Metamorphoses

Ovid tells another moralizing tale in the story of King Midas. Bacchus grants the king a wish of his choosing after Midas helps him, and Midas wishes for everything he touches to turn to gold. However, Midas had not thought through the implications of this gift, which prevents him from touching or consuming food or drink. Unlike other mortals who make bad requests of the gods, like Phaethon, Midas admits his mistake, which Bacchus calls his “foolish choice” (253). Since Midas appropriately begs the god for mercy, Bacchus helps him lift the gift-curse.

This stands in contrast to other mortals who made ill-fated requests from the gods (like Phaethon or even Semele). These other mortals do not (or do not get a chance to) beg pardon and they usually die. Midas therefore represents a positive and a negative example of behavior. The negative example is his wish—do not be greedy, and do not ask for too much, or it will backfire. The positive example is Midas’ humbleness—admit your mistakes and the gods will help you recover.

Midas provides a further lesson later in his life when he judges a contest between Apollo and Pan. After the two gods play their music and Apollo wins, Ovid writes, “yet one voice challenging, / crass-witted Midas’ voice, calling it unjust. / Apollo could not suffer ears so dull / to keep their human shape” (254). Apollo then turns Midas’ ears to donkey ears. Ovid calls Midas “crass-witted” because the former king is insensitive and mindless enough to not realize that insulting Apollo is a bad idea. In this story then, Midas provides a purely negative example of behavior. As with Arachne or Niobe, it is always bad to insult the gods.

Later, King Ceyx and his wife Alcyone serve as examples of powerful love like Orpheus and Eurydice. Their love for each other is so strong that Alcyone can barely bear to part from him. Even worse, when Ceyx dies far from their homeland and Alcyone finds out the news, she cries, “now far away I’ve died” (270). This shows that she thinks her husband’s death is so distressing that she feels dead herself. She leaps into the ocean and is turned into a bird (specifically a kingfisher, known also as a “halcyon” bird from Alcyone’s name), and the gods turn Ceyx into a bird too. Ovid writes then that for a period each year, “the Wind-god keeps his squalls / imprisoned and forbids the storms to break” (271). This gives the aetiology (or origin) of the phrase in English “halcyon days,” which indicates mild weather or even a general period of calm and peace.