The term: Candaulism
Poseidon
from Alcaeus, son of Heracles. His father was Myrsus, and he was the
last of the Heraclids to reign at Sardes. Candaules conceived a passion
for his own wife, and thought she was the most beautiful woman on
earth. To this fancy of his there was an unexpected sequel.
In the king's bodyguard was a fellow he particularly liked whose name
was Gyges, son of Dascylus. With him Candaules not only discussed his
most important business, but even used to make him listen to his
eulogies of his wife's beauty.
One day the king said to Gyges: "It appears you don't believe me when I
tell you how lovely my wife is. Well, a man always believes his eyes
better than his ears; so do as I tell you - contrive to see her naked."
Gyges gave a cry of horror. "Master," he said, "what an improper
suggestion! Do you tell me to look at the queen when she has no clothes
on? No, no: 'off with her shirt, off with her shame' - you know what
they say of women. Let us learn from experience. Right and wrong were
distinguished long ago - and I'll tell you one thing that is right: a
man should mind his own business. I do not doubt that your wife is the
most beautiful of women, so for goodness' sake do not ask me to behave
like a criminal." Thus he did his utmost to decline the king's
invitation, because he was afraid of what might happen if he accepted
it.
The king, however, told him not to distress himself. "There is nothing
to be afraid of," he said, "either from me or my wife. I am not laying
a trap for you; and as for her, I promise she will do you no harm. I'll
manage so that she doesn't even know that you have seen her. Look: I
will hide you behind the open door of our bedroom. My wife will follow
me in to bed. Near the door there's a chair - she will put her clothes
on it as she takes them off, one by one. You will be able to watch her
with perfect ease. Then, while she's walking away from the chair
towards the bed with her back to you, slip away through the door - and
mind she doesn't catch you."
Gyges, since he was unable to avoid it, consented, and when bedtime
came, Candaules brought him to the room. Presently the queen arrived,
and Gyges watched her walk in and put her clothes on the chair. Then,
just as she had turned her back and was going to bed, he slipped softly
out of the room. Unluckily, the queen saw him.
At once she realized what her husband had done. But she did not betray
the shame she felt by screaming, or even let it appear that she had
noticed anything. Instead she silently resolved to have her revenge.
[...] For the moment she kept her mouth shut and did nothing; but at
dawn the next morning she sent for Gyges after preparing the most
trustworthy of her servants for what was to come. There was nothing
unusual in his being asked to attend upon the queen; so Gyges answered
the summons without any suspicion that she knew what had occurred on
the previous night.
"Gyges," she said, as soon as he presented himself, "there are two
courses open to you, and you may take your choice between them. Kill
Candaules and seize the throne, with me as your wife; or die yourself
on the spot, so that never again may your blind obedience to the king
tempt you to see what you have no right to see. One of you must die:
either my husband, the author of this wicked plot; or you, who have
outraged propriety by seeing me naked."
For a time Gyges was too astonished to speak. At last he found words
and begged the queen not to force him to make so difficult a choice.
But it was no good: he saw that he really was faced with the
alternatives, either of murdering his master, or of being murdered
himself. He made his choice - to live.
"Tell me," he said, "since you drive me against my will to kill the
king, how shall we set on him?""We will attack him when he is asleep,"
was the answer; "and on the very spot where he showed me to you naked."
All was made ready for the attempt. The queen would not let Gyges go or
give him a chance of escaping the dilemma: either Candaules or he must
die. Night came, and he followed her into the bedroom. She put a knife
into his hand, and hid him behind the same door as before. Then, when
Candaules was asleep, he crept from behind the door and struck.
Thus Gyges usurped the throne and married the queen.
That my friends is the sad story of King candaules, sometimes this
behavior is taken to the extreme point, allowing complete sexual
relations, a practice defined by many English speaking people in the
swinging subculture as cuckoldry. In certain cases the relation evolves
into a stable union of three persons that is known as triolism.
Candaulism is basically a fetish, consisting in the masochistic and/or
sadistic pleasure in which the husband exposes his wife, or pictures of
her, to other voyeurist people
Candaulists in history: Here is a list of seducer, sexually promiscuous
wives, happily married for many years to famous consenting men (who
deliberately ignored, tolerated, approved, encouraged, or even induced
the non innocent nude exposition or promiscuous sexual behavior of
their spouses, all facts fully proven, and widely known to the public).
These persons/characters have a relevance in arts, history, literature,
science, cinema or cartoons, not belong to the world of pornography,
and have stable relationships extending over many years.
* Queen Catherine II of Russia, wife of Peter III of Russia
(history)
* Clodia, wife of the Roman citizen Quintus Caecilius Metellus
Celer (history)
* Faustina the Younger, wife of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius,
mother of emperor M.A. Commodus Antoninus, said to be a son of a
gladiator (history)
* La fornarina, lover of the Italian painter Raffaello da Urbino
(arts)
* Gala Dalí, wife of Spanish painter Salvador Dalí (arts)
* Lady Godiva, wife of king Leofric III (myth, history?)
* Queen Guinevere, wife of mythic British King Arthur; her lover
was Arthur's champion, Sir Lancelot (literature, myth)
* Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé, wife of American nobel
mathematician John Forbes Nash (science)
* Clara Bracken McMillen, wife of American sexologist Alfred Kinsey
(science)
* Valeria Messalina, wife of Roman emperor Claudius (history)
* Marilyn Monroe, actress, wife of baseball player Joe DiMaggio
(cinema, history, sports)
* Marina Punturieri former wife of Marchioness Lante della Rovere
* Marta Marzotto, wife of Italian count Marzotto, lover of painter
Renato Guttuso (arts)
* Madame de Pompadour, wife of the French citizen Charles-Guilaume
Le Normant (history)
* Donna Olimpia Maidalchina, wife of Panfilio Pamphili, brother of
Catholic Pope Innocent X (history)
* Queen Marguerite de Valois married with King Henry IV of France
(history)
* Wallis Simpson, wife of Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
(history)
* Jane Fonda, actress, wife of film director Roger Vadim (cinema,
history, activist)
(thanks Wikipedia)
