Gyges

( 2 syl. ), one of the Titans. He had fifty heads and a hundred hands. Gyges , a king of Lydia, of whom Apollo said he deemed the poor Arcadian Ag´laos more happy than the King Gyges, who was proverbial for his wealth. Gyges ( 2 syl. ), who dethroned Candaulês ( 3 syl. ), king of Lydia, and married Ny ia, the young widow. Herodotos says that Candaulês showed Gyges the queen naked, and the queen, indignant at this impropriety, induced Gyges to kill the king and marry her (bk. i. 8). He reigned B.C. 716-678. Gyges’s Ring rendered the wearer invisible. Plato says that Gyges found the ring in the flanks of a brazen horse, and was enabled by this talisman to enter the king’s chamber unseen, and murder him. Why did you think that you had Gyges’ ring, Or the herb [ fern seed ] that gives invisibility? Beaumont and Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn , i. 1 (1647).