Could he be a real historical character?
It is believed that this ancient ruler was an ardent admirer of the god of wine Dionysus, more than once he sat at the table with him and his companions. And one day some drunken old man was brought to Midas, in whom he recognized Dionysus's educator, Silenus.
Midas received Silenus well and after six days of unrestrained drinking took him to Dionysus. Dionysus was so glad to see an old friend that he promised Midas to fulfill his every wish. To which he wished to turn into gold any thing that he touches. Dionysus noticed that this idea was rather stupid, but he kept his promise.
Everything was fine at first, Midas was very pleased. He turned absolutely everything he touched into gold. But when he got hungry, sat down at the table and took bread, it also turned into gold.
Of course he couldn't eat gold. The same thing happened with wine and meat. In desperation, Midas asked Dionysus to return everything as it was before, but Dionysus decided to teach him a good lesson. He told Midas that in order to be healed, he needed to swim in the Pactol River - this was necessary in order to absolve himself of the guilt for an unreasonable desire.
Well, at least that's what Dionysus said. And the king listened to him with joy and found the right river. Nowadays it has a different name - Gedir. Indeed, Midas no longer turned things into gold. Gradually he got tired of sitting on the throne and she went on a long journey.
During this time, he really fell in love with loneliness and a simple life, but even here he went to the extreme. One day he saw a musical competition between the shepherd god Pan and Apollo.
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According to legend, objectively, Pan's game was much worse than Apollo's, for which the judge was the god of Mount Tmol, and awarded the victory to the latter. However, Midas, an adherent of the simple life, raised a big cry due to the fact that he did not like Tmol's decision.
Apollo got so angry with Midas that he pounced on him with his fists and pulled at his ears so hard that they became very long, like a donkey's. Midas, seeing what happened to him, tried in every possible way to hide his ears under his long hair.
But once a servant cut his hair, and he saw these long ears. It was forbidden to tell anyone about this - they could have executed. But he really wanted to speak out, so he went into the forest, dug a hole in the ground and whispered everything into it.
However, even the earth could not keep this secret - a reed grew on this place, which, at the first wind, rustled these words that spread throughout the world. It would seem that Midas is an extremely fabulous character.
However, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus described him as a real ruler. In Phrygia, a rock tomb has been preserved, which modern researchers call the "tomb of Midas". And modern archaeologists have discovered the ruins of the city of Gordion - the capital of King Midas.
It turns out that the king really existed. But how then did it happen that he became the hero of such legends? Most likely, the story with gold originates from the wealth and greed of the king.
And the story of the donkey ears has a different origin. In the ruins of the ancient city of Gordion, archaeologists have discovered several coins bearing the name and image of Midas.
But on his head he had a leather hat made from a donkey's head. And there were those long ears. It is believed that Midas lived in the 8th century BC.