddenly lighted; the old mangetting his young friend to help him remove the front of the coffin,then looking rapturously at the mummy inside and reaffirming before ithis life-long love. That is my illustration of the heart of a realisticGreek romance.
Almost nothing is known about Xenophon of Ephesus who wrote it. Suidasmentions his romance the _Ephesiaca_ in ten books (instead of thepresent eight) and speaks also of a work he wrote on the city ofEphesus. Xenophon probably was a native of Ephesus, for he showsintimate acquaintance with many details of the cult of Artemis there.His date can be given only approximately, but considerable internalevidence helps us to place him. He imitates certain passages inChariton, so he must be later than the second century A.D. Certainreferences are very important. He is later than Augustus, for he refersto the prefect of Egypt and of course there was none until after 30B.C.[65] He mentions the Irenarch of Cilicia, and this official was notknown before Hadrian.[66] He refers to the Artemision of Ephesus as ifit were at the height of its glory and contemporary.[67] It was pillagedand burned by the Gauls in 263 and only in part rebuilt. But, asDalmeyda points out,[68] these details give us only vague indications ofthe date. Until some fragment of papyrus which can be dated isdiscovered, we can place Xenophon merely with some probability about theend of the second century of our era.
The novel itself is simple in language and brief in scope, butcomplicated in plot from many kaleidoscopic changes of scenes. There areso many exits and reentries of the characters that we lose track ofthem. The brevity of the narrative, the laconic expressions of emotionin it have made certain critics maintain the theory that it is only anepitome of a story, or a kind of scenario written as a preliminarysketch of a longer work. It seems to me possibly an intentionally shortromance written briefly and simply by an author whose taste was akin tothat of Chariton and who perhaps was intentionally showing a definitereaction against the verbosity of other novelists.
Partly because of the brevity of the romance a synopsis of the plot hasto be long. So much is crowded into small space, so many rapidtransitions from scene to scene are made, that a full sequential outlinemust be given before we can study the significance and color of theromance. Here then is the plot. The chief characters are:
_Habrocomes_ of Ephesus, the handsome hero _Anthia_ of Ephesus, the beautiful heroine _Apsyrtos_, a pirate chieftain _Manto_, the daughter of Apsyrtos _Moeris_, a Syrian, husband of Manto _Lampon_, a goatherd, slave of Manto _Hippothoos_, a brigand _Perilaos_, a high police official of Cilicia _Eudoxos_, a physician _Psammis_, a rajah of India _Araxos_, an old soldier in Egypt _Cyno_, his wicked wife _Aegialeus_, a Syracusan who kept a mummy _Polyidos_, a captain in Egypt _Rhenaea_, his jealous wife A procurer of Taras _Leucon_, a male slave of Habrocomes and Anthia _Rhode_, a female slave, his wife
In Ephesus lived a lad named Habrocomes who was sixteen years old. Thebeauty of his person was matched by the nobility of his soul. He had onegreat fault, pride. And he scorned Eros as less handsome than himselfand unable to control a man against his will. Eros enraged armed himselfagainst this arrogant boy. It was the time of the festival of Artemis.At this festival it was the custom to select fiances. There was a greatprocession of young men and women. Anthia, daughter of Megamedes andEvippe, led the girls, and she was garbed as Artemis. She was sobeautiful that the crowd forgot handsome Habrocomes though a fewexclaimed: "What a couple Habrocomes and Anthia would make!" Here wasEros' opportunity. After the procession broke up and all were attendingthe sacrifice in the temple, the two saw each other and were vanquished.
Day by day, night by night love dominated them until both were worn outby longing. Their parents not knowing what this strange malady was sentembassies to the oracle of Apollo at Claros. The god diagnosed theirillnesses as the same, needing the same cure; he foretold long sufferingfor both, dangerous travel by sea, kidnapping, imprisonment, death andburial, but he promised final salvation through the goddess Isis andhappy days.
