The Midas Touch

Author’s Notes

The Midas Touch is a myth that carries a lesson that can dwell in any heart capable of pumping blood. For in a world where we seek our purpose in the act of accumulating and consuming, it becomes necessary to put ourselves in Midas’s place to understand how far we are willing to go in exchange for recognition, wealth, and splendor.

Midas, as king, already possessed everything and yet, relentlessly sought more. In fact, he desired wealth so much that he ended up receiving the only gift capable of providing an infinite source of it. It was only when Midas got everything he wanted, losing what was most valuable to him in the process, that he was able to realize that not everything in life was a bargaining chip and that some things cannot be measured even by numbers or words.

Inspired by Thomas Bulfinch’s mythological collection, my version seeks to enrich this story with more details while preserving its essence. It is now up to the dear reader to recognize the lesson and identify what their own Midas touch is.

Dedication

To the gift of creation,
Which was bestowed upon me,
So I may keep bestowing,
The dream of those who, from me, may one day need.

The Touch of Midas

One day, Bacchus, God of wine, exuberance, and lust, awakened completely lost without Silenus, his mentor and foster father, in the outskirts of Phrygia after a night of excess. It wasn’t long before he was recognized by villagers and taken to King Midas, emperor of Phrygia and son of Gordias. Midas was a monarch known for living in excessive abundance with his daughter, but due to an insatiable greed, never felt in his core that he possessed enough. In fact, Midas was so attached to his wealth that one of his pastimes was counting his countless gold coins.

Recognizing the illustrious presence of a deity in his realm, Midas immediately requested that Bacchus be ceremonially received and, with Hestia’s blessing, Goddess of hospitality, welcomed with comfort and gifts. Due to his festive spirit, Bacchus was also promptly entertained with ten nights of the most memorable banquets and the most unforgettable parties. At sunrise on the eleventh day, Bacchus was returned to Silenus, who had finally arrived in Phrygia.

Feeling deeply grateful for the king’s care, Bacchus offered Midas the fortunate privilege of choosing absolutely any reward in return for his acts. Without hesitating in his decision, Midas promptly asked for the gift of transforming everything he would touch into the purest and most sparkling gold.

Bacchus, even realizing the mistake Midas had made, devoted himself to fulfilling his promise, interlacing arms and firmly clasping Midas’s hands while granting him a gift never before given to any king or man.

Midas, with his eyes resplendent with pure spirit, went joyfully to test his new blessing. Arriving in his personal garden, he gazed at a flower which he carefully approached, kneeling to the ground, and upon touching it, saw with his own eyes that delicate organic matter solidifying from petals, to stem, to thorns, into the most yellow, dense, and brilliant shade of gleaming and precious gold. Unable to contain his euphoria, he dedicated the rest of that morning to transforming all the flowers in the garden into translucent golden flowers.

Unable to believe what he had become capable of doing, he continued experimenting with his new gift. He picked up a stone with his hands and felt its weight increase the moment it transformed into gold. With strength, he grabbed a clump of earth with his hand and closed his fist, only to open it and find in place of what was once dust, the most coveted mineral of all kingdoms. He went to the apple tree and with an agile jump, plucked a lucky apple hanging from a branch, eternizing it in time in the form of nothing more and nothing less than gold. He marveled so much at that golden fruit that he decided to keep it in his pocket.

His joy explored new heights never before felt by his great and experienced heart. He immediately headed to his house and requested his servants prepare the most diverse of banquets to celebrate a future where he would be able to conquer or buy absolutely everything that he and his daughter might desire.

The joy that overflowed in Midas did not take long to cease, for it was upon picking up a piece of bread that he discovered that even the food he touched also transformed into gold, making it clear that he would not be able to chew anything he might bring to his mouth. He immediately tried to drink a glass of wine which, down his throat, burned like molten gold.

Overcome by the distressing shock of possibly dying of hunger, Midas began to incessantly wish to rid himself of that gift which, beneath its layers, finally revealed itself as a curse. At that same moment, his daughter appeared in the hall showing the deepest of sorrows, crying because she couldn’t understand what had happened to her flowers in the garden. Amid sobs and tears, she questioned why they had lost their delicacy and all their perfume.

Struck by lightning-fast guilt, Midas embraced his daughter in an unthinking attempt to comfort her, but ended up also transforming that which was most valuable in his life into gold. Feeling his daughter’s hair solidify between his fingers and watching the tears that ran down her face forever freeze in a sad and eternal expression.

Overcome by a limitless void, Midas threw himself to the ground devastated and not knowing what to do, raised his arms that were also beginning to turn to gold and cried for Bacchus’s help, begging to be freed from his notorious greed that would lead to his destruction.

Bacchus, from very far away, heard that plea for mercy and immediately whispered into Midas’s ears that his only solution to save himself would be to go to the River Pactolus and immerse his head and body. Also washing away his mistakes, to free himself from all punishment.

Thus proceeded Midas, who before getting wet, bathed the statue of his daughter with all care. As soon as he touched the waters, the power to transform everything into gold was transferred to them, precisely for this reason, the sands of the riverbed became gold and remain so to this day.

Before diving, Midas left on the ground the Apple he had previously kept in his pocket, not out of concern for its value, but to forever keep the lesson that wealth and splendor would never be able to replace his true source of joy, his daughter who was no longer gold but who still had for Midas the most irreplaceable of values.

Love.