S3E3 - Midas and the Golden Touch

The stories featured in Greaking Out are original adaptations of classic Greek myths.

This week's story features secrets too funny not to share: ridiculous facial features, golden bathtubs, and badly made wishes.

Amazing feats, listen, and you'll see it's freaking

out.

King Midas and the Golden Touch

Have you ever loved something so much that you just couldn't seem to get enough of it?

TV, video games, chocolate, sports, whatever it is, you love it with all of your heart and you'd do just about anything to have it.

Yeah, we've all been there.

The desire for more is a prominent part of the human condition.

Well, today's story talks about what happens when our wants get a little out of control.

This is is a story about wishes and curses and gold and animal ears.

This is the story of King Midas.

Midas was a king in the country of Phrygia and he was blessed beyond measure.

He had a large kingdom, a beautiful palace, plenty of food and drink and a lovely daughter.

He had everything he could ever wish for, but it wasn't enough.

You see, like the rest of us, King Midas always wanted more.

He was obsessed with gold, and I don't use that phrase lightly.

His favorite thing in the world was to sit in his palace and count his gold coins over and over again.

Sometimes he'd even throw them up in the air in pure happiness.

It is rumored that King Midas even filled up his bathtub with gold coins and would bathe with them.

Yeah, that's a little weird.

But like I said, King Midas was obsessed with gold.

He loved it more than anything in the world.

And even though he had plenty, he always wanted more.

One afternoon, King Midas was sitting in his room counting his gold when he heard a noise coming from outside his bedroom window.

The noise was light but distinct and rhythmic, almost like heavy breathing.

Could it be?

Yeah, it definitely was.

Someone was snoring outside of Midas' bedroom.

King Midas was enraged.

Which one of his lousy servants had fallen asleep on the job?

But when he looked outside, Midas was shocked to find a satyr sleeping soundly in a bed of flowers directly below his bedroom window.

A satyr is a woodland spirit that is part man, part beast.

You can imagine them as having the chest and torso of a human man, but the legs and horns of a goat.

Exactly.

And instead of being freaked out, like most people would be at the discovery of a goat man in their garden, King Midas was actually delighted.

You see, satyrs are associated with the god Dionysus.

Dionysus is the god of wine.

In Roman mythology, he is known as Bacchus.

As you may remember, he married Ariadne when he met her on Naxos.

Right, and being the god of wine, Dionysus had the reputation for being one of the more wild, free-spirited gods.

And while Midas did have sort of an affinity for Dionysus' extravagant lifestyle, he realized something else.

Returning the satyr to Dionysus would put him in good favor with the gods.

Now, good favor can mean many things, but for Midas, it only meant one, gold.

So Midas had the satyr brought inside the palace to show off his hospitality.

He gave the goat man a beautiful room with a comfortable bed to sleep in.

The satyr stayed at the palace for 10 days and enjoyed delicious feasts and quality entertainment.

And on the 11th day, Midas decided it was time to return the satyr to Dionysus.

The satyr led Midas back to the path that Dionysus had been on when he had gotten lost.

And sure enough, Dionysus found them in no time.

There you are, Dionysus boomed.

I've been looking all over for you.

I fell asleep and King Midas found me, the satyr explained.

He gave me a comfortable room and fed me delicious food.

It was wonderful.

Dionysus looked at Midas closely.

Not many men would show so much hospitality to a satyr.

Thank you, King Midas.

I appreciate your service.

I will not forget it.

Dionysus turned to leave when Midas yelled out, wait, wait, wait,

aren't you

forgetting something?

Dionysus stared at him and said nothing.

You know, maybe a reward?

Midas squeaked.

There it is, thought Dionysus, the real reason for his hospitality.

Sometimes you just can't trust humans, Dionysus thought.

They often only think about themselves.

Still, Midas did help his satyr, and Dionysus was a god, it would be no big deal to help him.

What is it you seek?

Dionysus asked.

I will grant you one wish.

Midas was thrilled.

One wish from a god?

He thought about asking for a large boat to sail across the seas, or maybe a horse that could run at lightning speed.

Perhaps true love for his darling daughter.

But no.

For Midas, it always came back to one thing,

gold.

I wish for everything I touch to be turned to gold, he proclaimed.

Dionysus paused.

You want everything you touch to be turned to gold.

Everything you touch, he repeated.

Yes, Midas exclaimed, already imagining his golden bed, his golden floors, his golden chairs.

