> [[rite]]. "The Indo-European Religious Background of the Gygēs Tale in Hērodotos". _Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics_, 8(1) > [escholarship.org](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6245k9z5) ## Abstract > In his exposition to the story of Kroisos in the first book of his _Histories_, Hērodotos narrates the rise of the Mermnad dynasty of Lydia through an act of assassination and usurpation by their founder, Gygēs. Commentators on Hērodotos’s text have seemingly neglected the resonances between the tale of Gygēs and the ancient Eurasian religious ideology of the sacred marriage, which conceptualized sovereign power as a goddess wedded to a male sovereign. This paper seeks to place the Gygēs narrative within the context of Indo-European traditions of the sacred marriage, suggesting that its origins lie in historicized myth. ## Contents **What is the Sacred Marriage? Kybelē – Sovereignty in Anatolia Medb – Sovereignty in Ireland Pallas Athēnā – Sovereignty in Greece Mādhavī – Virginity and Royalty in India The Ritual Gift and the Mead of Sovereignty King Sacrifice and Threefold Death The Sovereignty of Gygēs The Sovereignty of Gygēs beyond Hērodotos Conclusions Bibliography**