Midas
Midas (/ˈmaɪdəs/; Greek: Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house.
His father was
Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the
to have been a member of the royal house of Phrygia in the 6th century BC.Mythological Midas
There are many, and often contradictory, legends about the most ancient King Midas. In one, Midas was king of
According to some accounts, Midas had a son, Lityerses,[10] the demonic reaper of men, but in some variations of the myth he instead had a daughter, Zoë, whose name means "life". [citation needed] According to other accounts he had a son named Anchurus.[11]
Herodotus said that a "Midas son of Gordias" made an offering to the
Golden Touch
One day, as
Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched an oak twig and a stone; both turned to gold. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he touched every rose in the rose garden, and all became gold. He ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. Upon discovering how even the food and drink turned into gold in his hands, he regretted his wish and cursed it. Claudian states in his In Rufinum: "So Midas, king of Lydia, swelled at first with pride when he found he could transform everything he touched to gold; but when he beheld his food grow rigid and his drink harden into golden ice then he understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer."[19]
In a version told by Nathaniel Hawthorne in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (1852), Midas' daughter came to him, upset about the roses that had lost their fragrance and become hard, and when he reached out to comfort her, found that when he touched his daughter, she turned to gold as well. Now, Midas hated the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard his prayer, and consented; telling Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. Then, whatever he put into the water would be reversed of the touch.
Midas did so, and when he touched the waters, the power flowed into the river, and the river sands turned into gold. This explained why the river Pactolus was so rich in gold and
However, according to Aristotle, legend held that Midas eventually died of starvation as a result of his "vain prayer" for the gold touch, the curse never being lifted.[21]
Ears of a donkey
Midas, now hating wealth and splendor, moved to the country and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields and satyrs.[22] Roman mythographers[23] asserted that his tutor in music was Orpheus.
Once, Pan had the audacity to compare his music with that of Apollo, and challenged Apollo to a trial of skill (also see Marsyas). Tmolus, the mountain-god, was chosen as umpire. Pan blew on his pipes and, with his rustic melody, gave great satisfaction to himself and his faithful follower, Midas, who happened to be present. Then Apollo struck the strings of his lyre. Tmolus at once awarded the victory to Apollo, and all but one agreed with the judgment. Midas dissented, and questioned the justice of the award. Apollo would not suffer such a depraved pair of ears any longer, and said "Must have ears of an ass!", which caused Midas's ears to become those of a donkey.[24] The myth is illustrated by two paintings, "Apollo and Marsyas" by Palma il Giovane (1544–1628), one depicting the scene before, and one after, the punishment. Midas was mortified at this mishap. He attempted to hide his misfortune under an ample turban or headdress, but his barber of course knew the secret, so was told not to mention it. However, the barber could not keep the secret. He went out into a meadow, dug a hole in the ground, whispered the story into it, then covered the hole up. A thick bed of reeds later sprang up from the covered up hole, and began whispering the story, saying "King Midas has an ass's ears".[25] Some sources, such as Plutarch, say that Midas committed suicide by drinking bull's blood, a powdered crystal substance which was used in the ancient world as pigment for red paint, but very toxic due to its high level of arsenic.
Sarah Morris demonstrated (Morris, 2004) that donkeys' ears were a Bronze Age royal attribute, borne by King
The stories of the contests with Apollo of Pan and Marsyas were very often confused, so Titian's Flaying of Marsyas includes a figure of Midas (who may be a self-portrait), though his ears seem normal.[26]
Similar myths in other cultures
In pre-Islamic legend of Central Asia, the king of the Ossounes of the
According to an Irish legend, the king
In Ireland, at Loch Ine, West Cork, there is a similar story told of the inhabitant of its island, who had ass's ears. Anyone engaged to cut this King's hair was then put to death. But the reeds (in the form of a musical flute) spoke of them and the secret was out.
The myth is also known in Brittany where the king Mark of Cornwall is believed to have ruled the south-western region of Cornouaille. Chasing a white doe, he loses his best horse Morvarc'h (Seahorse) when the doe kills it with an arrow thrown by Mark. Trying to kill the doe, he is cursed by Dahut, a magician who lives under the sea. She gives life to Morvarc'h back but switches his ears and mane with Mark's ears and hair. Worried that the word might get out, Mark hides in his castle and kills every barber that comes to cut his hair until his milk brother Yeun is the last barber alive in Cornouaille. He promises to let him live if Yeun keeps the secret and Yeun cuts his hairs with a magical pair of scissors. The secret is too heavy for Yeun though and he goes to a beach to dig a hole and tell his secret in it. When he leaves, three reeds appear. Years later, when Mark's sister marries, the musicians are unable to play for the reeds of their bagpipes and bombards have been stolen by korrigans. They find three reeds on the beach and use them to make new ones, but the music instruments, instead of playing music, only sing "The King Mark has the ears and the mane of his horse Morvarc'h on his head" and Mark departs never to be seen again.[29]
Midas (8th century BC)
Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC, up until the
The King Midas who ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC is known from Greek and Assyrian sources. According to the former, he married a Greek princess,
Possible tomb
In 1957,
Midas (6th century BC)
A third Midas is said by Herodotus to have been a member of the royal house of Phrygia and the grandfather of Adrastus, son of Gordias who fled Phrygia after accidentally killing his brother and took asylum in Lydia during the reign of Croesus. Phrygia was by that time a Lydian subject. Herodotus says that Croesus regarded the Phrygian royal house as "friends" but does not mention whether the Phrygian royal house still ruled as (vassal) kings of Phrygia.[38]
See also
- Philosopher's stone, mythical object in Alchemy, purported to transmute base materials into gold
- The Golden Touch, a Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon based on the Greek myth of King Midas
- The Chocolate Touch, a children's book about a boy who turns everything he touches to chocolate
Notes
- ^ In alchemy, the transmutation of an object into gold is known as chrysopoeia.
