Sunday, January 7, 2018

Legend of Gyges of lydia and Power of Sex

Plato in his book "Republic" recounts a lovely tale that has intrigued me to a great extent. I have interpreted it as a realization of a dream of man and sexual conquest. Nobody can deny, that men even the most puritan of them do have lascivious thoughts of women and in this context, the tale related by Glaucon, who was the brother of Plato needs to be read. 
The legend runs something like this. There was a lesser vassal called Gyges, who paid allegiance to the King of Lydia. Gyges was infatuated with the queen, the wife of the king of Lydia. He longed to possess her and have carnal knowledge of her body The more he saw the queen in court the more he lusted for her.
Providence took a hand and one day while he was roaming about in the countryside an earthquake took place. This earthquake had a magical effect and a small cave opened. Gyges went inside the cave and saw a large horse made of bronze. This horse was a cover for a tomb of a man and Gyges saw the corpse was wearing a ring. He removed the ring and wore it. In a moment he was aware that he had astonishing powers and once he wore the ring he became invisible.
Gyges wearing it entered the king's palace and proceeded to the chamber of the queen. As he entered, he saw the queen now nude and he seduced her. Plato does not explain how he seduced her as he was invisible. But in all probability, his invisibleness added to his charm as he made love to the queen. After having satiated his desire he went to the king's chamber and killed him.He came back to the Queens chamber and again made ferocious love. 
He later married her and became king. The desire for a woman can lead you anywhere. Right?

No comments:

Post a Comment