To the question "What kind of king did donkey ears give out?" the answer is not very difficult. Because the plots of myths and legends of ancient Greece were very often used in literature. Images of gods and heroes, their fate and actions became common nouns. For example, the expression "Sisyphus labor" means exhausting and useless work. "Odyssey" is called a protracted journey. And the expression "donkey ears" means a secret known to many.
Common Heroes
There were many heroes in Ancient Greece, but there are those that many know because of the frequent mention. A king with donkey ears is very popular, and not only because of this original feature. Most of all he is known as a man who turns into gold everything that he touches. And this story also became a symbol of exorbitant greed. The fate of King Phrygia Midas is interesting and eventful. For example, his adoptive father is the same Gordian who invented a knot that could not be unraveled. Legend has it that the person who unleashed it would own Asia. Everyone knows the story of how Alexander the Great chopped it up with one blow, and later took possession of almost the entire mainland. History is also a common noun, and the expression "cut the Gordian knot" means an optimal and quick solution to the seemingly insoluble problem.
Who is he, a king with donkey ears
According to one legend, the king of Phrygia with donkey ears was of divine origin - his mother was the goddess of the rainbow, Ida, the messenger of the gods, and his father was an unknown satyr. When little Midas once slept in a cradle, the ants, lined up in a row, brought and stacked wheat grains near the baby's mouth. The oracle predicted him fabulous wealth.
At one time, Midas was the king of a state that stretched from Greece to Asia Minor - Bromia. The people who lived there were called brig. With them Midas came to Phrygia, where he was adopted by the childless Gordius, after whose death, the wealthy kingdom passed to his adopted son by inheritance. In Phrygia, Midas had rose gardens where the gods visited. It is known that a rose is a flower of Hera. But the king with donkey ears is still best known as a gold mine.
Aggressive emotionality of the inhabitants of Olympus
Why did he have such ears? It is necessary to stipulate the fact that each story from the myths and legends of Greece has at least two options. The hero of this incident was either the god Pan, or the satyr Marsyos, who found the flute of Athena. The sounds made by the flute were divine, and the proud Marsyos challenged Apollo himself to the contest. Actually, the Phrygian satyr was doomed initially. The frivolous and idle Olympians were never distinguished by the logic of judgments and the sequence of actions. Athena Pallas ordered a flute for herself. But the goddess of wisdom did not know that they were blowing to the tune, and when they blow, they puffed out their cheeks. Seeing her face distorted during playing music, she threw off the flute and cursed the one who touched her. Naturally, no one knew about this.
Failed referee
The judge at the music tournament was Midas. It is unlikely that he would have agreed to refereeing, if he could have foreseen that over the next many centuries his name would be the answer to the question; "What kind of king did donkey ears give out?" But maybe because the flute of Athena Pallas really sounded bewitching, the king of Phrygia forgot about everything in the world, and most importantly, about the vengeful and cruel character of Apollo. He awarded the victory to Marcia, for which he received as a reward donkey ears, which Apollo extended and lengthened with his own hands. And Midas still got off well. From the poor satyr, the "golden-wise, silver-armed god of light" stripped the skin of a living person and hung it over the entrance to the grotto near the city of Kelena, so that all Phrygia knew what a victory over God could turn into. According to legend, this skin always rejoiced and seemed to dance at the sound of a flute, and hung mournfully and motionlessly when a kiphara sounded.
Acquired vice
Midas' further life was focused on the hats with which he covered his ears. He did not want his subjects to whisper that King Midas had donkey ears. But to hide the secret from everyone was impossible - because the kings did not wash, did not cut their hair and did not shave on their own. And then the barber of Midas enters the scene - an image more than a household word, symbolizing an unhappy person burdened with the overwhelming burden of someone else's terrible secret, and a talker unable to keep a secret. By virtue of the profession, he became aware of the royal defect, because every day he tucked his ears under his hat. And so, unable to bear the flour of the vow of silence, he found a secluded place, dug a hole and informed the bowels of which king had donkey ears. The poor man did not know that the secret was in the full sense of the word fatal. Reed grew out of the pit. And here the information again bifurcates, as in the case of the second participant in the creative competition - Pan or Marsy. According to some reports, the reed itself was noisy, and soon the whole district could answer the question, which king was given by donkey ears. According to another version, the boy cut a pipe from the ill-fated reed, and she performed only one song - about Midas and his ears. Artists, sculptors, writers and poets have repeatedly turned to the image of the Phrygian king, his secret and his barber.
Ugly but popular
Nowadays, the name of this ill-fated king is known to many, because crosswords with questions like “What kind of king did donkey ears give out?” Can be said to wander from room to room. And most people, unaware of the reasons for this mutation, clearly know the name of Midas. Nowhere is the chronology of the events of this person's life indicated. But it must be assumed that he did not yet have donkey ears when he asked Dionysus about the gift to turn everything into gold. Moreover, it is said in later retelling that he died of hunger, as all food and water turned into a precious metal. And according to myths and legends, he begged the god of winemaking to once again help him and free him from the original gift.
Dionysus told Midas to bathe in the source of Pactolus, which Plutarch called Chrysorroas, or "gold-bearing." According to legend, he became thanks to the ablution of Midas in him. The spell disappeared, gold remained in the source, and the restless
Phrygian king went to meet with a new gift of fate.