Metamorphoses · Chapter
Fable of Midas explained
King Midas hosts Silenus, Bacchus's tutor, and is granted a wish.
What happens
King Midas hosts Silenus, Bacchus's tutor, and is granted a wish. He asks that everything he touches turn to gold, but soon starves as food and drink become gold. Bacchus rescues him by having him wash in the Pactolus river, which then becomes golden. Later, Midas judges a musical contest between Pan and Apollo, favoring Pan, and Apollo punishes him by giving him ass's ears. His barber whispers the secret into a hole, and reeds grow there that reveal it.
Themes in this chapter
Divine Power and Human Folly
Midas's foolish wish and poor judgment in the musical contest highlight human folly in the face of divine power.
Transformation and Metamorphosis
Midas's golden touch and his transformation into having ass's ears are central metamorphoses.
Characters to notice
- Midas
King who wishes for the golden touch and later judges a musical contest, receiving ass's ears as punishment.
- Bacchus
God who grants Midas's wish and later provides a remedy for the golden touch.
- Apollo
God of music who defeats Pan in a contest and punishes Midas with ass's ears.
- Pan
Sylvan god who competes against Apollo in a musical contest.
- Silenus
Tutor of Bacchus, captured by Phrygian clowns and brought to Midas.
Key passages
“Give me, says he, (nor thought he ask'd too much,) That with my body whatsoe'er I touch, Changed from the nature which it held of old, May be converted into yellow gold.”
Midas asks that everything he touches turn to gold.
Midas's wish is granted, leading to his starvation.
“The rich poor fool, confounded with surprise, Starving in all his various plenty lies; Sick of his wish, he now detests the power, For which he ask'd so earnestly before;”
Midas, now wealthy but starving, regrets his wish for the golden touch.
Midas realizes the curse of his gift.
“The lyric god, who thought his untuned ear Deserved but ill a human form to wear, Of that deprives him, and supplies the place With some more fit, and of an ampler space, Fix'd on his noddle an unseemly pair, Flagging, and large, and full of whitish hair;”
Apollo punishes Midas by giving him ass's ears because of his poor musical judgment.
Midas's ears are transformed as a mark of his ignorance.