e virginals, lute, viol, and sing to it,
which as Gellius observes, _lib. 1. cap. 11._ are _lascivientium
delicicae_, the chief delight of lovers, must needs be a great enticement.
Parthenis was so taken. [5080]_Mi vox ista avida haurit ab aure animam_: O
sister Harpedona (she laments) I am undone, [5081]"how sweetly he sings,
I'll speak a bold word, he is the properest man that ever I saw in my life:
O how sweetly he sings, I die for his sake, O that he would love me again!"
If thou didst but hear her sing, saith [5082]Lucian, "thou wouldst forget
father and mother, forsake all thy friends, and follow her." Helena is
highly commended by [5083]Theocritus the poet for her sweet voice and
music; none could play so well as she, and Daphnis in the same Edyllion,

"Quam tibi os dulce est, et vox amabilis o Daphni,
Jucundius est audire te canentem, quam mel lingere!"

"How sweet a face hath Daphne, how lovely a voice!
Honey itself is not so pleasant in my choice."

A sweet voice and music are powerful enticers. Those Samian singing
wenches, Aristonica, Onanthe and Agathocleia, _regiis diadematibus
insultarunt_, insulted over kings themselves, as [5084]Plutarch contends.
_Centum luminibus cinctum caput Argus habebat_, Argus had a hundred eyes,
all so charmed by one silly pipe, that he lost his head. Clitiphon
complains in [5085]Tatius of Leucippe's sweet tunes, "he heard her play by
chance upon the lute, and sing a pretty song to it in commendations of a
rose," out of old Anacreon belike;

"Rosa honor decusque florum,
Rosa flos odorque divum,
Hominum rosa est voluptas,
Decus illa Gratiarum,
Florente amoris hora,
Rosa suavium Diones," &c.

"Rose the fairest of all flowers.
Rose delight of higher powers,
Rose the joy of mortal men,
Rose the pleasure of fine women,
Rose the Graces' ornament,
Rose Dione's sweet content."

To this effect the lovely virgin with a melodious air upon her golden wired
harp or lute, I know not well whether, played and sang, and that
transported him beyond himself, "and that ravished his heart." It was
Jason's discourse as much as his beauty, or any other of his good parts,
which delighted Medea so much.

[5086] ------"Delectabatur enim
Animus simul forma dulcibusque verbis."

It was Cleopatra's sweet voice and pleasant speech which inveigled Antony,
above the