The parents of Habrocomes and Anthia, puzzled and grieved by the oracle,decided that at least they must use the remedy suggested by the god. SoHabrocomes and Anthia were married, and they did not fear the futurebecause of their present joy. As time went on, however, it seemednecessary to the happy pair and to their parents that they shouldfulfill the oracle by going on a journey. On the ensuing voyage bothswore mighty oaths (Anthia by Artemis) to be faithful to each otheralways. Next they put in at Rhodes for rest. Habrocomes and Anthia handin hand visited all the city and dedicated golden armor to the sun-godin his temple. Then they sailed to Egypt, but the ship was becalmed andone night Habrocomes had a frightful dream. A giantess clad in redappeared to him who set fire to the ship, destroyed all the sailors andsaved only himself and Anthia. He awoke in terror and terror becamereality. Phoenician pirates arriving in a great trireme boarded the shipand drove the sailors into the sea where they drowned. Then they firedthe ship, but took captive Habrocomes and Anthia and
bore them off tothe country near Tyre. Corymbos, one of the pirates, became enamored ofHabrocomes; his bosom companion fell in love with Anthia, but beforethey could accomplish their wicked designs on them, the chief of thepirate band Apsyrtos arrived and appropriating the handsome young pairas part of his booty took them to Tyre.
This was the beginning of worse troubles, for while Apsyrtos was away onbusiness, his daughter Manto fell in love with Habrocomes and madeadvances to him through a slave and a letter. When he refused to satisfyher desires, for vengeance she accused him to her father of having triedto rape her. Apsyrtos had Habrocomes flogged, tortured and cast intoprison. Anthia contriving a secret visit to her husband told him she hadbeen given as a slave to Manto and must accompany her to Syria, whereManto's newly acquired husband Moeris lived. The two slaves ofHabrocomes and Anthia, Leucon and Rhode, were sold into a distant land.Manto to disgrace Anthia as much as possible married her to one of herhumblest slaves, Lampon, a goatherd. But Lampon pitying Anthia onhearing from her own lips her story respected her and never made her hisactual wife. In Tyre Apsyrtos happened to find the love-letter which hisdaughter had written to Habrocomes. Learning from it his unjusttreatment of Habrocomes he released him from prison, gave him hisfreedom, and made him steward of his house.
Meanwhile in Syria Anthia's fatal beauty had inflamed Manto's husbandMoeris with a mad passion for her. He confided this to the goatherdLampon begging for his aid. Lampon to save Anthia went secretly and toldManto her husband's designs. Manto in jealous fury ordered Lampon tokill the woman. In sorrow he told Anthia all and together they plannedthat instead of killing her he should sell her as a slave in some remotedistrict. He managed to hide this transaction and saved her life byselling her to some Cilician merchants. But their ship was wrecked in astorm. A few (among them Anthia) came to land on a raft and afterwandering all night in the woods were captured by the brigandHippothoos.
Manto meanwhile wrote to her father a letter made up of truth and lies,saying that the slave Anthia had been so troublesome she had given thegirl to a goatherd and afterwards when Moeris became enamored of thewoman, she had sold both the goatherd and his wife in Syria. Habrocomesat once started out in search for Anthia and finding Lampon and learningthe true story from him, he set forth for Cilicia.
There, however, Anthia had been in great danger. Hippothoos and hisbrigands were about to sacrifice her to Ares, but she was rescued by ahigh police official of the district, Perilaos, who captured all thebrigands except Hippothoos. He took her to Tarsus and of course soonfell in love with her. He offered her honorable marriage, wealth,children and she fearing his violent passion forced herself to consentbut asked for a month's delay.
Now Habrocomes riding through Cilicia on his quest met by chanceHippothoos who begged to be allowed to travel with him. They went intoCappadocia and there dining together told each other their lifehistories, Hippothoos his love of a beautiful lad and the loss of him,Habrocomes his love for the beautiful Anthia and his loss of her. Thedescription of Anthia made Hippothoos relate his capture of a fairmaiden and her rescue. Habrocomes, convinced that the girl was Anthia,persuaded Hippothoos to join him in his search.
