Gyges was a shepherd in the service of the king of Lydia; therewas a great storm, and an earthquake made an opening in the earthat the place where Gyges was feeding his flock. Amazed at thesight, Gyges descended into the opening, where, among othermarvels, he beheld a hollow brazen horse, having doors, at whichhe, stooping and looking in, saw a dead body of stature, asappeared to him, more than human, and having nothing on but a goldring. This he took from the finger of the dead and reascended. Nowthe shepherds met together, according to custom, to send theirmonthly report about the flocks to the king. Into their assemblyGyges came with the ring on his finger. As he was sitting amongthem, Gyges chanced to turn the collet of the ring inside his hand,whereupon instantly he became invisible to the rest of the companyand they began to speak of him as if he were no longer present. Hewas astonished at this, and again touching the ring he turned thecollet outward and reappeared; he made several trials of the ring,and always with the same result—when he turned the collet inward,he became invisible; when outward, he reappeared. Whereupon hecontrived to be chosen as one of the messengers to be sent to thecourt. As soon as he arrived, he seduced the queen, and, with herhelp, conspired against the king, slew him, and took the kingdom.Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just puton one of them and the unjust the other; no man can be imagined tobe of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. Noman would keep his hands off what was not his own when he couldsafely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses andlie with anyone at his pleasure, or kill or release from prisonwhom he would, and in all respects be like a God among men. Thenthe actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; theywould both come at last to the same point. And this we may trulyaffirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly orbecause he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, butof necessity, for wherever anyone thinks that he can safely beunjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in their heartsthat injustice is far more profitable to the individual thanjustice, and those who argue as I have been supposing will say thatthey are right. If you could imagine anyone obtaining this power ofbecoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what wasanother’s, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a mostwretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another’sfaces and keep up appearances with one another from a fear thatthey too might suffer injustice.
•    What would Aristotle, Kant, and Milleach do if they had such a ring?
•    What would you do with such aring?
