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| Franz Sedlacek Storm 1932 oil on panel Belvedere Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous French Artist Erythraean Sibyl ca. 1630-40 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen |
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| Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi) St James the Greater ca. 1510-20 oil on canvas Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari Drunkenness of Noah ca. 1630 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
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| attributed to Francesco Crescenzi Judgment of Paris ca. 1615-20 oil on panel Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Edgar Klier Miners 1960 oil on canvas Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden |
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| Lizzy Ansingh The Seven Deadly Sins 1914 oil on canvas Dordrechts Museum |
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| Gustave Courbet Académie ca. 1842 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| William Merritt Chase Portrait of Mrs Chase ca. 1890-95 oil on canvas Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh |
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| Aert de Gelder Tobias welcomed by his mother Hannah ca. 1690-1700 oil on canvas Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht |
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| Willem van Mieris Odysseus threatening Circe 1690 oil on panel Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha |
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| Jacopo Zucchi Crucifixion 1583 oil on copper Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Marcello Venusti after Scipione Pulzone Madonna ca. 1575 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Daniel Seghers Cartouche Portrait of Nicolas Poussin within Garland of Flowers ca. 1650-51 oil on canvas National Museum, Warsaw |
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| Nicolas de Largillière Portrait of Madame Léon de la Mejenelle 1711 oil on canvas Princeton University Art Museum |
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| Raffaellino del Garbo Portrait of a Young Man ca. 1490-1500 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
"I beg you to forgive me; I have not made up my mind to bring an accusation, but I cannot remain silent, not only because adultery is an insufferable crime but also because in addition to the usual outrageous behavior involved in it, there is a special feature in this case: the man involved is a slave – he is spiritually base, even if my wife thinks him handsome. Furthermore, he is not even someone else's slave; he is my own. He should have been her slave too – not her master! The act of adultery is made extreme and more disgraceful by the twin facts that the adulterous woman's good reputation is united with her paramour's bad one."
* * *
"Well, to sum things up, I have this to say. They are an attractive pair. But who would rank a slave above a husband? He is in the bloom of youth, King, and I too think him handsome; and often did I foolishly commend him to her as attractive in appearance, with his languishing eyes. I often commended his white fingers and his tawny locks. By saying these things, then, I taught her to love. You, King, know that this is the truth; for his beauty did not desert him even when he was in fear; his cheeks shone brightly with his panic; his looks did not lose their bloom even when he was in pain. He stood in bonds before you, but even his hands were becoming to him. The curses that are showered on your head and the risk of destruction that you run adorn you, you handsome rogue. I hesitate, my lord, to say that he is even more handsome today. Do you not pity me, King? My adulterous wife is listening as I, the husband, am praising the adulterer. I am afraid his good looks will help him even today – so much have I been praising him."
– Iamblichus, from A Babylonian Story, written in Greek, 2nd century AD. This passage is from one of the few short fragments of the original text to have survived from antiquity, translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989).