But the preparations for the wedding of Perilaos and Anthia were goingon apace, and it would have been consummated had not Anthia found afriend in an Ephesian physician Eudoxos to whom she confided hertragedy. She begged him to give her poison so that she might diefaithful. She promised him silver so that he might return to Ephesus.Eudoxos gave her not poison but a sleeping potion, then hurriedlydeparted. The very night of her wedding, in the nuptial chamber, Anthiatook what she believed poison. Perilaos coming to his bride found acorpse. To do her all honor, the bereft bridegroom had her placed in amagnificent tomb with splendid funeral gifts.
Robbers broke in the tomb for the treasure just as Anthia awoke. Theycarried her off with them to Alexandria. No one else knew she was alive.Habrocomes heard from an old woman the story of Anthia's death, of thepillaging of her tomb and the carrying off of her body. So leavingHippothoos he started off alone by ship for Egypt hoping to find thebrigands who had committed such sacrilege. The bandits had already soldAnthia to a rajah named Psammis, but Anthia saved herself from hisamorousness by telling him that she was a consecrated priestess of Isisso he respected her.
Habrocomes' ship missed its course to Alexandria and landed inPhoenicia. There the inhabitants set upon the strangers and capturingthem sold them as slaves at Pelusium, Habrocomes to an old soldier,Araxos. This soldier had a hideous and wicked wife Cyno who, falling inlove with Habrocomes, offered to kill her husband and marry him. When herefused, she herself killed her husband and accused Habrocomes of themurder. He was sent to Alexandria to be tried. Hippothoos meanwhile hadgathered a new band and in his travels had come to Egypt and made themountains near the frontiers of Ethiopia his center for expeditions.Habrocomes was condemned to death by the Prefect of Egypt, but hisexecution was twice frustrated by miracles caused by the Nile river whenhe appealed to the sun-god Helios for aid against injustice. So he wascast into prison.
At this time Psammis started home to India with a great camel traintaking Anthia with him. At Memphis Anthia offered prayers to Isisbegging her aid. As they neared the borders of Ethiopia, Hippothoos withhis band fell upon their caravan and, slaying Psammis and many men,seized his treasure and took captive Anthia. Hippothoos and Anthia didnot recognize each other.
The Prefect of Egypt, on giving Habrocomes a new hearing, was convincedof his innocence, freed him and gave him money. So Habrocomes took shipagain and went to Italy to make inquiries there about Anthia. Cyno wasexecuted.
Anthia was again in danger because of the lust of one of the bandits,Anchialos. He, while Hippothoos was away, tried to do violence to her,but she stabbed him fatally with a sword which she had found. Hippothooson his return decided, in vengeance for the death of his companion, tokill her in a horrible way: to put her in a deep trench with two fiercedogs. But the bandit set to guard the trench from pity secretly conveyedfood to her so that she fed and tamed the beasts.
Habrocomes on arriving at Syracuse in Sicily lived with a poor oldfisherman named Aegialeus who treated him like a son and told him hisown sad love-story. This is the story of the Mummy in the House.Hippothoos left Ethiopia to go to Alexandria and believing Anthia deadmade no inquiries about her. The bandit left to guard her, now in lovewith her, hid in a cave with a good store of provisions until thecaravan had gone, then released Anthia and the devoted dogs. He swore bythe Sun and the gods of Egypt to respect her until she voluntarily cameto his arms, so dogs and all they started on their travels.
The Prefect of Egypt had sent a company of soldiers under Polyidos todisperse the bandits of whose marauding he had heard. Hippothoos' bandwas broken up; indeed he alone escaped. He embarked on a ship forSicily. Polyidos next captured Anthia and her escort. Polyidos althoughhe had a wife in Alexandria at once fell in love with Anthia and whenthey reached Memphis, tried to rape her, but she fled to the temple ofIsis as a suppliant. Polyidos then swore that he would respect her ifshe would return to him, saying that to see her and speak to her wouldsatisfy his love, so she went back to his care. On their arrival atAlexandria, Rhenaea the wife of Polyidos was nearly insane with jealousyof the girl her husband had brought home. One day in her husband'sabsence she beat and reviled poor Anthia, then gave her to a faithfulslave with orders to take her to Italy and sell her there to a procurer.This he did at Taras.
