Friday, March 09, 2018

The Myth of King Midas



The story of King Midas comes to us from Greek mythology, but if you didn't know that, you might guess that it was an Aesop's fable. Fables always have a lesson hidden in them. If that lesson isn't obvious enough, the storyteller will end with: "And the moral of the story is..." In the case of King Midas, it's "Be careful what you ask for." At least in the first part. The complete tale has a second part I'd never heard before. The folks at TED-Ed have quite a few illustrated myths from ancient cultures available. We posted Thor in the Land of Giants last month. There's also the tale of Arachne, Cupid and Psyche, Prometheus, Icarus, and others. (via Digg)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

When my friend was in high school, he had this conversation with his dad:

Dad: Jeff, have you ever heard of the Midas touch?
Jeff: Yeah, sure, King Midas. Everything he touched turned to gold.
Dad: Well Jeff, you've got the sh** touch.

Miss Cellania said...

I hope Jeff grew up happy in spite of his father.