Legends are usually just that, legends. However, some legends have more truth than you might know. Contrary to the legends both King Midas and Jason’s Fleece were real. However Midas’ touch wasn’t made of gold but of a naturally occurring alloy of Silver and gold combined. The alloy, widely used in ancient jewelry, was called electrum and occurred throughout the Phrygian state of King Midas in Anatolia.

According to classical mythology Dionysus, or Bacchus as the Romans knew him, was the Olympian god of wine. Unsurprisingly popular, he was especially venerated in the Asian Minor city-state of Phrygia where he held a cult status. Dionysus, son of Zeus, was followed by a group of satyrs, half-human half-goat figures. One day Silenus, the eldest of the satyrs and also Dionysus' tutor, drunk himself paralytic and passed out in the King of Phrygia’s rose garden. The Phrygian ruler who took great pride in his roses was no less than King Midas. After Midas had found the aging satyr, he treated his alcohol poisoning and guided him back to good health.

Dionysus, in gratitude for saving Silenius’ life, asked what King Midas wanted in return. After some consideration Midas asked that everything he touched should turn to gold. Granted with his wish Midas amused himself by touching everything around him, watching it turn to gold. However, his gift soon manifested itself as a burden when he found that even the food he touched turned to gold. Dying of hunger he asked his daughter to feed him, but in the process she too turned to gold. Consumed with grief Midas pleaded that the gift, turned curse, be lifted. Dionysus instructed Midas that if he washed in the Paktolos River that flowed through the kingdom, he would be cured. Midas did as he was told and after bathing the spell lifted. But in cleansing the King of his curse the river became laden with the precious metal.

One of the first parables created on the evils of excessive wealth, the ‘Midas Touch’ is the stuff of legend. However, neither King Midas nor his bounty of precious metals is myth. King Midas ruled over Phrygia during the 7th Century B.C. until he committed suicide when Gordian fell to the Cimmerian invasions. Up until then, under Midas, the Phrygian city-state had been highly successful in amassing wealth; this is no doubt the root of the metaphor ‘The Golden Touch’ which ultimately led to the King’s downfall.

Midas’ wealth was due to the Paktolos River, which also ran through the neighboring city-state of Lydia. The Paktolos, still flowing in Anatolia today, was laden with a naturally occurring precious metal called electrum: an alloy of gold and silver. Enriching the economies of both Phrygia and Lydia, the Paktolos River’s bounty of precious metals ensured that the two regions became the most coveted areas of Anatolia and the known civilized world.

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