He consulted a soothsayer about his alarming prosperity, who advised
him to inflict some deliberate loss or sacrifice upon himself; so
Polycrates drew from his finger and flung into the sea a signet-ring
which he possessed, with a jewel of great rarity and beauty in it.
Soon afterwards a fish was caught by the royal fisherman, and was
served up at the king's table--there, inside the body of the fish,
was the ring; and when Polycrates saw that, he felt that the gods
had restored him his gift, and that his destruction was determined
upon; which came true, for he was caught by pirates at sea, and
crucified upon a rocky headland.
No nation, and least of all the Greeks, would have arrived at this
theory of life and fate, if they had not felt that it was supported
by actual instances. It was of the nature of an inference from the
facts of life; and the explanation undoubtedly is that men do get
betrayed, by a constant experience of good fortune, into rashness
and heedlessness, because they trust to their luck and depend upon
their fortunate star.
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