Hippothoos by this time had reached Sicily and was staying atTauromenium. Habrocomes at Syracuse in despair planned to go to Italyand if he found no news of Anthia there, to return to Ephesus. Theparents of the young pair in their anxiety over them had died. Theslaves Leucon and Rhode who had been sold in Lycia had, on the death oftheir master, inherited his wealth. They were on their way back toEphesus but were staying at Rhodes.
The procurer now forced Anthia to stand in front of his brothel,magnificently arrayed, to attract customers. When many had gatheredbecause of her beauty,
Anthia feigned a seizure and fell down in thesight of all in convulsions. Later when she declared to the procurerthat she had had this malady since childhood, he treated her kindly.
Hippothoos in Tauromenium had come into great need. So when an elderlywoman fell in love with him, constrained by poverty, he married her.Very shortly she died, leaving him all her possessions. So he set sailfor Italy always hoping to find his dear Habrocomes. Arriving at Tarashe saw Anthia in the slave market where the procurer because of herillness was exhibiting her for sale. Hippothoos, recognizing her,learned from her lips her story, pitied her, bought her and offered hermarriage. Finally Anthia told him that she was the wife of Habrocomeswhom she had lost. Hippothoos on hearing this revealed his devotion toHabrocomes and promised to help her find her husband.
Habrocomes also had come to Italy, but in despair had given up his questand started back to Ephesus. Stopping at Rhodes on his voyage he wasdiscovered by Leucon and Rhode, who now took care of him. NextHippothoos also arrived at Rhodes, for he was taking Anthia back toEphesus. It was the time of a great festival to Helios. At the templeAnthia dedicated locks of her hair with an inscription:
"In behalf of her husband Habrocomes Anthia dedicates her locks to the god."
This inscription was seen by Leucon and Rhode and the next day theyfound Anthia herself in the temple and told her that Habrocomes wasalive and near and faithful. The good news spread through the city. ARhodian carried the word to Habrocomes and he came running like a madmanthrough the crowd, crying: "Anthia!" Near the temple of Isis he foundher, and they fell into each other's arms. Then while the peoplecheered, they went into the temple of Isis and offered thanks to thegoddess for their salvation. Then they went to the house of Leucon andat a banquet that night told all their adventures.
When at last Habrocomes and Anthia were got to bed, they assured eachother that they had kept their oaths of faithfulness. The next day allsailed to Ephesus. There in the temple of Artemis Habrocomes and Anthiaoffered prayers and sacrifices; also they put up an inscription tellingwhat they had suffered and achieved. They erected magnificent sepulchresfor their parents. And they passed the rest of their lives together asthough every day were a festival. Leucon and Rhode shared all theirhappiness and Hippothoos too established himself in Ephesus to be nearthem.
From this summary of the plot, it is at once apparent that the chiefinterests of the romance are love, adventure and religion. The three areused by Xenophon with almost equal distribution of interest andemphasis. Two divinely beautiful young people (the lad only sixteen)fell in love with each other at first sight at the festival of Artemis.Habrocomes had been too proud of his appearance and in his arrogance hadscorned the beautiful god of Love as his inferior. So Eros brought himlow and made the pair suffer many misfortunes through separation.However they were married first and through all their troubles they weretrue to their oaths of mutual faithfulness. Temptations and adventurescould not nullify their chastity, but their victories were oftensuperhuman and made possible only by miracles and the aid of protectinggods. Anthia after a dream of seeing Habrocomes drawn away from her byanother fair lady awoke to utter the belief that if he had broken faith,he had been forced by necessity; and for herself she would die beforelosing her virtue.[69] At the end, when Anthia had proudly recounted thelovers she had escaped, Moeris, Perilaos, Psammis, Polyidos, Anchialos,the ruler of Taras, Habrocomes was able to reply that no other lady hadever seemed to him fair or desirable: his Anthia found him as she hadleft him in the prison at Tyre.[70] So hero and heroine shine as typesof perfect virtue. The nobility of the romance, as Dalmeyda points out,appears not only in the purity of Habrocomes and Anthia, but in arestrained expression of the sentiments and the acts of love.[71]
The course of this true love was proverbially unsmooth and after thepair were separated, the plot seesaws between the adventures of hero andheroine. These are varied, exciting and often closely paralleled. Bothwere assailed by amorous lovers, Anthia by at least nine, Habrocomes byCorymbos, a pirate, by Manto, daughter of the chief of the pirate band,and by Cyno, the lewd wife of an old soldier. Both were shipwrecked,Anthia twice. Both nearly met death: Anthia as a human sacrifice, bytaking poison, by being thrown in a trench with fierce dogs; Habrocomesby crucifixion and pyre. Bandits and pirates captured both. Both werenearly executed for murder, Anthia for actually killing a bandit whoattacked her, Habrocomes on the false charge of Cyno. Both were soldinto slavery, Habrocomes once, Anthia over and over again. Strangelyenough among their adventures war played little part: the only warsdescribed are official expeditions against bandits.
