Greek Myths XS: Gyges and his Invisibility Ring

If you could choose a superpower, what would it be? A lot of people would go for invisibility, but according to Plato, that would ruin your chances of living an honest life. If you’re a man, that is. He tells the story of the herdsman Gyges as an illustration. When Gyges finds an invisibility ring, he handles it like a fun toy at first. But then he discovers he can find out what people say behind his back. Gradually, he tries out all kinds of schemes for profit and power, and in the end he finds himself in the royal palace, unaliving the king and taking his throne. According to Plato, corruption like this is inevitable when a man is given the chance. “For he would be able to steal from the market without detection, to go into any man’s house and seduce anyone he liked, to unalive or to release from prison anyone he felt inclined. And in all this, the just man would differ in no way from the unjust. No man is just of his own free will.” Well, better leave the superpowers to women, then.

De ring van Gyges, Ferraresische Schule, private collection

Gyges in the bedroom of king Candales' Wife, Nikolaas Verkolje, National Gallery,

Bratislava, Slovakia

Did you know?

• The legendary king Midas is also said to have possessed a ring that made the wearer invisible when it was turned around the finger. (About Midas: cfr. “Too Good to be True”)

• According to Herodotus, Gyges would have been a bodyguard of king Candaules of Lydia, who believed his wife to be the most beautiful woman on earth. He insisted upon Gyges seeing his wife naked, and the betrayal so enraged her that she afterwards gave Gyges the choice of murdering her husband or being put to death himself.