King Midas

King Midas

Adapted by Darryl Keane
Illustrated by Amy Robinson

Once upon a time, Midas came to inherit the throne of Phrygia.
Midas had learned the value of power, and power was what he
most wanted. His peasant father had taught him that gold could
buy power, and so King Midas ever longed for more gold. From
Olympus the gods looked down and smiled and granted Midas
one wish.

Not even for a moment did Midas ponder.
“I would have gold,” he said hastily. “Much
gold. I wish that everything I touch turn
to gold.”
His wish was granted, and Midas quickly set out to
test his new powers.

An olive tree grew near where he stood, and from it he picked a
little twig decked with leaves of softest grey. It grew heavy as he
held it, and glittered like a piece of his crown. He touched an
apple, and at once it became a golden fruit. The stone pillars of
his palace as he brushed past them on entering, blazed like a
sunset sky. The gods had not deceived him. Midas had the
Golden Touch.

But when Midas tried to eat his feast that night,
he found that his teeth turned the food into
slabs of gold. Baffled and miserable, Midas
seized his cup of wine, but the red wine too
had turned to gold and he could not quench
his thirst.

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After several days without food or water, there was nothing now
for him to live for. He could buy the whole earth if he pleased, but
even his children shrank in terror from his touch. Gold was power,
yet of what worth was gold while he starved? Gold could not buy
him life and health and happiness.

In despair, at length he cried to the god who had given him the
gift. “Save me, O Bacchus!” he said. “Take away from me the
cursed Golden Touch, and faithfully and well shall I serve
thee forever.”

Then Bacchus, very pitiful for him, told Midas to
go to Sardis, the chief city of his worshippers,
and to trace to its source the river upon which
it was built. And in that pool, when he found it,
he was to plunge his head, and so he would, for
evermore, be freed from the Golden Touch.

Midas did as Bacchus had commanded, and gave his wealth to
the river. He was cured of the Golden Touch. Midas used the river
water to turn all of the things he had touched back to how they
once were.

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