Last week we read the story King Midas and the Golden Touch. Stella Kassimati unravels the meaning of the myth for us..
Often this myth is told as a didactic myth to children to ‘teach’ them that greed or having an obsession is not a good thing. Sometimes the telling even ends with the death of Midas and not with his redemption, just to emphasise the moral or the ‘lesson’ they want the children to ‘learn’. In my opinion this is not exploring the full richness and wisdom that a myth offers. We can look at a myth on this level and also we can try and ‘unpack’ it and see what other gems of wisdom are hidden there, waiting for us to find.
The way I start this process is by letting the questions that the myth brings up in me come to the surface. I look up ‘information’ eg. What is the landscape of the myth, the weather, the language, the qualities, realms, powers of Gods and Goddesses etc. and I begin to live with the questions that are not asking for information like ‘Why did Midas stop going to his garden, which he so loved?’ I don’t try to answer these questions. This is sometimes difficult for we are not used to living with uncertainty and we want to ‘google’ and find the answers right away. But it is exactly through this uncertainty, through this not knowing that the myth starts to unfold within us and we start to relate to it in a personal way. There is no right or wrong answer to such a question and whatever our inner self, our imagination in a way, eventually tells us, that will be the right answer. This is what I love about myths and stories: there are no wrong answers, there are no mistakes. And we need to live with the questions till the Aha! moment, the moment of epiphany, of realisation arrives, all in its own good time.
Simply put, a myth is a story that involves immortal beings, Gods and Goddesses. Sometimes the Gods and Goddesses enter the story very briefly, but their appearance is never inconsequential. Something happens, it may be the energy of the God or Goddess influencing the course of events or it may be something more visible, but in any case something shifts, something changes.
What intrigued me in this myth, which is usually passed over very lightly, is that Midas feasted Silenus for ten whole days. Silenus was the teacher and mentor of Dionysos, a very wise and knowledgeable Satyr also known as the Father of the Satyrs. Such a being carries great power and prepares the ground, so to speak, for the appearance of the God himself, but all the myth tells us was that Midas feasted him for ten days and some days after Silenus left, for the first time since he was a young man, Midas went for a walk in his rose garden. In my mind there is a strong connection between Silenus’s ten day visit and Midas visiting his garden for the first time in many years. So questions start to come up. What is the significance of Silenus himself appearing and not any Satyr? This nature spirit Silenus, this wise old mentor and teacher of Dionysos, what did he say to Midas? What did they talk about for ten days that resulted in Midas revisiting something that he had created and so dearly loved in his youth? What is Silenus saying to me? When did he appear in my life and how did my life change after that? What was a Silenus moment in my life? What is the myth telling me here?
As already said, as soon as questions arise, then the myth starts to talk to us. The questions are the important thing, not the answers. We need to develop the ability to live comfortably with questions and let the answers come from our bodies, from our inner self, in their own good time. We cannot rush them. We just have to sit with the not-knowing, with the unknown and the answers will come, in a short while or in a long while.
Later on in this myth, a higher power, a God, Dionysos enters the story. What does He bring? To be able to explore this we need to first know what his special powers are. What is he the God of? Dionysos was a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation, especially known as a God of wine and ecstasy; freedom; masks, inspiration, creativity and illusion.
In this story, He appears sitting on the ground in the middle of the rose garden playing his panpipes and calls Midas to him through his music. One might ask what is the significance of this? Why doesn’t Dionysos just appear in front of Midas, instead of calling Midas to Him through his music? He asks Midas what is it he most desires and Midas of course, without even pausing to think says “Gold!” Dionysos warns him this is not a great idea, but Midas insists. He wants everything he touches to turn to gold. What is it that we most desire? What can Dionysos do? He grants Midas his wish.
Then begins Midas’s ordeal of removing the masks and uncovering his illusion(s) and seeing what it is he really wants which will lead him to freedom. This is Dionysos’s energy; to help us remove the masks and to see through the illusion. In this myth he does that by letting Midas go to extremes with his desire. He had warned Midas that this wish was foolish, but Midas could not heed this warning. He was under the illusion that he needed gold, gold and more gold. Slowly the masks were removed till very painfully and clearly he saw where this would lead – to his own death.
What we really need to lead us to freedom is different for each of us and even freedom is different. The removal of masks can also lead us to our inner self, to our divine self, which rests in our core.
We see that by unpacking the myth there are other things we can learn from it. There is more to it than just ‘don’t be greedy’ which is on the surface. The message of this myth may be, ‘discover what you need for you to reach a state of freedom and to reveal your divine self’. It may be that ‘help’ is close by when we take up the call, as Midas did by visiting his garden again. It may be, ‘listen to the message of Nature, in whatever form it takes’. This myth may tell us to find and then to follow what we truly desire. It may be a number of things and the beauty of myths and stories is that there is no one correct interpretation. It really depends on our life experience and where we are at the moment. You can hear the same story or myth a year later, or even the next day and come to different meanings and messages and hidden gems. There are no mistakes and there are as many correct answers as there are people seeking them. I hope you’ll enjoy unpacking myths and discovering what hidden gems of wisdom they hold just for you, especially this one!
