King Midas

King Midas

Midas (; Greek: Μίδας) was the name of a king in Phrygia with whom several myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch. The legends told about this Midas and his father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city Gordium and tying the Gordian Knot, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the Trojan War. However, Homer does not mention Midas or Gordias, while instead mentioning two other Phrygian kings, Mygdon and Otreus. The Phrygian city Midaeum was presumably named after him, and this is probably also the Midas that according to Pausanias founded Ancyra (today known as Ankara).Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the Mita, called king of the Mushki in Assyrian texts, who warred with Assyria and its Anatolian provinces during the same period. A third Midas is said by Herodotus to have been a member of the royal house of Phrygia in the 6th century BC.

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