Midas << MY duhs >> was a character in Greek mythology. He was king of Phrygia, an ancient country in central Asia Minor. The god Dionysus gave Midas the power to turn everything he touched into gold, because he had helped Dionysus’s teacher Silenus (see Dionysus).
At first, Midas’s miraculous power pleased him. But soon it became a curse, because even his food turned to gold the moment he touched it. He prayed to Dionysus to help him, and the god told him to bathe in the river Pactolus. Midas washed himself, and the magic touch left him. But the sands of the river turned to gold.
Midas acted as judge at a musical contest between Apollo and Pan (see Apollo; Pan). He awarded the prize to Pan, and Apollo angrily turned Midas’s ears into those of an ass. Midas was ashamed and kept his ears covered. But he could not hide them from the slave who was his barber. The slave did not dare tell anyone about the king’s ears because he feared punishment. He dug a hole and whispered the truth into it. Reeds grew out of the soil and whispered the secret when the wind blew.
The expression to have the Midas touch is used to describe a person who makes money in everything he or she does. A Midas is a wealthy person.
