Figures in the ancient sources
King Midas in the ancient sources
16 passages from 12 ancient authors that tell of King Midas, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. In Greek mythology, Midas was the name of a king in the region of Phrygia in Anatolia, modern-day Turkey. According to the myth, the god Dionysus was ... For the story in one place, read our article on King Midas.
Homer (2)
- Homer, Homerica 6.73–85Contest of Homer and Hesiod: Homer's wanderings and deathAfter losing the victory Homer travels from place to place reciting his poems, among them the Thebais, the Epigoni, the Odyssey and the Iliad, and he is entertained at Athens by Medon. At Argos his verses on the Achaeans win him a bronze statue, and at Delos he recites the Hymn to Apollo. Some fishermen then pose him a riddle about their lice that he cannot solve, and he remembers the oracle and composes his own epitaph.
- Homer, Homerica 1.1–17EpigramsThese are seventeen short poems ascribed to Homer and preserved in the ancient Life of Homer. They include the epitaph of the bronze maiden on the tomb of Midas, prayers to Poseidon, a curse on the potters' kiln, the swallow song and the fishermen's riddle.
Pindar (1)
- Pindar, Pythian Odes 12.1–32Pythian 12: for Midas — Perseus, Medusa and the flutePindar praises Acragas and Midas, flute-player and Pythian victor, and tells how Perseus cut off the head of Medusa and blinded the brood of Phorcus, freeing his mother from Polydectes. He says that Athena made the many-voiced music of the flute to echo the lament of the Gorgons, and gave it to mortals for their contests. The ode ends with the reflection that without toil there is no success, and that fortune is unforeseen.
Aristophanes (1)
- Aristophanes, The Wasps 395–470Episode: the wasps attackBdelycleon and Sosias see Philocleon sliding down the rope, and the old man calls on his fellow jurors for help. The chorus bring out their stings and charge, calling Bdelycleon a tyrant, and he summons his slaves Midas, Phryx and Masyntias to hold his father. After a fight in which the slaves use smoke and sticks to drive the wasps off, the chorus cry out against stealthy tyranny.
Ovid (2)
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.85–145Midas and the golden touchDionysus (Bacchus), passing through Phrygia, finds that his old tutor Silenus has been left behind, and King Midas treats him kindly and brings him back. In return Dionysus offers Midas any wish, and he chooses that all he touches turn to gold. When his food turns to gold, he begs to be freed, and Dionysus tells him to wash in the river Pactolus, which carries away the power.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.146–193Pan and Apollo; Midas' earsMidas, abhorring riches, follows Pan, who boasts of his piping and challenges Apollo to a contest before the mountain Tmolus. Tmolus judges in favour of Apollo, and Midas alone disagrees, and Apollo gives him the ears of an ass, which Midas hides under a turban. His barber, unable to keep the secret, whispers it into a hole in the ground, and the reeds that grow there repeat it.
Pausanias (1)
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.4.1–6The Gauls at Thermopylae and Delphi; origins of PergamumPausanias digresses to describe the Gauls (Celts) of the far north and their invasion of Greece. The Athenians under Callippus hold Thermopylae, but the Gauls cross Mount Oeta by the path Ephialtes once showed the Medes and march on Delphi, where thunderbolts, falling rocks and phantom warriors, among them Pyrrhus son of Achilles, drive them back. The survivors cross to Asia, take Ancyra and Pessinus and settle in Galatia, until the Pergamenians drive them from the coast; he sketches Pergamene history.
Conon (1)
- Conon, Narrations 0.1–8.1Midas, Byblis and the LocriansPhotius' preface introduces Conon's fifty narrations, dedicated to King Archelaus Philopator. The first stories tell how Midas' gold and ass's ears gave the Phrygians their name, how Byblis became a spring, and how Locrus founded the Italian Locri. Others treat Olynthus, the cicada that won Eunomus a contest, the rivalry of Mopsus and Calchas, the blinding of Thamyris and the death of Canobus.