As you wish, Dionysus replied.

And with that, he vanished, disappearing into the hillside along with the satyr.

I don't think this is a good idea.

Yeah, it totally isn't.

But Midas sprinted back to his palace, eager to test out his new powers.

On the way, he stopped to pick a flower in his garden.

He watched with amazement as the flower turned all the way to gold.

Giddy with glee, Midas ran inside and pulled out a chair to sit in.

It also turned to gold.

This is the best, King Midas yelled.

I am rich, richer than rich.

I am the king of gold.

He ran around his palace, touching random objects.

A candlestick, poof, gold.

A rug, poof, gold.

His pillow, poof, gold.

Then Midas went to his favorite place of all, his bathtub.

When he touched the sides, he watched in amazement as the marbles slowly began to turn to gold.

He had a golden bathtub that he quickly filled up with gold coins.

For Midas, life simply couldn't get any better than this.

Well, after all this excitement, King Midas was hungry.

He went to grab a grape from the fruit bowl on the counter and crunch!

Midas screamed in pain.

He had cracked his teeth.

What was this grape made of?

He spit it out in his hand.

It was a golden grape.

Oh, yes, Midas chuckled.

It turned into gold because I touched it.

And although Midas was amused at first, the more time passed, the more frustrated he became.

This is ridiculous, Midas exclaimed.

I can't eat anything.

I can't even drink water.

The second anything touches my hands or my tongue or my mouth, it turns into solid gold.

A man can't live like this.

This is what they mean by the expression, too much of a good thing.

Midas was in despair.

Upon hearing her father crying, his daughter rushed into the room.

What happened, father?

she asked.

What's wrong?

I asked Dionysus to make everything I touch turn to gold.

And look, he said, touching a grape, now I can't even eat.

This is the worst wish ever, he pouted.

The daughter went to embrace the father.

He put his head on her shoulder and sobbed.

He was just so hungry.

It had been a whole two hours since he had last eaten.

Midas felt his daughter wrap her arms around his neck, and suddenly, She tensed.

When Midas pulled away to see what was wrong, he was horrified to see that she had turned into a golden statue.

He had touched his beloved daughter, and now she had turned to gold.

Midas ran out of his palace as fast as he could, heading to the place where he last saw Dionysus.

Dionysus, he screamed to the sky, Dionysus!

Did you need something?

The god said, appearing out of nowhere.

My daughter, she's gold!

Well, didn't you ask for everything you touched to turn to gold?

Yes, but this wasn't a blessing.

It was a curse.

King Midas had finally realized that there was more to life than gold.

He had all the gold he could ever hope for, and he had never been so unhappy.

He would rather live on the street with his daughter than live in a golden palace without her.

So you've changed your mind, Dionysus asked.

I have.

I know what's important now, and it's not gold.

Dionysus looked at him carefully.

He supposed Midas had learned his lesson after all.

So he said, Go to the river Pactolus.

Wash your hands.

When you do, the curse will be lifted.

Hand washing can prevent one in three cases of diarrhea and one in five respiratory infections.

Studies about how hand washing affects curses, however, have not been done.

Fair enough.

When Midas arrived, he threw himself on the riverbanks and immersed both arms into the water.

He scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed until gold was seen flowing from his hands, dispersing out into the water.

Ancient peoples have claimed to have found gold by panning on the riverbanks of Pactolus because of King Midas.

The oldest coin in the world was found in this same region, now modern-day Turkey.

When Midas was convinced that the curse was lifted, he rushed home as fast as he could.

He grabbed the golden statue of his daughter and was relieved when she came to life in his hands.

He ran around the palace, touching all of the golden items, restoring everything to their original form.

And King Midas was true to his word.

From that day forward, his greed and gluttony came to an end.

He was no longer obsessed with gold.

He was a loving father and a faithful king.

He had a purposeful, honorable life, and his people were devastated when he died many years later.

Despite the incident with the Golden Touch, King Midas left behind a great and important legacy.

And that concludes the story of King Midas.

No, no, no, no.

The story does not end there.

It doesn't.

There's another important plot point that the listeners may find useful and entertaining.

Well, you know, I was just thinking that it doesn't really go with the flow here, Oracle.

I mean, maybe we could save that for another day.

Okay, okay, fine.

But let's do a commercial break here first and then regroup.

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Hi, welcome back to Greaking Out.

So there is one more story about King Midas that you might like to hear.

