Candaules, King of Lydia, Shows his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, As She Goes to Bed by William Etty. This image illustrates Herodotus's version of the tale of Gyges.
Candaulism is a sexual practice or fantasy in which a man exposes his female partner, or images of her, to other people for their voyeuristic pleasure. According to Gugitz, the term is derived from ancient King Candaules who made a plot to show his unaware naked wife to his servant Gyges of Lydia. After discovering Gyges while he was watching her naked, Candaules' wife ordered him to choose between killing himself and killing her husband in order to repair the vicious mischief.
Sometimes this behavior is taken to the point of allowing complete sexual relations, a practice defined by many English speaking people as swinging. A related term is cuckoldry, which is distinct in that it involves a control difference between the partner that is having sex outside the couple and the partner who is not. In certain cases the relation evolves into a stable union of three persons that is known as ménage à trois.
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