Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Midas
open-in-new
<p>Midas was a king of <a href="/facts/Phrygia/MvUXE54L">Phrygia</a> with whom many myths became associated, as well as two later members of the Phrygian royal house. </p><p>His father was <a href="/facts/Gordias/oXurPhJL">Gordias</a>, and his mother was <a href="/facts/Cybele/9HaGq1US">Cybele</a>. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in <a href="/facts/Greek_mythology/M7k4FvW8">Greek mythology</a> for his ability to turn everything he touched into pure <a href="/facts/Gold/1znknojp">gold</a> and this came to be called the <i>golden touch</i>, or the <i>Midas touch</i>. The legends told about this Midas and his adopted father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city <a href="/facts/Gordium/4vVQjqsu">Gordium</a> and tying the <a href="/facts/Gordian_Knot/CHR97RWg">Gordian Knot</a>, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the <a href="/facts/Trojan_War/pBG5VawT">Trojan War</a>. However, <a href="/facts/Homer/Xw8Ur53U">Homer</a> does not mention Midas or <a href="/facts/Gordias/oXurPhJL">Gordias</a>, while instead mentioning two other Phrygian kings, <a href="/facts/Mygdon_of_Phrygia/b5sW3dsR">Mygdon</a> and <a href="/facts/Otreus/2IHSML9P">Otreus</a>. </p><p><a href="/facts/Midaeum/4xKwqYPb">Midaeum</a> was presumably named after him, and this is probably also the Midas that according to <a href="/facts/Pausanias_(geographer)/3jMP2VVl">Pausanias</a> founded Ancyra (today known as <a href="/facts/Ankara/llGIJ0vj">Ankara</a>). </p><p>Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the <i>Mita</i>, called king of the <a href="/facts/Mushki/SEjSIcUX">Mushki</a> in Assyrian texts, who warred with <a href="/facts/Assyria/n9pMP48S">Assyria</a> and its <a href="/facts/Ancient_Anatolians/WrydRtRH">Anatolian</a> provinces during the same period. A third Midas is said by <a href="/facts/Herodotus/hTgRSAnv">Herodotus</a> to have been a member of the royal house of Phrygia in the 6th century BC. </p>