(European mythology)

Legendary King of Phrygia. Several stories have collected about his name, the most famous one referring to ‘the Midas touch’. It happened that the King either captured or helped a drunken satyr, with the result that Dionysus offered him anything he wished. Midas asked that all he touched might become gold. Soon after, he found that this applied to his food and beseeched the god to take back the gift, which Dionysus eventually did. The legend doubtless alludes to the wealth of Phrygia, and later Lydia: these countries were fabulously rich and issued the first coinage known to the Greeks.

A Dictionary of World Mythology. Copyright © Arthur Cotterell 1979, 1986, 2003. All rights reserved.