King Midas, a golden myth

Of all the myths that the Kingdom of Phrygia has given us, the most famous is the one that tells the story of King Midas. The legend contains an enriching message and a historical motif.

At the end of the second millennium BC, the Hittite Empire collapsed on the Anatolian peninsula, following attacks by the enigmatic Sea Peoples. The power vacuum was taken advantage of by different groups, including the Phrygians, from the Balkans. The Phrygian Kingdom will bequeath to the Ancient World part of its culture and legends, some of which have survived to this day.. From expressions such as “Gordian knot”, referring to problems that require creative solutions, through the classic Phrygian cap, mistakenly symbol of republicanism, to its most famous king: Midas.

The reign of the mythical King Midas must have been approximately in the 8th century BC. C. and marked the culmination of Phrygian power. During this time, Anatolia established strong and frequent relations with the Greek world. It will be through Greek stories, or from the interpretations that the Romans made of them, that we will know the history of this town.

A timeless legend

It will be precisely the Roman poet Ovid who gives us the definitive version of the myth. According to his lyrics, Midas would have been a monarch who managed to capture the genius Silenus. He lived free in a garden in Macedonia, but he could not escape the cunning of Midas, who replaced the water from the fountain where Silenus drank with wine. Already intoxicated, he was able to capture it without difficulty, and it was then that he understood its nature. He then decided to give it to Dionysus, who, delighted to recover it, decided to give Midas whatever gift he desired.

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At first, the ability to transform objects fascinated him. He began to turn all kinds of objects into golden metal, first the poorest ones and then the very elements of his palace. Still joyful, he metamorphosed ears of cereal, fruits into even the water that slipped in his hands. But as is well known, the gift contained a ruse; Thus, when he needed to eat or drink his own food, it did not resist his contact.. In Ovid’s story, Dionysus accepts the humility discovered by the king and rids him of his fateful talent in a bath in the river Pactolus.

“May everything I touch with my body become shining gold.”

-King Midas in the Metamorphosis XI, 85 Ovid-

Who is Midas?

Perhaps the story has survived to this day because of its effectiveness in denouncing greed. Far from being an unrealistic fantasy, the story of Midas is that of those who value wealth more than human needs. The teaching he transmits is none other than one of the first expositions of the thousand-times-repeated sentence “money does not buy happiness.” in the same way that gold does not satisfy the soul. After all, gold cannot be eaten.

Beyond the myth, King Midas

The story is obviously legendary, but the links to the character can be traced. Of all the kings of Phrygia, Midas was the most powerful, and also the richest. Both their lands of origin and the establishment of the Phrygians at the time were rich in gold deposits. In the eyes of its Greek neighbors it must have been a splendid kingdom.

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But Midas’ success had nothing to do with the intervention of Dionysus. The complex balance of power in the Middle East and Asia Minor was seen by the ruler as a possibility for promotion.

We know that he intrigued against Sargon, the Assyrian king, and to do so he collaborated with Armenia. He also sought to expand into Cilicia and support popular uprisings in Cappadocia. All this did not prevent, at the time of his greatest power, from ignoring allies like Urartu in pursuit of the protection of ancient enemies like Assyria. It was political intelligence, and not gold, the great key to his success.

The death of Midas

Perhaps fearful of the gods, perhaps eager to demonstrate his power, his luxurious offerings to the sanctuary of Delphi were narrated to us by Herodotus. Contrary to some versions of his fable, Midas did not die of starvation or turn himself into gold.. At one point, crisis and invasions reached his kingdom and the Assyrians denied him his protection. Thus, before being murdered, the king decided to ingest a deadly poison.

His kingdom would still survive several decades until it disappeared as an independent entity. His tomb would still await the arrival of Alexander the Great, who would cut the impossible-to-untie Gordian knot that tied his funeral chariot. He signals that he would be the conqueror of Asia.