American Journal of Philology

Abstract:

This article proposes a sustained politicized reading of the myth of Midas in Ovid's Metamorphoses. It argues that Midas stands, first, as the embodiment of failed, Hellenistic kingship, with its ostentatious display of wealth and heralding of a new Golden Age, and, second, as a warning against the infectious "love of gold," to which Roman politicians are far from immune. While the capture of Silenus and the golden touch episode link Midas with the tropes of Hellenistic kingship, his involvement in the competition between Pan and Apollo raises questions about the tropes of Roman imperial power itself.