King Midas And The Golden Touch?

Question

I have to do a project based on the story of king midas, but there are so many versions. Can someone please let me know what the correct one is? Who gives him this power? Does he help selinus, or a satyr?

Answer 1

Hi, I'm greek and I'll tell you the version we are taught at school.

He was Orpheas' student. He had a lot of riches and supposedly wisdom. One day he captured a selinus in his garden (selinus is a follower of Dionysos who is a satyr.It's not a name it's a name for the group of followers) because he wanted to learn from the creature's wisdom. Midas got him drunk by filling the well from which the selinus drank water with wine. The selinus told him something which translates into "It's better for every man and woman not to be born and if they are, they should die as quickly as possible". Midas put the selinus up inhis palace for ten days and he offered food and wine in endless quantities and after that, he decided to give the selinus back to Dionysos. Dionysos wanted to reward Midas, so he decided to grant him one wish. Midas asked for the power to turn everything he touched into gold. Dionysos made his wish come true, but the Midas realised that even his food and water turned to gold. He nearly died of hunger and thirst but he begged Dionysos to rid him of this gift. So, Dionysos told him to bathe in the river Paktolos. After that, it is said that you can find specks of gold in that river. And they lived happily ever after :-)

Answer 2

Read the book, King Midas and the Golden Touch. If you need to, you can get a synopsis of almost any book ever written online, by entering synopsis and the name of the book in the search field. But reading the book would answer your question.

Answer 3

I believe it's the Selinus one. I seriously never heard about the satyr one.

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Midas