From most of these adventures the pair were saved by their piety. Neverdid they lose an opportunity of offering prayer, thanksgiving, vows andsacrifices to the gods. The story begins with the festival of Artemis atEphesus at which Habrocomes and Anthia fell in love and ends with theirreturn to her temple to offer thanksgiving for a happy ending out of alltheir misfortunes. At the festival Anthia appeared as the priestess ofArtemis and led a procession of maidens in which she alone was garbed asArtemis. This may be a symbol of her resolute chastity. Many details ofthe worship of the goddess are given which seem based on reality.[72]Artemis appears not as the Ephesian goddess of fertility, but as theprotectress of chastity and in this function joins with Isis insafeguarding the purity of the heroine.
Eros is the offended god who undoubtedly in vengeance caused the violentlove of Habrocomes, the separation and the miseries of the unhappy pair.There are few references to Aphrodite: to her son rather than to herselfis given the function of inspiring love. On the Babylonian baldequinover the marriage bed of Habrocomes and Anthia there had been woven ascene in which Aphrodite appeared attended by little Loves and Aresunarmed was coming towards her led by Eros bearing a lighted torch.[73]Habrocomes at Cyprus offered prayers to Aphrodite.[74]
The oracle of Apollo at Claros determined the plot by ordering themarriage of Habrocomes and Anthia and predicting their voyaging, theirseparation, their disasters, their reunion. But its clauses are notsufficiently explained: we are never told why the young bride and groomand their parents feel they must start out on their fateful journey.Some think the obscurity is due to Xenophon's epitomizer. There areother possible explanations. The action may be an abandoning ofthemselves to the will of the gods; or a bold step towards their finalpromised safety; or a flight from the city where they had suffered somuch. An oracle is the traditional prelude to a voyage of adventure.Xenophon uses it, says Dalmeyda, to pique curiosity, to render themisfortunes of the two more dramatic by the prophecy of them and toreassure his readers about a happy ending.[75]
In happiness or distress both the young lovers honored the god of theplace in which they found themselves. In the first part of their journeytogether they offered sacrifice to Hera in her sanctuary at Samos.[76]At Rhodes, Habrocomes' prayer to Helios saved him from crucifixion andburning through the miracles of the Nile.[77] Perhaps Helios wasrewarding Habrocomes for the golden armor which he and Anthia hadjointly dedicated to him at Rhodes in his temple.[78] This votive hadanother certain part in the plot because when Habrocomes returned therealone to pray near his votive, Leucon and Rhode, who had been readingthe inscription set up near it by their masters, recognized him andrevealed themselves.[79] At Memphis Anthia appealing to the pity of thegod Apis received from his famous oracle a promise that she would findHabrocomes.[80]
Ares appears only in Xenophon. This is strange when war plays such apart in the other romances. In the _Ephesiaca_, Hippothoos and hisbandits at the festival of Ares had the custom of suspending the victimto be sacrificed, human being or animal, from a tree and killing it byhurling their javelins at it. They were preparing to sacrifice Anthia inthis way when she was rescued.[81]
The other cult which is as important as that of Artemis for the story isthe cult of Isis. Anthia saved herself from Psammis' advances bydeclaring that she was a consecrated priestess of Isis so the rajahrespected her person.[82] At Memphis in her temple, Anthia appealed toIsi
s who had preserved her chastity in the past to grant her salvationand restore her to Habrocomes.[83] To escape Polyidos' lust, Anthia tookrefuge at the sanctuary of Isis at Memphis and again besought thegoddess for aid. Polyidos in fear of Isis and pity for Anthia promisedto respect her.[84] Finally near that temple of Isis Habrocomes andAnthia found each other and in the same temple they offered prayers ofthanksgiving.[85] Isis thus in the _Ephesiaca_ figures as theprotectress of chastity.
