GYGES, in fabulous history, a Lydian, to whom Candaulus, king of the country, showed his wife naked. The queen was so incensed at this instance of imprudence and infirmity in her husband, that she ordered Gyges either to prepare for death himself, or to put Candaulus to death. He chose the latter; and having married the queen, ascended the vacant throne about 718 years before the Christian era. He was the first of the Mermnades who reigned in Lydia. He reigned thirty-eight years, and distinguished himself by the immense presents which he made to the oracle of Delphi. (Herod. i. c. 8.) According to Plato, Gyges descended into a chasm of the earth, where he found a brazen horse, the sides of which he opened, and saw within the body the carcass of a man of uncommon size, from whose finger he took a brazen ring. This ring, when he put it on his finger, rendered him invisible; and by means of its virtue he introduced himself to the queen, murdered her husband, married her, and usurped the crown of Lydia.