Gyges asks the Queen to join in the dancing. She takes a cup and empties it as if to drown her thoughts. She dances in a trance and empties another cup, which is filled by the ghost of Candaules, who suddenly tears the crown from her head. Terrified, she swoons and Gyges hurries to her side and endeavours to lead her to her throne, but again, the ghost appears. Nisia, panic-stricken, runs among the dancers, who cannot see the reason for her fear. At last, exhausted, she falls in Gyges's arms, but the ghost points to his grave, where he awaits his guilty wife. A deathly pallor steals over her features and she sinks to the ground dead. Gyges, overcome with grief, tries to restore her to life. At this moment, Pythia appears. She tells Gyges not to grieve, but to thank Heaven for having preserved him from death and she indicates a cup of poison that Nisia had prepared for him.