Herodotus (1)
- Herodotus, Histories 1.34–45Atys and AdrastusA dream told Croesus that his son Atys would die by an iron spear-point, so he kept weapons away from him. Adrastos, a Phrygian who had killed his brother, was cleansed by Croesus and made guardian of Atys on a boar hunt. Adrastos' spear missed the boar and killed Atys. Croesus forgave him, but Adrastos killed himself upon the tomb.
Hyginus (1)
- Hyginus, Fabulae 185–191Atalanta, Melanippe, Alope, Theophane, Procris, Theonoe and MidasAtalanta's race and her transformation, the story of Melanippe's twin sons, Alope and her son Hippothous, and Theophane and the golden ram. Procris and Cephalus, the recognition scenes in the tale of Theonoe and Leucippe, and King Midas complete the group.
Lucian of Samosata (1)
- Lucian of Samosata, Dialogues of the Dead 1.1–5.2A message for Menippus; Charon's fare; the Cynic's neighbours; Cerberus; the beautiesDiogenes asks Pollux to tell Menippus to come down and laugh at the dead. Menippus refuses to pay Charon his fare, and Croesus, Midas and Sardanapalus complain to Pluto about his mockery. Menippus asks Cerberus how Socrates behaved and asks Hermes to show him the great beauties, finding only bare skulls, one of them said to be Helen.
Plato (1)
- Plato, Phaedrus 264a–267dThe form of a speech; collection and division; the rhetorical handbooksSocrates says that a speech should be put together like a living creature, with a head and feet and a middle, and Lysias' speech fails in this, being like the epitaph of Midas in which any line may stand in any place. He says that his own two speeches had two forms, a gathering of scattered things under one idea, and a division by natural joints like a good butcher, and that he loves these for the power of speaking and thinking. He calls the man who can do this a dialectician, and asks what the so-called teachers of rhetoric teach, and Phaedrus gives the preliminaries, the proem, the statement, the proofs and the probabilities. They go through the names of Theodorus, Evenus, Tisias, Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias, Polus, Protagoras and Thrasymachus and the devices each is said to have invented.
Plutarch (2)
- Plutarch, Parallel Stories (Greek and Roman Parallel Stories) 0–6Preface; Marathon, Xerxes, Thyreatis, Thermopylae, Midas and AmphiarausThe preface says that events of Roman times are as strange as those of old, and so Greek tales are matched with later ones. The first pairs concern Datis at Marathon, Xerxes' invasion with Agesilaus, brother of Themistocles, spying in the Persian camp, the contest of the Argives and Spartans for Thyreatis with Othryades, and Leonidas at Thermopylae. Midas is told by the oracle to cast his most precious possession into the chasm opened at Celaenae, and Amphiaraus is swallowed by the earth with his chariot after the eagle carried off his lance.
- Plutarch, Consolation to Apollonius 23–28Troilus and Priam; Crantor; Silenus' answer to Midas; the evils outweigh the goodsThe writer says that an untimely death may be a consolation, for Troilus wept less than Priam and his young death spared him the sight of the ruin of Troy. He quotes Crantor that innocence is the greatest comfort, and adds that the true sign of love for the dead is honouring them in memory and not sorrowing. He gives Silenus' answer to Midas, from Aristotle's Eudemus, that it is best not to be born at all, and says that the evils of life far exceed its goods.
Strabo (2)
- Strabo, Geography 1.3.16–23Earthquakes, changing coasts and migrationsStrabo lists changes in the land, among them the island thrown up between Thera and Therasia, the quakes of Phoenicia, and the springs of the Scamander in Homer. He adds drowned or altered places such as Bura, Helice, Arne, Mideia, the Echinades, Leucas and Homer's Asteris, and says changes may explain why Homer's descriptions no longer fit. He closes with migrations of peoples, including the Kimmerians, Midas' death, the Heneti, and the Greek tribes.
- Strabo, Geography 14.5.24–29Homer's unknown peoples: Halizoni, Phrygians, AscaniaStrabo continues to test Ephorus and Apollodorus on which nations Homer names and which he omits. He treats the Halizoni and the mines said to explain the wealth of Tantalus, Cadmus, Priam and Midas. He closes with Apollodorus on the Phrygians and the two places called Ascania.
