Herodotus, Histories 1.8.4 · 1.8.4

Gyges reaches for old wisdom, and the proverb he chooses is about the eyes. Skopeein tina ta heōutou, "that each man should look at his own," usually means "mind your own business." Here it is meant literally. The verb skopeō is the verb of watching and aiming (a skopos is a lookout, and a target). In a story about who may look at whom, the old rule turns into a rule about where to point your eyes.

His last word is anomōn, things outside nomos. Nomos is custom and law at once, and it is the great subject of Herodotus. Later he will tell how Darius asked Greeks and Indians what it would take to make them treat their dead fathers the other's way, and both were horrified; he concludes, quoting Pindar, that custom is king of all (3.38). Gyges does not argue that looking would be ugly or cruel. He argues that it is against nomos, and for Herodotus that is the strongest argument there is.

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