Tea at Trianon: Plato’s Magic Ring Allegory and the Lord of the Rings

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, October 6, 2023

Plato’s Magic Ring Allegory and the Lord of the Rings

From The Greek Reporter:

Few people would be quick to draw a connection between Plato and The Lord of the Rings, authored by epic high fantasy writer J. R. R. Tolkien. However, the ancient Greek philosopher’s hypothetical Ring of Gyges bears some striking similarities to Sauron’s One Ring. In Plato’s allegory, just like Tolkien’s One Ring, the Ring of Gyges grants its wearer the power of invisibility. Both rings are also strongly associated with immorality, corruption, and temptation. Plato’s allegory may have influenced other authors, including poets from medieval Germany and authors from Renaissance-era Italy.
The Ring of Gyges is described in Plato’s Republic during a conversation between the Greek philosopher and his brother, Glaucon. During the conversation, Glaucon recounts a myth about the legendary ring. In the tale, a shepherd stumbles across a chasm in a mountainside where he was tending to his flock. The shepherd clambers into the chasm, where he discovers an enormous bronze horse containing the body of a giant man. On the giant’s finger is a ring, which the shepherd takes for himself. (Read more.)