King Midas The King Who Turns What He Touches into Gold:

In our article on the legends of King Midas, we are talking about a king who lived in history and whose name is enshrined in gold. This king is, of course, King Midas himself!

Midas is the legendary Phrygian king who lived in Gordian, the capital of Phrygia. The legend of King Midas dates returned centuries. One day, old Silenus, one of Dionysus‘ favorite people, passed out in the king’s garden. Seeing this, King Midas takes Silenus to his palace and hosts him nicely.

When Silenus feels better:

King Midas helps him return to the Greek god Dionysus. Dionysus is happy to have Silenus return. He grants King Midas one wish. With a little thought, the king requests the ability to turn everything he touches into gold.

Imagine if everything you touched turned into gold? Sounds great at first, right? However, when you think about it in detail, you realize that everything around you will suddenly become one of the most valuable mines in the world. Although this ability will allow you to attain endless wealth, it also brings a curse.

King Midas soon realizes that this ability is a curse:

When you touch food, it turns into gold. When he tries to drink water, the water turns golden. She desperately asks her servants to pour food and water directly into her mouth. Of course, when it touches your tongue, it all turns into gold.

King Midas Touches

The worst part is that these are just the beginning. Unable to eat or even drink water, King Midas, who was miserable , went to his garden without even knowing what to do. He doesn’t know that his daughter is playing there. When the girl sees her father, she runs to hug him. He hugs his father and turns into gold.

Finally, King Midas desperately runs to Dionysus. He asks God to reverse his wish . Dionysus tells Midas that all he has to do is bathe in the Pactolus River. The king goes to the river and does as he is told. This gift, which turned into a curse , disappears when washed in the Pactolus river. Rumor has it that the golden source of the Pactolus stream, located in Sardes town of Salihli today, which made the Lydians rich, comes from here.

There are different versions of the story. In one of them, when King Midas bathed in the Pactolus stream, everything he had turned into gold until that moment returned to its former state. Also, in another version, everything King Midas touched remained in its golden form as a reminder of his greed.

Justice of King Midas

King Midas is asked to judge a music competition between the Wild God Pan and the Greek God Apollo . Midas gives the vote to Pan. Apollo gets angry because Midas did not vote for him and turns Midas’ ears into donkey ears, saying that he is a person who does not understand beautiful music.

According to legend, King Midas tries to hide his ears. However, one day, when he went to the barber, he noticed Midas’s ear and did not tell anyone about it. But after a while, he couldn’t stand it anymore, so he thought he had to tell it, so he went to a well and shouted Midas’s secret into the well. According to legend, well water reaches everywhere underground. Thus, everyone will be informed through Midas’ ears.

The people begin to make fun of Midas. They constantly offend him with shadow plays or imitations. King Midas cannot stand this anymore and considers having his ears cut off. And it does. However, after a while, he realizes that his ears begin to grow in the form of ivy, looking worse than before. He begs God for help.