Bajke iz klasične starine

Once the god Dionysus and his friends wandered from their homeland in Phrygia. They walked on the wine-producing heights of Mount Tmolus and the fertile valleys of the Pactolus River. Only Silenus was not with them because the wine had put him to sleep. The Phrygian peasants found Silenus asleep and brought him to their king, Midas. The king received him warmly, and began to entertain him for ten days and ten nights. On the eleventh day, King Midas brought his guest to the god Dionysus. Happy that his old friend had returned to him, Dionysus persuaded King Midas to ask him for any gift. Midas asked that everything he touched turn to gold. Dionysus fulfilled his wish, and Midas happily set off home. On the way home, Midas picked apples, plucked branches, and gathered grain, and all of it turned into gold. When he arrived home, not knowing what to do with his joy and delight, Midas ordered his servants to prepare him a plentiful meal and drink. However, when he began to eat, everything turned to gold. Then the king realized what a gift he had asked for. So rich, yet so poor. Then the king began to pray to the god Dionysus to free him from this spell. The god Dionysus heard his prayers, and sent him to bathe at the source of the Pactolus River. Midas did so, and thus the spell disappeared. From then on, Midas hated all wealth, left his magnificent palace and preferred to wander the fields and forests, worshiping the rural and agricultural god Pan. So he once came across a music competition between the gods Pan and Apollo. The judge was the old mountain god Tmol, who awarded the victory to Apollo. Midas was dissatisfied with the judge's decision, and claimed that the prize belonged to Pan. Then Apollo, invisible, grabbed Midas by both ears and gently pulled them up. From then on, Midas had donkey ears on his head, which he wanted to hide from the people with a huge turban. But the boy who was cutting his hair could no longer keep it a secret, so he went to the riverbank and dug a hole in the ground and whispered his strange secret into it. Soon a dense forest of reeds grew up in that place, which rustled strangely when the wind blew over them. It seemed as if they were whispering: "Donkey's ears to King Midas"! Thus the strange secret was revealed to the whole world...