Polycrates

Hello readers! The next mythological tale I will be posting about today is the tale of Polycrates

Who?

The Ring of Polycrates

The Greek tale of Polycrates or Polykrates, ruler of Samos. According to Herodotus, Polycrates was making a treaty with Amasis the king of Egypt, when Amasis told Polycrates to dispose of some of his most valued possessions, explaining that even he must experience hardships and sorrow, or his life will end in tragedy. Polycrates's, taking Amasis's advice throw away some of his possessions including his most prized, emerald ring. The loss of the ring weighed heavy on Polycrates; one day a fisherman brought a great fish as tribute, and as is the custom, had the fish gutted. When the fish was cut open, Polycrates was surprised and delighted to see his old emerald ring.

Why are they famous?

This tale comes from the Herodotus Histories so here is a little introduction of it below:

Herodotus Histories

• Written from 450s to the 420s BC Ionic dialect of Greek
• Serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography and clashes of culture known around the Mediterranean and Western Asia at the time
• The history traces the growth of the Persian Empire, onto the pivotal event, the Battle of Marathon where the Persians where defeated by the Greeks. A decade later, the Persians returned but where decisively defeated at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.
• At some point, the ages were divided into nine books, conventionally named after the Muses
• Book 3, named after the Muse, Thalia, represented the joyous and the flourishing

Polycrates of Samos

• Samos, a Greek island, belonged to the Lydian King Croesus who was defeated and killed in in c.547 by the Persian king, Cyprus the Great. In 540, Polycrates and his brothers Pantagnostus, and Syloson, executed a coup, supported by many citizens and captured the citadel of Samos
• Polycrates  had Pantagnostus executed and Syloson expelled, and became sole ruler of Samos, a tyrant. Those who opposed his reign, typically members of the old aristocracy, were either sent into exile or voluntarily left the island. The most famous was the philosopher Pythagoras
• Among his first acts was the fortification of the city of Samos, projects including the building of an aqueduct and mole to protect the port. He tried to improve the quality of life for his people and Samos did prosper and Polycrates showed this by building a large temple, dedicated to Hera.
• The Egyptian king, Amasis, fearing a Persian attack, developed a naval strategy by conquering Cyprus and allying himself to Polycrates to have control over Nile, forcing possible invaders to go through the desert and consequently being vulnerable. He gave Polycrates large amounts of money, which the Samian used to build a navy.
• After the death of Cyrus in 530, Polycrates decided to switch sides and join the new Persian king Cambyses – reasons unknown. Herodotus of Halicarnassus states:‘Without the knowledge of the Samians, Polycrates sent an envoy to Cambyses the son of Cyrus (who was gathering an army to attack Egypt) and asked him to send a messenger to him in Samos to ask for an armed force. When Cambyses heard this, he sent an envoy to the Samians and requested a naval force to join him in the war against Egypt. So Polycrates selected those of the citizens whom he most suspected of desiring to rise against him, and sent them away in 40 warships, charging Cambyses not to send them back.’
• Ultimately, this was to be Polycrates' undoing. After the fall of Egypt in 525, he had no financial support any more. Samian rebels, assisted by armies from Sparta and Corinth, invaded the island, and Polycrates found himself in a tight spot. However, the walls of Eupalinus were strong and the tyrant survived. But without capital, he remained vulnerable.
• In March 522, civil war broke out in the Persian empire. The usurper Gaumâta revolted against Cambyses, who died before open war broke out. During the summer, Polycrates was invited by the satrap of Lydia, Oroetus, to come to Sardes. Herodotus quotes the message: ‘I understand, Polycrates, that [...] your resources are not equal to your designs. I have a proposal to make which, if you adopt it, will ensure your success - and my own safety, for it is clear from reports I have received that [the Persian king] is plotting my death. Come, then, and get me out of the country; I promise you a share in everything I possess, and that will give you enough money to get control of the whole of Greece. If you have any doubts about my wealth, send whoever it is you must trust, and I will show him what I have’.
• Polycrates, who was, in Herodotus' words, 'very fond of money', decided to visit Oroetus. According to Herodotus, Polycrates' daughter had a terrible nightmare, in which she saw how her father was washed by the god Zeus and anointed by the Sun.
• Somehow or other -the precise manner need not be told- Oroetus had him murdered, and the dead body hung on a cross. The dream of Polycrates' daughter was thus fulfilled by his crucifixion: when rain fell, he was washed by Zeus, and he was anointed by the Sun when under the sun's heat the moisture was sweated out from his body. This, then, was the end of the long-continued prosperity of Polycrates.
• Polycrates soon became a moral example. Herodotus tells a very famous story about the Samian tyrant, who was so blessed by the gods that even when he threw a precious ring into the sea, a fisherman would catch the fish that had swallowed the object. His ally Amasis understood that a man who was so lucky would one day be punished by the gods, who are envious of human happiness. And this was, to the pharaoh, sufficient reason to end the alliance. In fact, it seems to have been the other way round -Polycrates terminated the alliance

Other versions of the ring of polycrates

• Der Ring des Polykrates, a one act opera by Erich Wolfgang Korngold

The synopsis is as follow: a musician Wilhelm Arndt seems to have everything going for him, happily married to Laura and he has just inherited a small fortune. Only the return of his long-lost friend Peter Vogel could make him even more happy. When Vogel actually returns, he is jealous of Wilhelm's happiness, and convinces him that in order not to challenge fate, he should sacrifice something (after the example set in Schiller's ballade Der Ring des Polykrates). Wilhelm starts an argument with his wife about her former life, but the couple's love is strong enough to overcome all difficulties. In the end, all agree that the sacrifice that has to be offered is the intriguer that tried to ruin their happiness: Peter Vogel has to leave again.

