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Mythographia

    Source Verification: Midas

    Every claim below is either what a named ancient source attests, in its own line or section, or a point where the sources themselves disagree.

    What the Sources Attest

    What is the real story of King Midas?

    The fullest ancient telling is Ovid's Metamorphoses. Midas, king of Phrygia, returns the drunken Silenus to Dionysus and is offered any reward. He asks that everything he touches turn to gold, then cannot eat when his bread and wine turn to gold as well. Dionysus lets him wash the gift away in a river near Sardis. Later he prefers Pan's music to Apollo's and is given ass's ears. Herodotus's Histories also treats a Midas son of Gordias as a real Phrygian king who sent his judgment seat to Delphi.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85-145

    Is King Midas good or bad?

    The ancient sources show a generous but foolish king, not a villain. Ovid's Midas welcomes Silenus kindly and feasts him for ten days, which is why Dionysus rewards him. Then he makes an ill-advised wish, and the god grieves that he did not ask for something better. Once the gold starves him, he admits his fault and hates his wealth. Ovid still calls his mind dull, and his verdict against Apollo earns him ass's ears. In Hyginus, too, Apollo punishes his judgment, not any crime.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85-145

    Who did Midas turn to gold?

    In the ancient sources, nobody. Ovid's Metamorphoses has Midas turn a twig, a stone, grain and an apple to gold. Then his own food and drink turn: bread, meat and wine. Hyginus's Fabulae says only that whatever he touched in his palace became gold, until hunger tormented him. The daughter who becomes a golden statue comes from Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, written in 1851. His narrator admits that nobody but himself ever heard of her, and that he named her Marygold.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.106-130

    Why did Apollo give Midas donkey ears?

    Because Midas disputed a musical verdict. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pan challenges Apollo on Mount Tmolus, and the mountain god Tmolus awards the prize to Apollo's lyre. Only Midas calls the judgment unjust. Apollo will not let such dull ears keep a human shape and turns them into the ears of a slow-moving ass. Hyginus's Fabulae names Apollo's rival as Marsyas or Pan, and has Apollo say that Midas will have ears to match the mind he showed in judging.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146-179

    Who told the secret of Midas's ears?

    In Ovid's Metamorphoses it was the servant who trimmed the king's hair, the barber of later retellings. Midas hid his ears under a purple headdress, but this servant saw them. Unable to keep quiet, he dug a hole, whispered what he had seen into the earth and filled it in. Reeds grew over the spot, and about a year later they repeated his words in the south wind. Hyginus's Fabulae mentions the ears but tells nothing of the servant or the reeds.

    Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.180-193

    Where Accounts Differ

    • Pan or Marsyas in the musical contest
    • how Silenus was caught
    • a servant or a barber who told the reeds
    • which story comes first
    • how Midas died
    • son of Gordias or of the Mother goddess
    • the daughter turned to gold
    • The musical contest differs by source. Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.146-179) has Pan play against Apollo, with Tmolus as judge and Midas alone objecting to the verdict. Hyginus (Fabulae 191) names Apollo's rival as Marsyas or Pan, and has Midas say the prize should have gone to Marsyas.
    • The sources disagree on how Silenus came to Midas. In Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.89-99) Phrygian countryfolk catch him drunk and bring him to the king. Xenophon's Anabasis (at Thymbrium) and Pausanias (1.4.5, at Ancyra) say Midas caught him by mixing wine into a spring. Herodotus (8.138) says the Macedonians placed the capture in the garden of Midas, without a method. In Hyginus (Fabulae 191) Silenus strays from Dionysus's army and Midas simply hosts him.
    • Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.180-193) calls the man who gave away the secret a servant (famulus) who used to cut the king's hair; the barber of modern retellings is this servant. Hyginus (Fabulae 191) mentions the ass's ears but not the servant or the reeds.
    • Ovid tells the golden touch first and the ass's ears second; Hyginus (Fabulae 191) tells the ears first.
    • The death of Midas is disputed. Aristotle's Politics cites the legend that he died of hunger when his food turned to gold. Strabo's Geography, in its first book, reports that he died by drinking bull's blood during the Cimmerian invasion of Phrygia. Plutarch's On Superstition makes the bull's blood a suicide after troubling dreams. Ovid and Hyginus tell no death.
    • His parentage differs. Herodotus (1.14, 8.138) and Pausanias (1.4.5) call him the son of Gordias or Gordius; Hyginus (Fabulae 191) calls him the son of the Mother goddess.
    • No ancient source gives Midas a daughter turned to gold. Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.106-130) and Hyginus (Fabulae 191) turn only objects and food to gold. The daughter, Marygold, is Nathaniel Hawthorne's addition in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (preface dated 1851), and his narrator says so.

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85-145
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.89-99
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.100-105
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.106-130
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.131-145
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146-193
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146-179
    • Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.180-193
    • Hyginus, Fabulae 191
    • Herodotus, Histories 1.14
    • Herodotus, Histories 1.35
    • Herodotus, Histories 8.138
    • Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.4.5