The Ring of Gyges

A-Preparation/Warming

Activity 1: The facilitator asks the participants to come together in a circle and distributes pencils. Before the workshop starts, he/she asks them to read the sentences on the papers posted on the walls and to put a mark next to the ones they find true.

1-If you do not fight against difficulties with all your strength, you will not succeed.
2- One can do anything to keep power.
3- Power should be concentrated in one person for people's happiness.
4- The underdog is always oppressed
5- He who does not use his power for good loses it
6- The strong is right
7- The weak should respect the strong.
8- We cannot prevail against enemies unless we concentrate all power in one person.
9- It is always beneficial to be on the side of the strong.
10- Power changes people
11- Whoever is in power is right

The three sentences they find most correct are written on the board. Then, a concept network is created by asking the question "What is power?" based on these three sentences.

Activity 2: The facilitator tells the story of Gyges' ring.
What would you do if you had such a ring?
The facilitator notes what the participants say on the board.
If someone else had this ring, what do you think they should do?
These are also noted on the board. The participants are asked whether there is a difference, whether what needs to be done has changed depending on who has the power, and if so, what could be the reason.

B-Revitalization

Activity 3: The facilitator divides the participants into two groups.
The facilitator asks what do you think might have happened in the country when Gyges, who was an ordinary shepherd at the beginning, was given such an absolute power? The groups are told to discuss this question among themselves and create a fiction. Then, the groups act out their dramatizations.

Activity 4: The facilitator says that Gyges killed the king and all those who opposed him with the power provided by the ring and declared himself the new king and started to rule the country as he wanted.
The facilitator forms two groups. Participants are asked to discuss and fictionalize "What could people have done against Gyges afterwards?". The reenactments of the groups are watched.
C- Evaluation

Activity 5: The facilitator asks the participants the following questions for discussion:
Thinking about the story of Gyges, if good and evil can change according to whether we are powerful or powerless, how can we understand whether we are actually good or evil?
Do you think it would be right for a person or a small group of people to hold such power in a place where we cannot know?
Are there people in the real world (at school, at home, in social life) who hold such great power?
Should the government of a country be given complete power? For what reasons can it be given away and for what reasons cannot it be given away?

Activity 6: The facilitator distributes red pens to the participants. The facilitator asks the participants to read the sentences on the papers hanging on the wall once again and this time put a mark next to the sentences that you think are absolutely wrong.

Activity 7: Facilitator; Gyges' kingdom is finally destroyed. What do you think people should do with the ring of power? Participants are asked to prepare a constitution on the use of this ring for the new country to be established. Participants are divided into four groups and given time to write the articles of the constitution by explaining their reasons after determining the form of government of the country to be established. The constitutions of all groups are visualized in the field.