Found in the Garden
Midas was king of a country called Phrygia, and his storehouses already overflowed with gold. Even so he was always thinking of a little more.
One morning his servants found a strange old man in the garden. He was lying asleep among the flower beds, smelling of wine with his clothes covered in earth.
Midas knew the face. It was Silenus. He was the old teacher who had looked after Dionysus, god of the vine and the festival, from childhood.
Midas did not turn the old man out but had him washed and fed and seated in a good place. After ten days as a guest, he took him back to Dionysus.
Anything at All
Dionysus was glad to have his teacher back and said to Midas, “Name one thing, anything at all. I will grant it.”
The eyes of Midas shone, and there was one thing he had thought about all his life. “Let everything my hand touches turn to gold.”
Dionysus did not answer at once but looked at Midas for a moment. There was more pity than gladness in that look.
Dionysus said, “It shall be so. But you chose it, so you must carry it.”
The Morning His Fingertips Shone
On the way home Midas could not wait and took hold of a branch, and the branch hardened in his hand and shone yellow. It was gold.
He touched a stone and the stone became a lump of gold. He took up a handful of earth and gold sand ran between his fingers.
When he reached the palace Midas laid a hand on every pillar, and the doors, the railings and the stairs all turned to gold. In the sunlight the palace was too bright to look at straight.
“Nobody in the world is as rich as I am.” Midas laughed out loud, and then he noticed he was hungry and had the table laid.
A Table With Nothing on It to Eat
Bread came first, and Midas picked the bread up. The moment his fingertips touched it the bread went hard.
He took some meat and the meat became gold too. He put a single grape in his mouth and it struck his teeth with a click.
He lifted a cup to drink, and the water that touched the cup set solid where it stood. Nothing at all went down his throat.
That night Midas could not sleep, because every time he lay down the blanket turned to gold and pressed on him. For the first time he was afraid of his own hand.
The Wish Washed Off in a River
The next day Midas went to Dionysus and knelt with the golden hem of his robe dragging behind him. “Take my wish back from me.”
Dionysus did not scold him this time either but only named a place. “Go to the river Pactolus and wash your hands.”
Midas ran to the river and put his hands into the water. He felt something leave his fingertips, and the current carried it away.
Gold is said to have been found in the sand of the Pactolus ever after, because what Midas let go had settled on the riverbed. The king sat a long while by the water with empty hands.
Today, The Things That Do Not Turn to Gold
Midas was not tricked but was given just what he had asked for. What went wrong was not the wish but the place the wish had to sit.
Gold is a thing you trade for something else, and once everything was gold there was nothing left to trade for. That is why he was hungriest at the moment he was richest.
Bread and water lose their use if they turn to gold, and so does the person beside you, and the evening you eat together. There are things in this world that are worth something because they cannot be traded.
What Midas got back at the end was not gold but a hand that could lift a mouthful of water. He knew that only after losing it.