Gyges, or Gyes, a son of Cœlus and Terra, represented as having 50 heads and 100 hands. He, with his brothers, made war against the gods, and was afterwards punished in Tartarus. Ovid, Tristia, bk. 4, poem 7, li. 18.——A Lydian, to whom Candaules 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 murder Candaules. He chose the latter, and married the queen, and ascended the vacant throne, about 718 years before the christian era. He was the first of the Mermnadæ who reigned in Lydia. He reigned 38 years, and distinguished himself by the immense presents which he made to the oracle of Delphi. According to Plato, Gyges descended into a chasm of the earth, where he found a brazen horse, whose sides he opened, and saw within the body the carcase of a man of uncommon size, from whose finger he took a famous brazen ring. This ring, when put on his finger, rendered him invisible; and by means of its virtue, he introduced himself to the queen, murdered her husband, and married her, and usurped the crown of Lydia. Herodotus, bk. 1, ch. 8.—[♦]Plato, Dialogues, bk. 10, The Republic.—Valerius Maximus, bk. 7, ch. 1.—Cicero, De Officiis, bk. 3, ch. 9.——A man killed by Turnus in his wars with Æneas. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 9, li. 762.——A beautiful boy of Cnidos in the age of Horace. Horace, bk. 2, ode 5, li. 30.
[♦] ‘Plutarch’ replaced with ‘Plato’
Gylippus, a Lacedæmonian sent, B.C. 414, by his countrymen to assist Syracuse against the Athenians. He obtained a celebrated victory over Nicias and Demosthenes, the enemy’s generals, and obliged them to surrender. He accompanied Lysander in his expedition against Athens, and was present at the taking of that celebrated town. After the fall of Athens, he was entrusted by the conqueror with the money which had been taken in the plunder, which amounted to 1500 talents. As he conveyed it to Sparta, he had the meanness to unsew the bottom of the bags which contained it, and secreted about 300 talents. His theft was discovered; and to avoid the punishment which he deserved, he fled from his country, and by this act of meanness tarnished the glory of his victorious actions. Tibullus, bk. 4, poem 1, li. 199.—Plutarch, Nicias.——An Arcadian in the Rutulian war. Virgil, Æneid, bk. 12, li. 272.
Gymnăsia, a large city near Colchis. Diodorus, bk. 14.
Gymnăsium, a place among the Greeks, where all the public exercises were performed, and where not only wrestlers and dancers exhibited, but also philosophers, poets, and rhetoricians repeated their compositions. The room was high and spacious, and could contain many thousands of spectators. The laborious exercises of the Gymnasium were running, leaping, throwing the quoit, wrestling, and boxing, which was called by the Greeks πενταθλον, and by the Romans quinquertia. In riding, the athlete led a horse, on which he sometimes was mounted, conducting another by the bridle, and jumping from the one upon the other. Whoever came first to the goal and jumped with the greatest agility, obtained the prize. In running afoot the athletes were sometimes armed, and he who came first was declared victorious. Leaping was a useful exercise; its primary object was to teach the soldiers to jump over ditches, and to pass over eminences during a siege, or in the field of battle. In throwing the quoit, the prize was adjudged to him who threw it furthest. The quoits were made either with wood, stone, or metal. The wrestlers employed all their dexterity to bring their adversary to the ground, and the boxers had their hands armed with gauntlets, called also cestus. Their blows were dangerous, and often ended in the death of one of the combatants. In wrestling and boxing, the athletes were often naked, whence the word Gymnasium, γυμνος, nudus. They anointed themselves with oil to brace their limbs, and to render their bodies slippery and more difficult to be grasped. Pliny, bk. 2, ltr. 17.—Cornelius Nepos, bk. 20, ch. 5.
Gymnēsiæ, two islands near the Iberus in the Mediterranean, called Beleares by the Greeks. Plutarch, bk. 5, ch. 8.—Strabo, bk. 2.
Gymnetes, a people of Æthiopia, who lived almost naked. Pliny, bk. 5, ch. 8.
Gymniæ, a town of Colchis. Xenophon, Anabasis, bk. 4.
Gymnosophistæ, a certain sect of philosophers in India, who, according to some, placed their summum bonum in pleasure, and their summum malum in pain. They lived naked, as their name implies, and for 37 years they exposed themselves in the open air, to the heat of the sun, the inclemency of the seasons, and the coldness of the night. They were often seen in the fields fixing their eyes full upon the disc of the sun from the time of its rising till the hour of its setting. Sometimes they stood whole days upon one foot in burning sand without moving, or showing any concern for what surrounded them. Alexander was astonished at the sight of a sect of men who seemed to despise bodily pain, and who inured themselves to suffer the greatest tortures without uttering a groan, or expressing any marks of fear. The conqueror condescended to visit them, and his astonishment was increased when he saw one of them ascend a burning pile with firmness and unconcern, to avoid the infirmities of old age, and stand upright on one leg and unmoved, whilst the flames surrounded him on every side. See: [Calanus]. The Brachmans were a branch of the sect of the Gymnosophistæ. See: [Brachmanes]. Strabo, bk. 15, &c.—Pliny, bk. 7, ch. 2.—Cicero, Tusculanæ Disputationes, bk. 5.—Lucan, bk. 3, li. 240.—Curtius, bk. 8, ch. 9.—Dionysius.
Gynæceas, a woman said to have been the wife of Faunus, and the mother of Bacchus and of Midas.