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MIDAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 409 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MIDAS , the name of several Phrygian See also:

kings. The first of these was said to have been the son of Gordius and See also:Cybele, whose first See also:priest he was, and in whose See also:honour he founded a See also:temple at See also:Pessinus. Having taken the drunken See also:Silenus back to his youthful See also:charge See also:Dionysus, he was rewarded by the See also:god with the See also:power of transforming everything he touched into See also:gold. Finding himself in danger of See also:starvation, even his See also:food and drink being changed by his See also:touch, Midas entreated Dionysus to take back the See also:gift. By the command of the god he bathed in the See also:river Pactolus, which henceforth became auriferous (See also:Ovid, See also:Melon. xi. 85–145; See also:Hyginus, Fab. 191). Another See also:story connects him with the musical contest between See also:Apollo and See also:Marsyas (or See also:Pan). Having decided against the god, his ears were changed into those of an See also:ass. He concealed them under a Phrygian cap; but the See also:secret was discovered by his See also:barber, who, being unable to keep it, dug a hole in the ground and whispered into it " Midas has the ears of an ass." He then filled up the hole, thinking his secret safe; but the reeds which See also:grew up over the spot proclaimed it to all the See also:world. Midas with the ass's ears was a frequent subject of the See also:Attic satyr-See also:drama. There is no doubt that Midas was the name of one or more real persons around whom religious legends have grown up.

The name " Midas the See also:

king " occurs on a very See also:ancient See also:tomb in the valley of the Sangarius, the legendary seat of the Phrygian See also:kingdom. The Phrygian See also:monarchy was destroyed by the Cimmerians about 67o B.C., and the name Midas became in See also:Greek tradition the representative of this ancient See also:dynasty. On the connexion between Midas and the Attic story see J. G. Frazer, The See also:Golden Bough, ii. 134.

End of Article: MIDAS

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