The figure of King Midas is associated in Greek Mythology with greed and the uncontrolled desire for wealth.

King Midas had a daughter called Zoe, and moreover possessed great wealth and power, but his avarice made him crave more and more. Dionysus, the God of wine and happiness, known as Bacchus by the Romans, had the ability of freeing people from their greatest woes through wine. A faun called Silenus formed part of his court.

One day, Midas was walking through his magnificent rose garden when he encountered Silenus, who was completely drunk due to the copious amount of wine that he’d drunk the night before. Midas put him up in his palace and helped Silenus recover from his drunken state in order to later take him back to the God Dionysus.

Dionysus was grateful for the care and safe return of his faun, and granted a wish to Midas, who in his obsession to become wealthy, asked for the power to transform anything he touched into solid gold, and his wish was granted.

So, to begin with, the ability to transform any object into gold fascinated him, and delighted with his power, he started transforming sheafs of wheat, flowers and objects from his palace into gold, dreaming that in this way he would obtain the riches he desired.

So happy was he that he wanted to celebrate by organising a big banquet, but he soon found out that he couldn’t eat nor drink as all the foodstuffs he touched turned to  gold. In light of his despair, and in order to console himself, he hugged his daughter Zoe, the thing he most loved in all the world, and by doing so turned her into a statue of gold.

Appalled by the wish he’d asked for and its consequences, he returned to the God Dionysus in order to be freed and Dionysus, seeing his repentance, took pity on him and agreed to free Midas from his magical power. In order to do this, the King would have to submerge himself in the Pactolus River, which is precisely what Midas did and from that day on golden nuggets have been found in this river.

In the moment that Midas was freed, the things he’d touched returned to how they had been, including his daughter, who he could finally hug again.

Midas understood the dangers of greed, which can lead to a lonely, dark road, and from then on he became a better king who knew how to understand where true wealth lies, which all the gold in the world cannot buy.