The worship of Isis had been carried to the coast of Asia Minor bysailors and traders. In the empire both Artemis and Isis had statues inthe Artemesion of Ephesus. The Egyptian cult, purified and penetratedwith moral ideas, seems to belong to the second century A.D. From itsvery nature, the goddess Isis becomes as natural a protector of Anthiaas is Artemis.[86] This synthesis of the two goddesses in oneprotectress of the heroine is a natural process of the philosophicalthought of the time. In a modern novel or a cinema, better clarity wouldbe attained for our non-philosophical minds if one goddess, Isis, wasworshipped by Anthia and was the deity of her salvation. Apuleiusachieved just this simplification in his novel by making Isis the oneand only savior of his hero Lucius.
To develop and sustain these three main interests of the story, love,adventure and religion, the usual devices of a plot are employed. Thesetting is cinematic in its many changes: Ephesus, the ocean, Samos,Rhodes, Tyre, Syria, Cilicia, Cappadocia, Egypt, Sicily, Italy, Rhodesagain, back to Ephesus, and thrown in with the setting are manygeographical details which are often wrong.[87] The characters arefamiliar types: the ravishingly beautiful hero and heroine, theirperturbed parents, high officials (Perilaos and Psammis) who take theplace of historical characters, faithful slaves, a wily procurer, adoctor, pirates, bandits.
Dalmeyda has written a discriminating paragraph on the morality of thecharacters.[88] He says that of course all the characters of the romancedo not attain the perfection of virtue of the two protagonists, butaltogether the author shows us a gallery of persons without wickednesswho are sympathetic and who have an air of honesty even in the exerciseof the worst occupations. Manto, who falsely accuses Habrocomes ofhaving wished to violate her and who has him cruelly tortured, ismotivated by an overwhelming passion. Apsyrtos, her father, chief of thepirates, shows himself just and generous to the hero when he hasdiscovered his daughter's calumny. The slaves are devoted and faithful.Lampon to whom Manto gives Anthia as his wife is a rustic full ofcivility and goodness. The man who traffics in young girls to whomAnthia is sold shows a noble sympathy when she pretends to be afflictedwith seizures. Hippothoos, a brigand chief, exercises his traderuthlessly putting villages to fire and sword; he has a weakness too forhandsome lads; but to Habrocomes he is a faithful and devoted friend. Herenounces his passion for Anthia when he finds she is the wife of hisfriend and aids her in every way in her search for Habrocomes. It isthis recognition of some good in every human being that gives Xenophonhis large humanity.
Oracles are given by Apollo at Claros and by Apis in Memphis. Dreams andvisions disturb both hero and heroine. A letter (Manto's) is importantfor the plot. Some conversation is used. A court-room scene is sketchedin, Habrocomes' trial for murder before the prefect of Egypt.Soliloquies are frequent since woeful lovers parted must bewail theirlot. Attempted suicides testify to their despair.[89] Resumes ofadventures are helpfully presented by important characters at differentstages in the narrative. And after a hundred hair-breadth escapes,journeys end in lovers' meetings as the oracle of Apollo hadreassuringly predicted at the beginning of the romance.
