Midas. In mythology, known as King of Phrygia, who restored to Bacchus his nurse and preceptor Silenus, and received as a compensation the fatal attribute of turning into gold everything he touched. But this proved to be very inconvenient, as it prevented him from eating and drinking, and he prayed that the gift might be revoked. At the command of the god, he washed in the Pactolus, the sands of which became, in consequence, mixed with gold. Another tradition is, that in a musical contest between Pan and Apollo, he gave judgment in favor of the satyr; whereupon Apollo in contempt gave the king a pair of ass's ears. Midas, hid them under his Phrygian cap; but his servant, who used to cut his hair, discovered them, and was so pleased with the "joke," which he durst not mention, that he dug a hole in the earth, and relieved his mind by whispering in it, "Midas has ass's ears."
