The least studied of the surviving ancient Greek romance novels, The Tale of Gabrokom and Anti by Xenophon of Ephesus, is a deliberate allegory intended for the general readership of the time. On the one hand, this allows the author to come to generalizations concerning the connection of late Hellenistic literature with Greek philosophy and mythology, with Platonism and Orphism. On the other hand, Xenophon’s novel turns out to be one of the illustrations of the principles of allegorical poetics, common to many works of Middle Eastern, ancient, medieval and modern European literature.