- ^ "Phrygia, Midaeum - Ancient Greek Coins - WildWinds.com". www.wildwinds.com. Retrieved 2024-04-07.
- ^ Pausanias 1.4.5.
- ^ a b See for example Encyclopædia Britannica; also: "Virtually the only figure in Phrygian history who can be recognized as a distinct individual", begins Lynn E. Roller, "The Legend of Midas", Classical Antiquity, 22 (October 1983):299–313.
- Hyginus, Fabulae 274).
- ^ "Bromium" in Graves 1960:83.a; Greek traditions of the migration from Macedon to Anatolia are examined—as purely literary constructions—in Peter Carrington, "The Heroic Age of Phrygia in Ancient Literature and Art" Anatolian Studies 27 (1977:117–126).
- Macedonin historical times.
- ^ Herodotus, Histories 8.138.1
- ^ Herodotus 7.73
- ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 10.415b, quoting Sositheus
- ^ Plutarch, Parallela minora 5
- ^ Arrian, Alexandri Anabasis, B.3.4–6
- ^ Herodotus I.14.
- ^ "coin - Origins of coins | Britannica". www.britannica.com.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, notes to Penguin edition of Herodotus.
- ^ "OVID, METAMORPHOSES 11 - Theoi Classical Texts Library". www.theoi.com.
- Flavius Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana, vi.27: "Midas himself had some of the blood of satyrsin his veins, as was clear from the shape of his ears; and a satyr once, trespassing on his kinship with Midas, made merry at the expense of his ears, not only singing about them, but piping about them. Well, Midas, I understand, had heard from his mother that when a satyr is overcome by wine he falls asleep, and at such times comes to his senses and will make friends with you; so he mixed wine which he had in his palace in a fountain and let the satyr get at it, and the latter drank it up and was overcome".
- ^ Aelian, Varia Historia iii.18 relates some of Silenus' accounts (Graves 1960:83.b.3).
- ^ Claudian, In Rufinum: "sic rex ad prima tumebat Maeonius, pulchro cum verteret omnia tactu; sed postquam riguisse dapes fulvamque revinctos in glaciem vidit latices, tum munus acerbum sensit et inviso votum damnavit in auro."
- Fabulae274
- ^ Aristotle, Politics 1.1257b
- Flavius Philostratus, in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana (vi.27), not always a dependable repository of myth. (on-line Archived 2016-03-15 at the Wayback Machine)
- Metamorphoses, xi.92f.
- ^ Hyginus, Fabulae 191.
- literary trope: the Sumerian Instructions of Shuruppak (3rd millennium BCE) warn "The reed-beds are ..., they can hide (?) slander". (Instructions of Shuruppak, lines 92–93).
- ISBN 0719541476
- ^ The legend is related in Ella Maillart, Dervla Murphy, Turkestan solo: a journey through Central Asia (1938) 2005:48f; a wholly separate origin uncontaminated by the legend of Midas is not likely.
- ^ Geoffrey Keating, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn 1.29–1.30
- ^ Larvol, Gwenole. Ar Roue Marc'h a zo gantañ war e benn moue ha divskouarn e varc'h Morvarc'h. Saint-Breuc, TES. 2010.
- ^ The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology, Martin Persson Nilsson, University of California Press, 1972, p. 48
- ^ Strabo I.3.21.
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^ Rodney Young, Three Great Early Tumuli: The Gordion Excavations Final Reports, Volume 1, (1981):79–102.
- S2CID 33497945.
- ^ "King Midas' modern mourners". Science News. November 4, 2000.
- .
- ISBN 3-8053-1838-3.
- ^ Herodotus I.35.
References
- Graves, Robert, 1960. The Greek Myths, rev. ed., 83.a-g.
- Sarah Morris, "Midas as Mule: Anatolia in Greek Myth and Phrygian Kingship" (abstract), American Philological Society Annual Meeting, 2004.
- "The Funerary feast of King Midas" (University of Pennsylvania) Archived 2007-02-04 at the Wayback Machine – "Tomb of Midas" report
- Calos Parada, "Midas" – Separating historical Midas from mythical Midas.
- Herodotus on Midas
- Theoi.com Classical references to Midas, in English translations.
- "Reconstruction of King Midas" – Reconstruction of "King Midas" by Richard Neave
Further reading
- Vassileva, Maya. "King Midas: between the Balkans and Asia Minor". In: Dialogues d'histoire ancienne, vol. 23, n°2, 1997. pp. 9–20. . [www.persee.fr/doc/dha_0755-7256_1997_num_23_2_2349]