Herodotus, Histories 1.10.1 · 1.10.1
Gyges watched
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Herodotus — Ὃ μὲν δὴ ὡς οὐκ ἐδύνατο διαφυγεῖν, ἦν ἕτοιμος· ὁ δὲ Κανδαύλης, ἐπεὶ ἐδόκεε ὥρη τῆς κοίτης εἶναι, ἤγαγε τὸν Γύγεα ἐς τὸ οἴκημα, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα αὐτίκα παρῆν καὶ ἡ γυνή. ἐσελθοῦσαν δὲ καὶ τιθεῖσαν τὰ εἵματα ἐθηεῖτο ὁ Γύγης.
Since he could not escape it, he was ready. And Candaules, when it seemed the hour for bed, led Gyges into the room; and soon after, his wife was there too. As she came in and laid down her clothes, Gyges watched her.
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The setting
The plan goes exactly as the king described it. Herodotus tells the central moment of the story in one short sentence.
A note on this passage
After the long speeches, the act itself takes nine Greek words: <em>eselthousan de kai titheisan ta heimata ethēeito ho Gygēs</em>, "as she came in and laid down her clothes, Gyges watched." Herodotus does not describe her. The one word he spends is the verb, and he puts it in the imperfect, <em>ethēeito</em>, the tense of an action that goes on. Gyges did not glance. He kept looking.
The verb is <em>theaomai</em>, the one Candaules used when he first made the demand ("contrive to see her naked") and the one behind <em>theatron</em>, the place for watching. The queen has been turned into a spectacle, and the reader, holding the plan in mind, is in the room too. Gérôme's painting (above) sets it the same way: the queen lit at the centre with her back to the door, the king in the bed, and Gyges half in shadow at the edge, the watcher inside the picture.
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