You see, despite everything that happened with Dionysus, Midas wasn't perfect.

He still made mistakes just like the rest of us.

Unfortunately, Midas made a pretty serious one.

More serious than turning your daughter into a golden statue?

Okay, maybe not that serious, but let's just say it was a lifelong change.

It all began after the legendary musical duel between Apollo and Pan.

It was like a battle of the bands for the gods.

Apollo is the god of music, and Pan is the god of the wild and hunting.

Sometimes he is drawn with goat legs and horns.

Exactly.

So it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that Apollo was declared the better musician.

It wasn't exactly a close call.

Even Pan agreed that he had lost the musical contest.

Midas, however, thought differently.

Pan was so much better than Apollo, he said to anyone who would listen.

I can't believe he didn't win.

The contest was rigged.

Now, our seasoned listeners should know by now the cardinal rule of Greek mythology is...

Don't eat people.

No, the other cardinal rule of Greek mythology.

Don't insult the gods.

Exactly.

So when Apollo heard Midas' claims, he laughed and chalked it up to Midas' poor taste.

That Midas.

Apollo said jokingly.

He must have donkey ears.

At first, he was just joking.

He made the comment in an offhand and good-humored way, but after a while, Apollo began to think more on the subject.

He did not like it when people insulted him, especially if they were accusing him of cheating.

So the next morning, when Midas woke up, he looked in the mirror and was shocked to find that he did, in fact, have donkey ears.

Not surprisingly, Midas was mortified.

He didn't want anyone to see his new ears.

He was embarrassed.

He was ashamed.

He didn't want to be the butt of everybody's joke.

He was a king.

He wanted to be respected.

So Midas hid his donkey ears from everyone he encountered.

He must have had an affinity for big hats.

The Pedasus is a sun hat of Thessalian origin worn by ancient Greeks, Macedonians, Thracians, and Etruscans.

It has a wide, floppy brim and can be made of wool, felt, leather, or straw.

Yeah, maybe he had one of those.

But there's one person Midas couldn't hide his ears from.

His barber.

Now Midas' barber was a good person and promised to keep King Midas' ears a secret.

But when he saw them for himself, it took all his strength not to laugh.

He forced himself to get through Midas' haircut with a straight face.

But after the haircut was over, the barber couldn't help himself.

He couldn't keep the secret much longer, so he ran out into the middle of an abandoned field, dug a deep hole, and then screamed the secret into it.

King Midas has donkey ears!

The barber filled the hole, but just as he was walking away, a bunch of reeds grew on on that very spot, feeding on the secret.

When the wind blew, the reeds would whisper, Midas has donkey ears, Midas has donkey ears, into the wind.

Midas has donkey ears.

Unfortunately, the wind blew these whispers straight into the town square for everyone to hear.

The next day, the kingdom was abuzz with the news.

Everyone was whispering to each other, did you hear about Midas?

Yeah, his ears?

Just like a donkey's.

Midas has donkey ears was the hottest rumor around town and people couldn't help but gossip about it.

Midas was so embarrassed.

He didn't want to be different.

He didn't want to be laughed at.

He wanted to be respected and admired.

He wanted to be liked.

But unfortunately, Midas had no choice but to make peace with his new ears.

Unlike Dionysus, Apollo wasn't interested in correcting Midas' mistakes.

The donkey ears were here to stay.

But it wasn't all bad news.

Eventually, Midas decided he had to embrace his new look.

These ears are a part of me, he said to himself.

And if anyone has an issue with them, that's their problem, not mine.

I'm proud of these ears.

And so, Midas flaunted his donkey ears for all to see from that point forward.

He loved how he could hear conversations from far away.

He loved how he could wiggle them to the beat of the music.

He even loved how they brought so much joy and laughter to those around him, especially children.

His ears, which he originally thought of as a curse, actually turned out to be one of Midas' greatest gifts.

And that, my friends, is the complete story of King Midas.

Ears and all.

That's it for this week.

Be sure to tune in next week when we talk about a very jealous god and a love story with a rocky beginning.

National Geographic Kids Greaking Out is written by Kenny Curtis and Jillian Hughes and hosted by Kenny Curtis with Tori Kerr as the Oracle of Wi-Fi.

Audio production and sound design by Scotty Beam and our theme song was composed by Perry Gripp.

Dr.

Diane Klein is our subject matter expert and Emily Everhart is our producer.