ABSTRACT
The thematic tradition associated with Gyges suffers from mythical, legendary or historical diversity of origins; it was slow to become established, as if suspended between opposing interpretations, and really only crystallized into a literary myth in the nineteenth century, when it flowered only briefly. From this complex tradition people should take special note of the malleability of the character of Gyges first a shepherd then a lord, submissive or rebellious, the holder or otherwise of a magic object which offers great scope to retellings of the myth. Hebbel's treatment of the theme, while preserving much of the arbitrary incongruity of Candaules deed, at the same time turns it into the trigger, powerful because it is erotic in nature. A surprising overlap of the Gyges-Candaules theme with that of Salammbo is apparent here, and there are many other traces of it: a severed aqueduct, a veil scattered with hieratic signs, the cult of Baal, of Melkarth, of Tanit and so on.
