23
King Philip was enamoured of a Thessalian woman who was accused of using magic charms upon him. Olympias accordingly made haste to get the woman into her power. But when the latter had come into the queen’s presence and was seen to be beautiful in appearance, and her conversation with the queen was not lacking in good-breeding or cleverness, Olympias exclaimed, Away with these slanders! You have your magic charms in yourself. Much the same story is told of the wife of Hystaspes by Satyrus in his Life of Euripides (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, ix. p. 157). And so a wedded and lawful wife becomes an irresistible thing if she makes everything, dowry, birth, magic charms, and even the magic girdle Homer, Il. xiv. 214. itself, to be inherent in herself, and by character and virtue succeeds in winning her husband’s love.
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On another occasion, when a young man of the court had married a beautiful woman Pantica of Cyprus, according to Phylarchus, as quoted by Athenaeus, 609 C. of bad reputa- tion, Olympias said, That fellow has no brains; else he would not have married on sight. Marriages ought not to be made by trusting the eyes only, or the fingers either, as is the case with some who take a wife after counting up how much she brings with her, but without deciding what kind of a helpmate she will be.
