Midas

Midas, in Greek and Roman legend, a king of Phrygia, known for his foolishness and greed. The stories of Midas, part of the Dionysiac cycle of myths, belonged to a broader classical tradition in which tales of gods and legendary figures circulated through dramatic performance and written literature. First elaborated in the burlesques of the Athenian satyr plays, the tales of Midas are familiar to modern readers through the late classical versions, such as those in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book XI.

Family

Midas was regarded as the son of Gordius (or Gordias), generally considered the founder of the Phrygian city of Gordium and originator of the Gordian knot. Midas’s mother was identified as either Gordius’s unnamed wife or the goddess Cybele. Midas ascended the throne after his father, and it was as king of Phrygia that he appeared in the two famous legends about him.

The golden touch

The first written reference to Midas’s golden touch appeared in Aristotle’s Politics (4th century bce). According to this and other versions of the myth, Midas found the wandering Silenus, the satyr and companion of the god Dionysus. For his kind treatment of Silenus, Midas was rewarded by Dionysus with a wish. The king wished that all he touched might turn to gold, but when his food became gold and he nearly starved to death as a result, he realized his error. Dionysus then granted him release by having him bathe in the Pactolus River (near Sardis in modern Turkey), an action to which the presence of alluvial gold in that stream is attributed.

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Britannica Quiz

From Athena to Zeus: Basics of Greek Mythology

In some accounts, Midas did not survive his golden touch and did indeed starve to death. In other variants he died by suicide after drinking ox blood.

The ass’s ears

In another story the king was asked to judge a musical contest between the gods Apollo and Pan. When Midas decided against Apollo, the god changed his ears into those of an ass. Midas concealed them under a turban and made his barber swear to tell no living soul. The barber, bursting with his secret, whispered it into a hole in the ground. He filled in the hole, but reeds grew from the spot and broadcast the sibilant secret—“Midas has ass’s ears”—when the wind blew through them.