Jacob Jordaens's 1646 painting of King Candaules, a story told by Herodotus

Ever heard of candaulism? It is a psychopathological syndrome manifesting itself in the desire to show strangers the nakedness of one's partner. In our own day, this pathology is not infrequently encountered on Instagram.

Yet as early as 1646 one could learn of such a deviation from the canvas of an outstanding master. An example is the painting "Candaules, King of Lydia, Secretly Showing His Wife Gyges to One of His Servants as She Goes to Bed" by Jacob Jordaens, a Flemish artist of the 17th century.

The story of Candaules, King of Lydia, is told by Herodotus. It is simple and dreadful: the king was proud of his wife's beauty and ordered a guard named Gyges to observe covertly as she undressed in the bedchamber. The queen noticed her husband's baseness and resolved on revenge: she offered the spying soldier a choice between killing the king and marrying her, or being put to death. Gyges chose life with the beautiful queen and put Candaules to death.

Report a translation error

A literacy circle for housewives in a 1931 photograph from the photo-essay "24 Hours in the Life of the Filippov Family"

Something tells me, on this day of splendid quotations from presidents, that in response to the call not to allow society to be divided into a thinking intellectual elite and people who will find themselves in the second or third rank in their level of intellectual development zealous executors, should

Screenshot of a news item: at a rally in Nebraska Trump suggested Iran could destroy Los Angeles and San Diego.

The Voronezh meme recurs in Trump's remarks on Iran and Los Angeles

The Voronezh meme finds a new incarnation, this time in a country of the First World

Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

Our time needs men and women who have the courage to do good, even when it involves sacrifice. Draw near to those who are lonely, support the weary and seek out those who have lost their way. Have the courage to forgive, to begin anew and to enter into dialogue.

Old colour photograph with cracks: adults and children resting on the grass on a slope under a tree.

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

The Orientalist Grigory Alexandrovich Kozakov, surrounded by his relatives, his daughter-in-law Countess Anna Nikolayevna Tolstaya, the children and their tutor, at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

Read more

A literacy circle for housewives in a 1931 photograph from the photo-essay "24 Hours in the Life of the Filippov Family"

The Voronezh meme recurs in Trump's remarks on Iran and Los Angeles

Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903