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[1]
So he took possession of the sovereign power and was confirmed in it by the Delphic oracle. For when the Lydians took exception to what was done to Candaules, and took up arms, the faction of Gyges came to an agreement with the rest of the people that if the oracle should ordain him king of the Lydians, then he would reign; but if not, then he would return the kingship to the Heraclidae.
So he took possession of the sovereign power and was confirmed in it by the Delphic oracle. For when the Lydians took exception to what was done to Candaules, and took up arms, the faction of Gyges came to an agreement with the rest of the people that if the oracle should ordain him king of the Lydians, then he would reign; but if not, then he would return the kingship to the Heraclidae.
[2] The oracle did so ordain, and
Gyges thus became king. However, the
Pythian priestess declared that the
Heraclidae would have vengeance on
Gyges' posterity in the fifth generation; an utterance to which the
Lydians and their kings paid no regard until it was fulfilled.
Histories. Herodotus. ed. A.D. Godley. Cambridge. 1920-1925.
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