Touching Gold: The Story of King Midas--pt. 1

The story of King Midas from Greek mythology is well known, at least the basics of the story are well known--Midas was a king who was granted the extraordinary ability to turn anything that he touched into gold. But there is more to the story than that. Like most myths, the story also examines human frailty. We can be both noble and weak, as Midas himself demonstrated.

The action of the story is set into motion when Midas decides to be hospitable to and old satyr who has become intoxicated and passed out in Midas's kingdom. When he recovers, the satyr entertains Midas and his friends. Midas did not have to treat the satyr so well, but since it pays to be kind, he did and he was rewarded.

When Midas brought the satyr back to the god Dionysus, the god offered to grant the king whatever he wanted. It is easy to say that the kind should have chosen world peace or some selfless thing, but when give the chance to have what we want, how many of us choose something selfless? What can be said is that King Midas should have given more thought to his choice because in choosing to be able to turn anything into gold, he drastically altered his life.

It was fun to touch a twig and see that turn into gold; it was not much fun to realize that he could not even eat since all that he touched became gold. There is even a version of the tale where Midas touches his daughter and she too turns into gold.

As miraculous as his power was, King Midas could not sell gold to a gold buyer because as soon as he touched any cash for gold he received, it would immediately become gold.