Midas

Midas (Greek: Μίδας) was a mythical king of Phrygia, an Ancient Greek state in what is now west-central Turkey. Midas is the subject of humourous stories which have pervaded Western culture.

In the most famous Midas story, the King is granted a wish for a service to the god Dionysus. He wishes for the ability to turn everything he touched into gold. He soon turns all his food to gold and nearly starves to death before Dionysus comes to his aid and revokes the power. The most famous image of Midas in popular culture has him transform his daughter into a golden statue; ironically this part of the story is not from the original version, but was added on by the American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in the mid 19th century. In the second-most famous Midas story, he is cursed by the god Apollo to have large ears resembling a donkey's; to cover this deformity, Midas invents the distinctive "Phrygian cap," which through a complicated chain of historical events, became the symbol of iconic nonconformist societies in Rome, France, Belgium, and other countries.

Midas in "Miss Manners' Guide to Greek Missology"

Midas was in charge of Midas Golden Pages, the directory where Andromeda learned about Victoria and the Gorgons. He was unable to answer all of Andromeda's questions, and explained that although he had big ears, he couldn't hear everything.