King Midas in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / King Midas

7 passages from 5 ancient authors that tell of King Midas, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. In Greek mythology, Midas was the name of a king in the region of Phrygia in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. According to the myth, the god Dionysus was ... For the story in one place, read our article on King Midas.

Homer (2)

Homer, Homerica 6.73–85Contest of Homer and Hesiod: Homer's wanderings and deathAfter losing the victory Homer travels from place to place reciting his poems, among them the Thebais, the Epigoni, the Odyssey and the Iliad, and he is entertained at Athens by Medon. At Argos his verses on the Achaeans win him a bronze statue, and at Delos he recites the Hymn to Apollo. Some fishermen then pose him a riddle about their lice that he cannot solve, and he remembers the oracle and composes his own epitaph.
Homer, Homerica 1.1–17EpigramsThese are seventeen short poems ascribed to Homer and preserved in the ancient Life of Homer. They include the epitaph of the bronze maiden on the tomb of Midas, prayers to Poseidon, a curse on the potters' kiln, the swallow song and the fishermen's riddle.

Pindar (1)

Pindar, Pythian Odes 12.1–32Pythian 12: for Midas — Perseus, Medusa and the flutePindar praises Acragas and Midas, flute-player and Pythian victor, and tells how Perseus cut off the head of Medusa and blinded the brood of Phorcus, freeing his mother from Polydectes. He says that Athena made the many-voiced music of the flute to echo the lament of the Gorgons, and gave it to mortals for their contests. The ode ends with the reflection that without toil there is no success, and that fortune is unforeseen.

Aristophanes (1)

Aristophanes, The Wasps 395–470Episode: the wasps attackBdelycleon and Sosias see Philocleon sliding down the rope, and the old man calls on his fellow jurors for help. The chorus bring out their stings and charge, calling Bdelycleon a tyrant, and he summons his slaves Midas, Phryx and Masyntias to hold his father. After a fight in which the slaves use smoke and sticks to drive the wasps off, the chorus cry out against stealthy tyranny.

Ovid (2)

Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85–145Midas and the golden touchDionysus (Bacchus), passing through Phrygia, finds that his old tutor Silenus has been left behind, and King Midas treats him kindly and brings him back. In return Dionysus offers Midas any wish, and he chooses that all he touches turn to gold. When his food turns to gold, he begs to be freed, and Dionysus tells him to wash in the river Pactolus, which carries away the power.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146–193Pan and Apollo; Midas' earsMidas, abhorring riches, follows Pan, who boasts of his piping and challenges Apollo to a contest before the mountain Tmolus. Tmolus judges in favour of Apollo, and Midas alone disagrees, and Apollo gives him the ears of an ass, which Midas hides under a turban. His barber, unable to keep the secret, whispers it into a hole in the ground, and the reeds that grow there repeat it.

Pausanias (1)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.4.1–6The Gauls at Thermopylae and Delphi; origins of PergamumPausanias digresses to describe the Gauls (Celts) of the far north and their invasion of Greece. The Athenians under Callippus hold Thermopylae, but the Gauls cross Mount Oeta by the path Ephialtes once showed the Medes and march on Delphi, where thunderbolts, falling rocks and phantom warriors, among them Pyrrhus son of Achilles, drive them back. The survivors cross to Asia, take Ancyra and Pessinus and settle in Galatia, until the Pergamenians drive them from the coast; he sketches Pergamene history.