In spite of the use of these conventions, the story has a lively andcompelling interest. We are led to share the admiration and marvel ofthe characters themselves. We are moved by the pity which they oftenfeel. Their piety induces in us reverence. We agree with theirpreference for Greeks rather than barbarians. And we admire the romanticlove which maintains faithfulness in the face of death, or outlivesdeath itself.[90]
The style of this gem of a novel is finely cut, clear and beautiful inits pure Atticism. Dalmeyda, who follows Rohde and Buerger in believingthe present form of the romance is due to an epitomizer, yet has toadmit that all the "naked simplicity" of the style is not due to theredactor.[91] This characteristic is so distinctive of the author thatit seems to differentiate him from other writers of romance by givinghis story the air of a popular tale. Sometimes, Dalmeyda continues, theexpression is double, as if in a sort of naive elegance. Words arerepeated awkwardly. Stereotyped formulae are used. The author givesevery person a name even if he appears only once. Love is generallyexpressed in conventional terms, which are however intended to suggestits violent or tragic character. There is even a ready-made formula forecstasy ({ouketi karteron} or {ouketi pherein dynamenos}). But thepassion of Habrocomes and Anthia is expressed differently. At theirfinal reunion Xenophon describes with force and delicacy their joy whichis both tender and passionate.[92]
Whether "the naked simplicity" of the _Ephesiaca_ is to be attributed toan epitomizer, to its approach to the genre of a popular tale, or to theauthor's own taste, the romance is certainly characterized throughout bybrevity, restraint and sparcity of decoration. There are so fewdescriptions that those of the festival of Artemis and of the canopyover the marriage bed of Habrocomes and Anthia are notable.[93] Theaction is too rapid and varied to allow time for decorative passages.Instead of being set amid purple patches, it is advanced by a kind ofdocumentary evidence: two oracles, two letters, one memorial and twovotive inscriptions, all directly quoted,[94] and a reference to aninscription finally offered as a votive in the Artemesion by Habrocomesand Anthia giving an account of all their adventures.
Inset narratives, those stories within stories which make pleasingdigressions in other longer romances, are here very few. Hippothoosrecounts his love for the beautiful Hyperanthes and the boy's untimelydrowning.[95] Aegialeus, the Spartan living with the mummy of his wife,tells how his love for her has outlasted death.[96] Both thesenarratives are colorful, dramatic and poignant from the very qualitieswhich characterize all the romance. These are brevity, sincerity andrestrained emotion.
The influence of Chariton is clearly seen in Xenophon both in directimitation and in qualities of style. When the Phoenician pirates hadkidnapped Habrocomes and Anthia on their trireme and fired theircaptives' vessel leaving many to perish in the sea, an old slave, as heswam, pitifully called to Habrocomes to save his aged paedagogue or atleast kill him and bury him.[97] In view of the situation this is aridiculous appeal, but it is a clear imitation of a passage in Charitonwhere, when Chaereas resolves to go to sea to search for Callirhoe, hisfather Ariston begs his son not to desert him, but to take him on histrireme,[98] or to wait a few days for his father's death and burial.Anthia, when Manto, the daughter of the brigand chief, demandsHabrocomes' submission to her passion, begs her husband to save his lifein this way and swears that she will leave him free by killing herself,only asking from him burial, one last kiss, and a place in his memory.This is in direct imitation of Chariton and of Chaereas' words when hefinds Callirhoe married to Dionysius.[99] Here Xenophon is simpler thanhis model, for he does not transfer the effective lines from Homer whichChariton quotes.[100] The burial of Anthia with its rich funeral giftsresembles the burial of Callirhoe and also the lavish equipment of thecenotaph for Chaereas.[101] The language of Chariton is adapted for thelament of Habrocomes in Italy at the failure of his quest and hisrenewed pledge of faithfulness unto death.[102]
These clear indications of imitation of detail serve to corroborate theevidence of general imitation of style. Indeed Dalmeyda sees in thewhole temperament of Xenophon a close affinity to Chariton. Xenophonintroduces the most startling events without fanfare. Characteristic ofhis style are accumulated questions, pathetic resumes, oaths,invocations of the gods, apostrophes of men and of things particularlyof that fatal beauty which the young hero and heroine deplore because oftheir misery. Xenophon's relation to Chariton in all this isstriking.[103]
The plot of the novel has seemed to some
critics epic in itschronological narrative of successive adventures. Others find thestructure a tragic plot with an angry god demanding satisfaction for thesin of arrogance and the guilty hero involving in his own nemesis theone most dear to him. It is true that this and other resemblances totragedy exist. The story of Manto and her false denunciation ofHabrocomes for an attempt to rape her after she has failed to win hislove goes back to the Phaedra story of Euripides' _Hippolytus_. Thenoble goatherd husband of Anthia finds his prototype in Electra'speasant husband in Euripides' play. The scene where Anthia on herwedding-night takes poison which proves to be a sleeping potion, toavoid a new marriage and keep her troth to her lost love seems to be theantecedent of the poison scene in Shakespeare's _Romeo and Juliet_.
