Suda On Line
Search
|
Search results for gamma,473 in Adler number:
Headword:
*gu/gou
daktu/lios
Adler number: gamma,473
Translated headword: Gyges' ring
Vetting Status: high
Translation: [sc. A proverbial phrase] in reference to resourceful and villainous men. For Gyges was a cowherd who after an earthquake found a corpse which was wearing a ring, and stripped it off. The nature of the ring was such that, by twists of the bezel,[1] one would be [first] seen and [then] unseen. By means of this Gyges killed his predecessor and ruled as king.
Greek Original:*gu/gou daktu/lios: e)pi\ tw=n polumhxa/nwn kai\ panou/rgwn. *gu/ghs ga\r bouko/los w)\n, th=s gh=s u(po\ seismou= r(agei/shs, nekro\n eu(rw\n forou=nta daktu/lion tou=ton periei=len. o( de\ ei)=xe fu/sin w(/ste kata\ ta\s strofa\s th=s sfendo/nhs o(ra=sqai kai\ mh/. di' au)tou= ktei/nas to\n pro\ au)tou= e)basi/leusen.
Notes:
The usual story of how Gyges (
gamma 472) killed Kandaules and became king of
Lydia in c.680 BCE is radically different (see
Herodotus 1.8-14, at web address 1); the version here summarizes
Plato,
Republic 359C-360B (web address 2).
[1] For the noun
sfendo/nh in this sense, the ring part itself, see LSJ s.v., II.3; and cf.
sigma 1726.
A. Laird, "Ringing the changes on Gyges: philosophy and the formation of fiction in Plato's Republic", Journal of Hellenic Studies 121 (2001) 12-29
Associated internet addresses:
Web address 1,
Web address 2
Keywords: aetiology; biography; daily life; ethics; geography; historiography; history; philosophy; proverbs
Translated by: David Whitehead on 3 August 2001@09:01:17.
Vetted by:
No. of records found: 1
Page 1
End of search