Unfortunately, some reeds sprang up in that same spot and the reeds themselves whispered the words "King Midas has donkey ears." So the secret was out, and hence today's proverb! The story does make an appearance in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but in that version it is not King Midas's barber, but his own wife who betrays his secret. So, the barber went and dug a hole in the ground and whispered the secret into the hole.
The barber simply could not keep the secret to himself, however, but he knew Midas would be furious if he were to tell any other person. As a result, only his barber knew the secret. Well, Midas was not happy about those donkey ears, so he covered them up by wearing a turban. This made Apollo angry, and he cursed Midas by giving him donkey ears, as donkeys had proverbially no taste in music (a trait perhaps suggested by their raucous braying). Although Apollo was declared the winner of the contest, Midas protested, claiming that Pan's music was superior. This, however, is not the end of Midas's troubles! He decides to abandon the city and go live in the country, where he had the bad luck to be present at a music contest between Apollo and the rustic god Pan. Realizing his terrible mistake, Midas begged the gods to take away the power, and he was told to go bathe in the river Pactolus, which in turn became famous as a river blessed with gold deposits along its banks.
This led to nothing but disaster, as he discovered when he tried to eat and drink even the food he touched and the contents of his goblet turned into gold, so that he almost died of starvation as a result of his good fortune. After the previous proverb, which also featured the proverbial ears of the donkey, I thought this saying would make a good follow-up! Fans of the wonderful Latin text, Auricula Meretricula, will of course recognize the diminutive hear of Latin auris, "ear."Most people today associate King Midas with only one story: the "Midas touch," when King Midas foolishly asked for the power to make everything he touched turn into gold. In English: King Midas has donkey's ears.
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