KING MIDAS

King Midas was a greedy king. He was always wanting more. He wanted more money, he wanted more goats, he wanted more horses, he wanted more baths. He even wanted more gardens, even though the garden he already had was possibly the most beautiful in the whole land.

The gardens were surrounded by miles of high white walls and there were only two ways to get in. One was the king's private entrance through the palace and the other was a huge heavy iron gate, but this was kept locked and guarded at all times.

Inside the gardens was a paradise of fountains and pools, sweet smelling flowers and tall elegant trees. But pride of place went to the king’s collection of fruit trees. There were juicy oranges and tangy lemons, fine ripe apricots and soft pink peaches, fat purple plums and long fleshy pears, almost every delicious fruit you could think grew in his wonderful garden.

Now early each morning before anyone was awake, King Midas liked to stroll through his gardens before the start of his busy day. On one such beautiful morning he was strolling along one of the wide avenues enjoying the early morning sunshine when he heard a strange noise. It sounded like someone sawing. Thinking it might be some thief trying to cut down one of his precious trees he hurried over to investigate.

The noise was coming from underneath a large dark mulberry bush. The king dropped to his knees and peered underneath.

To his surprise he found that it wasn’t a thief sawing but an old man snoring.

‘Hey!’ Shouted the king. ‘Wake up! What are you doing in my garden?’

‘Oh hello’ yawned the old man. ‘Where am I ? Who are you?’

‘I am King Midas!’ said the king, ‘And these are my private royal gardens. Do you know what usually happens to people who dare to come into my private royal gardens without permission? ‘

‘No.’ admitted the old man. ‘But I’m hoping it involves fresh fruit because I’m very hungry and..’

‘Silence!’ roared the king.

‘What happens is that I call my guards. The guards grab hold of you, drag you outside and throw you into jail or chop off your head!’

‘I see,' said the old man. Well do you know who I am?’

‘No.’ replied the king.

‘I am Silenus the magician,’ said the old man. ‘I suggest we forget about the head chopping and in return I will give you a wish. One wish. Anything you like.

‘Anything at all?’ demanded the King suspiciously.

‘Anything your heart desires. ’ replied Silenus. ‘Think about it, I’ll just go for a walk.‘

‘No need. ‘ Insisted the king rubbing his hands together. I’ve decided my wish. I want everything I touch to turn to gold.'

‘Oh no!’ groaned the wizard

‘What do you mean ‘Oh No! ?’ snapped the king. ‘You said Anything I wanted didn’t you?

‘Yes but...’

‘But nothing. I’ll be the richest man in the whole of Greece won’t I?’

‘Yes..’ admitted the magician ‘you will but..’

‘No more buts.’ insisted the impatient king. ‘ Either you give me my wish now or I call the guards.

Silenus shrugged his shoulders.

‘Ok.’ He said and taking his magic wand from under his cloak Silenus touched the king on his shoulder three times.

‘There’ he said. ‘Your wish is granted. ‘

The king could hardly wait to try out his new powers. Straightaway he bent down and picked up a small grey pebble from the path and in a flash it became gold!

‘I’m rich!’ he shouted and put it into his pocket.

And his pocket turned to gold!

He ran over to a nearby tree and picked off a beautiful apple. At once, not only the apple, but the branches and the leaves all became golden. King Midas couldn’t stop laughing. He ran up and down the garden touching everything he saw: plants, rocks, even the water in the fountain turned into bright shimmering gold.

The delighted king left the garden and went back into his palace.

‘Get me my secretary!’ He shouted.

The king’s secretary came running and bowed before the excited king.

‘Your majesty ?’

‘I want a huge feast to celebrate my good fortune.

I want you to invite all the princes and all the lords and nobles in the land. I want the finest food in the whole country. I want the biggest and the best of everything. Can you do that? ‘

‘Yes .’your majesty replied the secretary and he hurried away and did as the king had asked.

A few hours later the feast was prepared and the invited guests had all arrived. When they saw the feast that King Midas had prepared they were astonished. The tables were groaning under the weight of so much food. There were hundreds of loaves of bread there were mountains of cheese there were huge plates of meat and tall jugs brimming with wine. And of course the plates and bowls and knives were all made out of pure glittering gold.

King Midas walked proudly over to the head of the high table.

‘Welcome!’ said the King.

‘Enjoy yourselves. May you all be as happy as I am .’

As he spoke he lifted his glass of wine from the table and put it to his lips. But of course as soon as he picked it up, the glass and all the wine inside turned to gold. In a panic the king dropped the glass and tried to pick up a piece of bread but it too became a hard golden lump. It was the same with everything on the table.

With a cry of terror King Midas ran from the room. He suddenly realised how stupid and greedy he had been. He was never going to be able to drink or eat anything again!

King Midas may have been the richest man that ever lived but at that moment he also became the hungriest and the thirstiest and the most miserable.

Luckily the story has a happy ending, for kind Silenus heard about the king’s troubles and took pity on him. It was clear that King Midas had learned his lesson and was now a much wiser man. Silenus took away the King's greedy wish and in return the grateful King unlocked the gates of his beautiful gardens so that everyone in the kingdom, rich and poor alike, could come and enjoy their peace and beauty.