146 THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
- These words of Croesus at first may strike the modern reader as extremely cruel, but
he means only that he cannot consider the other boy, who is deaf and mute, as his
son in the same way. We are told elsewhere that Croesus did everything for the un-
fortunate boy, but his hopes, both domestic and political, rested in Atys. - Solon held office in Athens as archon extraordinary in 594, and his travels took place
at some time after that date; his death occurred in the years following 560. Croesus
did not become king of Sardis until ca. 560, and he was defeated by Cyrus in 546. - For a modern retelling of the myth of Gyges and Candaules, see Frederic Raphael,
The Hidden I: A Myth Revisited, with original drawings by Sarah Raphael (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1990).