Midas
Midas (/ˈmaɪdəs/; Ancient Greek: Μίδας) was a king of Phrygia with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house.
[1] The legends told about this Midas and his adopted father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city Gordium and tying the Gordian Knot, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the Trojan War.
Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the Mushki in Assyrian texts, who warred with Assyria and its Anatolian provinces during the same period.
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".
[13] In other versions of the legend, it was Midas' father Gordias who arrived humbly in the cart and made the Gordian Knot.
[15][16] One day, as Ovid relates in Metamorphoses XI,[17] Dionysus found that his old schoolmaster and foster father, the satyr Silenus, was missing.
This explained why the river Pactolus was so rich in gold and electrum, and the wealth of the dynasty of Alyattes of Lydia claiming Midas as its forefather no doubt the impetus for this origin myth.
[21] 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.
[22] Midas, now hating wealth and splendor, moved to the country and became a worshipper of Pan, the god of the fields and satyrs.
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.
[25] 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.
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.
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".
[26] 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.
[29] In Ireland, at Loch Ine, West Cork, there is a similar story told of the inhabitant of its island, who had ass's ears.
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.
[30] Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC, up until the sacking of Gordium by the Cimmerians, when he is said to have committed suicide.
Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the Mushki in Assyrian texts, who warred with Assyria and its Anatolian provinces during the same period.
Assyrian tablets from the reign of Sargon II record attacks by a "Mita", king of the Mushki, against Assyria's eastern Anatolian provinces.
Some historians believe Assyrian texts called this Midas king of the "Mushki" because he had subjected the eastern Anatolian people of that name and incorporated them into his army.
[34] They discovered a royal burial, its timbers dated as cut to about 740 BC[35] complete with remains of the funeral feast and "the best collection of Iron Age drinking vessels ever uncovered".
On the remains of a wooden coffin in the northwest corner of the tomb lay a skeleton of a man 1.59 metres in height and about 60 years old.
As this funerary monument was erected before the traditional date given for the death of King Midas in the early 7th century BC, it is now generally thought to have covered the burial of his father.
