anim.").
Moreover, Helen of Troy is stated to have worn on one of her fingers a
ring bearing the figure of an " enormous fish," and, finally, the great
Greek painter Polygnotus, a contemporary of Pericles (495-429 b.c.), in
a painting showing the descent of Ulysses into Hades, represented the
youthful Phocus as wearing a ring, set with an engraved gem, on one of
the fingers of his left hand.12 This painting was highly reputed in ancient times, and had been dedicated to Apollo in the shrine at Delphi by the Cnidians.
The
significance of the ring in the fourth century before Christ, as an
ensign of office in Athens, is brought out by a passage in the "
Knights " of the comic poet Aristophanes, where the people, as an
expression of their discontent with the administration of Kleon, demand
that he surrender the ring with which he has been invested, as a proof
that he is no longer entrusted with the office of treasurer.13
A
clever use of a ring is reported to have been made by Ismenias of
Thebes, when he was sent by the Boeotians as an envoy to the Persian
King. Before he was brought into the royal presence he was instructed
by the master of ceremonies that he must prostrate himself before the
sovereign. This act was strongly repugnant to his Greek consciousness,
both as a debasement of his individual dignity, and as an act of divine
homage offered to a mortal. To escape from the dilemma, the envoy, as
he approached the throne, took off his ring and succeeded in dropping
it without attracting too much attention; whereupon he stooped and
picked it up. The Greek onlookers understood the meaning of his action,
while
12 Le Brun-Dalbanne, " Les Pierres gravées du trésor de la cathédrale de Troyes," Paris, 1880, p. 32.
13 Aristophanes, " Knights," Act II, sc. 4.