To me, however, this novelette finds its closest affiliation in anothersuccessor. Both the structure and the devices used to arouse emotionanticipate the modern cinema. This contemporary form of amusement issuch an accepted part of modern life that we hardly need to read thebooks about the cinema by Allerdyce Nicoll, Lewis Jacobs, MauriceBardeche and others to understand "the Rise of the American Film."Personally I go to the movies to escape from routine and from painfulthoughts of our own times. Occasionally I allow myself to be educatedabout _Steel_ or _The River_. I prefer to industrial films or films ofsocial problems like lynching, prison conditions, housing, films withbiographies of great historical characters: Pasteur, Zola, Rembrandt. Ilike films set in local history such as _Maryland_ or _Kentucky_ or_Gone with the Wind_ or _The Howards of Virginia_ or _The North WestMounted Police_. I have to shut my eyes during the fighting and thecruelties of _Sea Hawk_ and _All This and Heaven Too_. But I like thecinematic rapidity of changes of scene, the control by the camera ofspace and magnitude, the extension of the time-limit, the fade-ins andfade-outs which can create fantastic visions, the value of theflash-back to recall what has been already seen, the concentration ofinterest achieved by close-ups.
Many of these devices I recognize in the Greek Romances and especiallyin Xenophon of Ephesus. His narrative is as condensed as that of ascenario with lacunae, abrupt transitions, failures in an adequatevocabulary of emotion. The local history of Ephesus is emphasized anddepicted. Scenes shift with cinematic rapidity. Hair-raising adventuressucceed each other at an exciting pace. Bandits and pirates achieverobbery and kidnapping. High police officials or officers like G-Menperform valiant rescues. Court-room scenes as in many films vie withshipwrecks in interest. Documents like letters are presented to thereader's eye as on the screen. Visions and dreams are made to seem asreal as in fade-ins and fade-outs.
There is a clear morality in the opposition of good and bad charactersand in the final victory of the good. Hero and heroine captivate bytheir extraordinary beauty and maintain their chastity and fidelityagainst terrific odds. Hence their phenomenal virtue is rewarded byreunion in the end. Religion often plays a saving part (as on the screenfor example in _Brother Orchid_). The Reader like the audience at themovie goes away with a sense of having been enlivened, entertained andvastly improved. For the function of the Greek romance in the second andthird centuries A.D., when the universal rule of the Roman Empire gavescant scope for great oratory or tragedy under the blessings of anenforced peace, was to entertain and to edify. The Greek romancesubstituted for the adventures of the mind new themes: the excitementsof passion, the interests of travel, and the consolations of religion.It was lifted out of the ranks of the trivial and the second-rate by itsgreat central theme: that there is such a thing as true love; thatweighed in the balance against it all the world is nothing; and that itoutlives time and even death.
Our own age in America, bleeding internally from the agony of a warwhich it is powerless to end, fearful for its own menaced security,demands from the cinema not only temporary oblivion and excitement, butencouragement to believe that love lasts even unto death, that heroesride again and are victorious, and that finally, by the help of God, theright will conquer.