The ring of gyges and cloaking technology in Star Trek

Abstract

No human has ever been invisible, a power that in legend is only attributed to gods and spirits. However, the possibilities inherent to the potential human acquisition of invisibility have been explored in several narratives. Plato (427-347 BC) reviewed this in the story of the Ring of Gyges. The myth recounts that Gyges was a shepherd in the service of King Candaules of Lydia. An earthquake exposed a cave mouth which Gyges stumbled upon. He discovered a tomb which contained a giant who wore a golden ring. This gave Gyges invisibility and he used this power to seduce King Candaules’ queen. She then aided him in regicide, whereupon he became king of Lydia. Satanically induced invisibility naturally also leads to wrongdoing. Christopher Marlowe’s Mephastophilis and Faustus become invisible, visit the Vatican, shout insults at the pope, box his ears, beat friars, throw fireworks among them and exit laughing. More recently, Herbert George Wells in his The Invisible Man described a scientist who studied optics and invented a way to change his own refractive index to that of ambient air, thereby becoming invisible. He unfortunately failed to reverse the process, was betrayed by an acquaintance, and embarked on a reign of terror. Even more recently, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit depicted a person who, like Gyges, discovers a ring that confers invisibility. The three sequels (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King) showed that the Ring progressively corrupted its bearer, regardless of the purity of the bearer’s original initial intentions. And most recently, an invisibility cloak is also seen in the Harry Potter series (Rowling). In these narratives, it is almost as if the attainment of invisibility, a superhuman power, is a faustian hubristic desire that deserves the punishment of the gods, resulting in tragedy. This essay will explore invisibility in the Star Trek canon and will show that overall, the same tropes and outcomes are portrayed.