The Midas Touch
One evening, King Midas of Phrygia was walking around his beautiful rose garden, when he heard some snoring coming from a bush. He peered into the undergrowth, and saw a satyr sleeping there, with an empty bottle of wine in his hand. Satyrs were special companions to two very important gods, and they had horse ears and a horse tail. The king ordered his servants to bring the satyr inside, and to bring him to eat breakfast as soon as he woke.
In the morning, the satyr awoke, and the servants duly brought him to King Midas. "My name is Silenus," said the satyr. "I'm sorry I fell asleep in your garden, but I was lost... I think I may have had too much wine last night, you know, but Dionysus does put on the very best of parties!"
At the mention of the name "Dionysus" - a powerful god of Olympus - Midas sat up and started to pay attention to the satyr. "Here, please help yourself to some breakfast," he said, snapping his fingers and ordering his servants to lay out the finest food they could offer.
Silenus ate and drank with the king, and was feeling much better when finally he said, "I think it's about time I get back to Dionysus - he doesn't like to be kept waiting, after all." Silenus furrowed his brow, then added, "but I might need your help to find him: all I remember is that it was very close to a small forest." Midas thought for a second, then replied "It's OK, I know the place very well - let my servants dress you in fresh clothes, and we'll set out straight after."
Once Silenus had been given some fine new clothes to wear, and with his belly full of the finest food and drink, he went with Midas to the forest, and there found Dionysus, his party still continuing. Dionysus was very grateful to Midas for taking such good care of his friend, and offered to grant him any wish he wanted.
Thinking for a moment, Midas responded, "My wish is that everything I touch be turned to gold - I'll be so rich I'll be able to live in the grandest palace the world has ever seen!"
Dionysus hesitated for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and said, "it's your wish; if that's what you want, so be it." He clicked his fingers and, in a puff of smoke, he and his entire party disappeared, leaving Midas alone next to the trees. It was almost dark, and for a moment Midas thought he had imagined the whole experience.
Then, laughing uncertainly, he reached out gingerly and touched the leaf of the nearest tree. Immediately, it turned to gold - beautiful, delicate, intricate gold exactly in the shape of the leaf. He laughed again, and brushed his hand across the tree, and all the leaves become golden - his wish had been granted!
Overjoyed with his new power, the king ran home touching trees, flowers, stones and fences as he went, leaving a shining trail of gold in his wake. When he got home, he immediately started touching the walls of his palace, turning them into solid gold. He even touched the food that was laid out in the kitchen, and even that turned into gold.
Soon the king had to squint his eyes because everything he could see was shining! He could bareful contain himself, and started shouting, "I'm rich! I'm the richest man alive!" before sitting down on his golden throne and laughing - he could hardly believe his fortune!
Awoken by all this noise, his daughter stumbled sleepily into the throne room, and said, "father, what's going on? It's so late, and everyone was asleep!"
The king jumped out of the throne, rushed up his daughter, and gave her a big kiss, saying "all our problems are solved - we're rich!" But as soon as his lips touched his daughter's cheek, she too turned to gold. Her beautiful figure became frozen metal, a look of surprise permanently etched on her face. Midas stepped back, horrified at what he had done. He realised now why Dionysus had hesitated before granting his wish, and with tears in his eyes he ran back to the forest where he had met the god.
There he shouted out, "Please take it back - I don't want this gift... you can take away all the gold I ever had, but please give back my daughter!"
Hearing his words, Dionysus appeared behind the king, and said, "I let you have any wish, and you chose what you chose - don't blame me if it back fired!"
Midas got down on his knees and said, "It was a terrible choice, I can't even eat - everything I touch turns to gold, and my daughter doesn't deserve to pay for my greedy stupidity!"
"I'm sorry," replied Dionysus, "there's nothing I can do to save her. But if you bathe in the river Pactolus nearby, your golden touch will be taken away." And with that, the god disappeared.
Midas did as he was instructed, and as he bathed the sands nearby the river became full of gold dust from him. This gold dust washed downstream until it reached Lydia, which later became the richest kingdom with all the gold. But, in remembrance of his stupidity, the king's ears grew long like those of a donkey. He did his best to hide them by wearing a tall cap, and no one knew of them but his barber, who was told he would be put to death if ever he mentioned the king's donkey ears.
The barber found it hard to keep such an incredible secret, and so one day he went out of town, dug a hole in the ground, and whispered into the hole, "King Midas has the ears of an donkey!" Everything was fine until next year, when some reeds grew up on that very spot - when the wind rustled through the reeds, those who went by could always hear them whisper to one another, "King Midas has the ears of a donkey," and the king's secret was out.
