King Midas and His Golden Curse – Greek Mythology

Once the merry Dionysus with a noisy crowd of maenads and satyrs wandered on the tree-covered rocks of Tmol in Phrygia. Only Strong was missing from his entourage. He stayed behind and stumbled at every step, because he was quite drunk, wandering the Phrygian fields. The villagers saw him, tied him with garlands of flowers and took him to King Midas. Midas immediately recognized Dionysus‘ teacher, received him respectfully in his palace, and celebrated him with lavish feasts for nine days in a row. On the tenth day, Midas personally took Strong to the god Dionysus. Dionysus rejoiced to see Strong, and allowed Midas, as a reward for the respect he had shown his teacher, to choose the gift he wanted. Then Midas shouted:

“Oh, great God Dionysus, order everything I touch should turn into pure, shining gold!”
Dionysus granted Midas’s wish, he only regretted that Midas had not chosen a better gift.

Rejoicing, Midas walked away. Delighted by the gift, he plucks a green twig from an oak tree and the twig turns into gold in his hands. He plucks from one a field of golden classes – they become golden and the grains in them – golden. He plucks an apple, the apple turns golden, as if it were an apple from the Hesperides’ gardens. Everything Midas touched immediately turned to gold. When he washed his hands, the water flowed from them in golden drops. Midas was celebrating. But here he arrived at his palace. His servants prepared a rich reception, and the happy Midas lay down at the table. Here he barely understood what a terrible gift he had asked of Dionysus. Just with the touch of his fingers, Midas turned everything to gold. The bread, all the food, and the wine became golden in the mouth. Only now did Midas realize that he would have to starve to death. He reached out to the sky and shouted:

“Have mercy, have mercy, oh Dionysus! Forgive me! I beg your pardon. Take back this gift.”
Dionysus appeared and said to Midas:
“Go to the springs of Pactol, there, in its waters, wash from your body this gift and your guilt.”

At the command of Dionysus, Midas went to the springs of Pactol and dived there in its clear waters. The waters of Pactol flowed like gold and washed from the body of Midas the gift received by Dionysus. Since then, Pactol has become gold-bearing.

From the research text of A. Kun, according to Ovid’s poem “Metamorphoses”