\b0 One day, the peasants of Phrygia brought a satyr tottering with age and wine, whom they had found sleeping on
the bank of a river, to King\cf0 \b \cf4 \ATXht11314 Midas\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 . Midas recognized him as\b \cf4 \ATXht11909 Silenus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , companion and teacher of the god\cf0 \b \cf4 \ATXht10 Dionysus\b0 \cf7 \ATXht0 , and honored him as such
before taking him back to the Bacchic procession from which he had strayed in his drunkenness. The god was pleased by this gesture of kindness and invited the gentle Midas to choose a reward: the king asked that everything he touched should turn to gold.
Dionysus agreed, with an enigmatic smile. Midas went away happy, and whenever he brushed against a leafy branch, picked up a stone, or gathered ears of grain, they were transformed into gold. But when he sat down to eat, the bread, the meat, and even th
e water mixed with wine that he poured down his throat turned into yellow gold. Midas ran the risk of dying of hunger and thirst and begged Dionysus to rid him of the dangerous gift. The god relented and sent him to purify himself in a spring, which, fro
