THROWBACK THURSDAY: MASTERPIECE #1699 (5/2/17)

/// Vain Candaules, the Lydian King,
treated Nyssia, his wife, like a thing
of great beauty he owned.
Soon he’s dead and dethroned
due to cruel tricks like this he would spring.

/// His wife’s loveliness fed his great pride,
so he ordered guard Gyges to hide
in their bedroom where he
would be able to see
the Queen naked— but she knew he spied.

/// The Queen’s pale flesh appeared luminescent;
the reluctant voyeur was tumescent.
Nyssia witnessed him leaving,
cursed her husband’s deceiving
and his cruelties, which were incessant.

/// (In the dark you would swear she’s fluorescent.
Her effect on the guard— incandescent.
He was smitten at once
and behaved like a dunce,
“fell in love” like a rash adolescent.)

/// Called the next day before his King’s wife,
Gyges heard he must forfeit his life.
Or, if he should refuse,
then instead he could choose
to stab Candaules dead with his knife.

/// Candaules’s cruel violation
of his wife caused his assassination.
Gyges saw her unclothed,
so the two were betrothed.
A new King healed her humiliation.