King Midas

Midas was a king of Phrygia in Greek mythology, remembered for two stories told most fully by Ovid: the wish that turned everything he touched to gold, and the donkey’s ears Apollo gave him after he disagreed with a musical verdict. Greek writers also treat him as a real Phrygian ruler who sent an offering to Delphi.

Family and Kingdom

Herodotus calls Midas the son of Gordias and says he was king of Phrygia (Herodotus, Histories 1.14); Pausanias agrees that he was the son of Gordius and says he founded Ancyra (Pausanias 1.4.5). Hyginus adds that his mother was the Mother of the Gods, the Phrygian goddess whom the Greeks identified with Cybele (Hyginus, Fabulae 191). The names alternate in the family: Herodotus also mentions a Gordias who was the son of a Midas (Histories 1.35). Strabo places the old homes of Midas and Gordius on the river Sangarius in Phrygia (Geography 12.5.3).

Herodotus also mentions a place called the garden of Midas in Macedonia, “where roses grow of themselves, each bearing sixty blossoms and of surpassing fragrance”, and says that, according to the Macedonian story, Silenus was captured there (Histories 8.138).

The Golden Touch of King Midas

King Midas with Silenus

In Ovid’s account, Dionysus left the fields and went with his band to the Pactolus. His old companion Silenus was missing: staggering with age and wine, and Phrygian farmers caught him, bound him with garlands and led him to Midas. Midas knew him at once, because Orpheus and the Athenian Eumolpus had taught him the rites of Dionysus. He feasted Silenus for ten days and nights, and on the eleventh took him to Lydia and gave him back to his foster-son Dionysus (Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85–99).

Hyginus tells it differently. In his version Silenus had strayed while Dionysus was leading his army to India, and Midas received him generously and sent a guide with him to the god’s company (Hyginus, Fabulae 191).

Midas’ Wish

Dionysus was glad to have Silenus back and let Midas choose a gift. Ovid calls the offer pleasing but useless: Midas asked that whatever his body touched should turn to gold, and Dionysus granted it, sorry that he had not asked for something better (Metamorphoses 11.100–105). Hyginus gives the same wish as a reward for Midas’ kindness to Silenus.

Midas went off delighted and tried it. A twig of holm-oak, a stone, a clod of earth, ears of grain and an apple all turned to gold; the doorposts of his house seemed to shine, and the water he washed his hands in ran like the golden shower that fell on Danae (Metamorphoses 11.106–117).

Midas’ Dinner

His servants set a table with food. Bread became hard gold in his hand, the meat gleamed yellow when his teeth met it, and the wine he mixed with water flowed through his mouth as liquid gold. Rich and wretched at once, Midas now hated what he had asked for; no wealth eased his hunger and thirst, and the gold tormented him (Metamorphoses 11.118–130).

Midas takes a bath

He raised his arms to Dionysus, confessed his mistake and begged to be rescued from his splendid affliction. The god took pity. He told Midas to go to the river near great Sardis, follow it upstream to its source, and put his head and body under the foaming spring to wash away his fault. Midas did so, and the power of gold passed from his body into the water; for that reason, Ovid says, the fields around the river still turn pale with gold (Metamorphoses 11.131–145). Hyginus names the river as the Pactolus in Lydia, which he says was afterwards called Chrysorrhoas, “gold-flowing” (Fabulae 191). Herodotus and Strabo confirm that the Pactolus, which rises on Mount Tmolus, carried gold dust (Herodotus 5.101; Strabo, Geography 13.4.5).

“King Midas Has an Ass’s Ears…”

After this Midas hated wealth and lived in the woods and fields, following Pan in his mountain caves. But, Ovid says, his wit stayed dull (Metamorphoses 11.146–149).

On Mount Tmolus, which overlooks Sardis, Pan boasted of his piping and challenged Apollo. The mountain Tmolus sat as judge. Pan played on his reed pipes, and his rough tune delighted Midas, who happened to be listening. Then Apollo, crowned with laurel and holding his lyre, played, and Tmolus awarded him the victory; everyone approved except Midas, who called the verdict unjust (Metamorphoses 11.150–174).

Apollo would not let such ears stay human. He stretched them out, filled them with whitish hair, made them movable, and gave Midas the ears of a slow-walking donkey; the rest of him stayed as it was (Metamorphoses 11.174–179). Hyginus gives the same punishment in a different contest: Tmolus judged between Apollo and Marsyas (or Pan), Midas said the prize should have gone to Marsyas, and Apollo told him that he would have ears to match the mind he had shown in judging (Fabulae 191).

Midas tried to hide his shame under a purple turban. The slave who cut his hair saw the ears, did not dare to tell anyone and could not keep quiet, so he dug a hole in the ground, whispered what he had seen into it, and filled it in. A grove of reeds grew there, and when it matured, a light south wind made the reeds repeat the buried words and give away the king’s secret (Metamorphoses 11.180–193).

The End of Midas

Strabo reports a story that Midas died by drinking bull’s blood, in the time of the Cimmerian raids into Phrygia and Paphlagonia (Geography 1.3.21). Herodotus records that Midas offered his royal throne, the seat on which he gave judgment, at Delphi, and that Gyges of Lydia was the next foreign king to give gifts there (Histories 1.14). Strabo says that the wealth of Midas came from the mines around Mount Bermion (Geography 14.5.28).

King Midas Sources

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85–193; Hyginus, Fabulae 191; Herodotus, Histories 1.14, 1.35, 5.101 and 8.138; Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.4.5; Strabo, Geography 1.3.21, 12.5.3, 13.4.5 and 14.5.28.

See Also: Silenus, Pan, Dionysus, Apollo, Marsyas, Eumolpus