• The Fish and the Ring, an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales.

A baron who was a magician learned that his son was fated to marry a girl born to a poor peasant. He went to that peasant and, when he lamented that he could not feed six children, offered to take the littlest one. He threw her into the river, and she floated to a fisherman's house, and the fisherman raised her. She was beautiful, and one day when the baron was hunting, he saw her and his companion asked who she would marry. To cast her horoscope, he asked when she was born, and she told her story. He sent her to his brother, with a letter telling his brother to kill her. She fell among robbers, who altered the letter to say she should be married to his son, and his brother didn't like it.

The baron came and learned this, and took his daughter-in-law for a walk along the cliff. She begged for her life, and he did not push her in, but he threw a golden ring into the sea and told her that she should never show him or his son her face again without the ring. She went off and got work in a kitchen. The baron came to dinner at that house, and she was preparing fish. She found the ring in it. The guests were so taken with the fish that they wanted to meet the cook, and she went with the ring. The baron realised that he could not fight fate, and announced she was his son's true bride and took her back with him to his home, where she lived happily with her husband.

• In Jocelyn's Life of St. Kentigern, King Rederech of Strathclyde discovers Queen Languueth's affair with a soldier, to whom she gave a ring. The king steals the ring from the sleeping soldier, and demands the queen produce the ring in three days or else face death. Languueth confesses her sin to St. Kentigern, who then commands a messenger to go fishing in the Clyde; a salmon is caught, gutted, and the ring is found. The queen then produces the ring for the king, and escapes death.

Schiller's poem below is a lovely description of the tale:

The Ring of Polycrates

Friedrich Schiller

Upon his battlements he stood,

And downward gazed in joyous mood,

On Samos' Isle, that owned his sway.

"All this is subject to my yoke;"

To Egypt's monarch thus he spoke, -

"That I am truly blest, then, say!"

"The immortals' favor thou hast known!

Thy sceptre's might has overthrown

All those who once were like to thee.

Yet to avenge them one lives still;

I cannot call thee blest, until

That dreaded foe has ceased to be."

While to these words the king gave vent,

A herald from Miletus sent,

Appeared before the tyrant there:

"Lord, let thy incense rise to-day,

And with the laurel branches gay

Thou well may'st crown thy festive hair!

"Thy foe has sunk beneath the spear, -

I'm sent to bear the glad news here,

By thy true marshal Polydore."

Then from a basin black he takes -

The fearful sight their terror wakes -

A well-known head besmeared with gore.

The king with horror stepped aside,

And then with anxious look replied:

"Thy bliss to fortune ne'er commit.

On faithless waves, bethink thee how

Thy fleet with doubtful fate swims now -

How soon the storm may scatter it!"

But ere he yet had spoke the word,

A shout of jubilee is heard

Resounding from the distant strand.

With foreign treasures teeming o'er,

The vessels' mast-rich wood once more

Returns home to its native land.

The guest then speaks with startled mind:

"Fortune to-day, in truth, seems kind;

But thou her fickleness shouldst fear:

The Cretan hordes, well skilled in arms,

Now threaten thee with war's alarms;

E'en now they are approaching here."

And, ere the word has 'scaped his lips,

A stir is seen amongst the ships,

And thousand voices" Victory!"cry:

We are delivered from our foe,

The storm has laid the Cretan low,

The war is ended, is gone by!"

The shout with horror hears the guest:

"In truth, I must esteem thee blest!

Yet dread I the decrees of heaven.

The envy of the gods I fear;

To taste of unmixed rapture here

Is never to a mortal given.

"With me, too, everything succeeds;

In all my sovereign acts and deeds

The grace of Heaven is ever by;

And yet I had a well-loved heir -

I paid my debt to fortune there -

God took him hence - I saw him die.

"Wouldst thou from sorrow, then, be free

Pray to each unseen Deity,

For thy well-being, grief to send;

The man on whom the Gods bestow

Their gifts with hands that overflow,

Comes never to a happy end.

"And if the Gods thy prayer resist,

Then to a friend's instruction list, -

Invoke thyself adversity;

And what, of all thy treasures bright,

Gives to thy heart the most delight -

That take and cast thou in the sea!"

Then speaks the other, moved by fear:

"This ring to me is far most dear

Of all this isle within it knows -

I to the furies pledge it now,

If they will happiness allow" -

And in the flood the gem he throws.

And with the morrow's earliest light,

Appeared before the monarch's sight

A fisherman, all joyously;

"Lord, I this fish just now have caught,

No net before e'er held the sort;

And as a gift I bring it thee."

The fish was opened by the cook,

Who suddenly, with wondering look,

Runs up, and utters these glad sounds .

"Within the fish's maw, behold,

I've found, great lord, thy ring of gold!

Thy fortune truly knows no bounds!"

The guest with terror turned away.

"I cannot here, then, longer stay, -

My friend thou canst no longer be!

The gods have willed that thou shouldst die

Lest I, too, perish, I must fly" -

He spoke, - and sailed thence hastily.

Thanks for reading!