The Real Life King With the Golden Touch
There actually was an eighth century BC King Midas of Phrygia, whom we know of from ancient Greek and Assyrian sources. Per Greek sources, this King Midas married a princess Hermodice, who is credited by some ancient sources with the invention of Greek coinage, or money. Phrygia, as an early adopter of coined money, probably experienced an economic boom in comparison to her neighbors, who still relied on the more inefficient barter system for trade. So from that perspective, it is not hard to see how the stories of Phrygia’s King Midas with a golden touch got started. Simultaneously, Assyrian tablets from that period refer to a King “Mita”, who attacked Assyria’s east Anatolian territories.
Concrete evidence of Midas’ existence emerged in 1957, when archaeologist Rodney Young opened a massive tomb compound near the site of ancient Gordium, in modern Turkey. Roughly 900 feet long and 160 feet high, it includes a royal burial from circa 740 BC. In it were found the remains of a coffin that hosted a 5 foot 3 man in his 60s. He was accompanied into the afterlife with ornate tables and bronze vessels that contained traces of alcohol – apparently, a final feast for the departed. Young named the tomb the “Midas Mound”, after the legendary king of the golden touch. Later dating indicates that it was probably not the grave of our Midas, but that of his father.
