Fingolfin's Findings XL: The Ring of Gyges with Reallexikon für Antike & Christentum

On this year's Hobbit Day - Sept 22nd, 2022 - I noticed a tweet (Opens in a new window) from the Franz Joseph Dölger-Institut (Opens in a new window) at the University of Bonn as church historians do not usually have the One Ring (Opens in a new window) in a perfect Blender (Opens in a new window) rendition displayed on their work. 

The Institute is responsible for the Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum (RAC), a leading encyclopedia detailing Christianity in all of its shapes and forms from the first century AD until about AD 650. It was started during WWII and will probably be finished in 2026. The publishing house is planning on making it available online then.

Hefty tomes of an encyclopedia ca. 75 years in the making

Now, the Ring of Gyges (Opens in a new window) has been mentioned a few times in connection with the One Ring due to the fact that it made its bearer invisible. According to the tweets:

(...) the story about the Magic Ring of Gyges, ranging from Plato to Cicero, is an illustration of the discussion wether man would only do good under cumpulson and whether he would act differently if he had ownership of such a ring without this being known (...) [my translation.]

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