The golden touch

The golden touch

Many of the world’s best stories were first told long ago by Greeks. They used to tell stories of gods and goddesses-strong, wise and beautiful, who sometimes came to earth and mixed with the people of the there.  Sometimes they rewarded them for good deeds or punished them for evil. Sometimes they helped the people of the earth. Sometimes they played tricks on foolish people to teach them a lesson, as in the story of King Midas. King Midas loved gold more than anything else in the world. His greatest pleasure was counting it. One day he was visited by Bacchus, one of the Greek gods. Midas had once helped Bacchus and in return Bacchus offered him a gift. “What can I give you’’, he said, “that would bring happiness?” Midas thought for a moment and then decided. “Let everything I touch be turned in to gold”, he asked. Bacchus laughed loud and long when he heard this but agreed. He told Midas that as soon as the sun rose next morning, he would have the ‘Golden Touch’.  When Midas woke up the next day, he found that Bacchus had kept his word. The first thought that came to him was that the bedclothes seemed heavier and much less soft than usual. Looking at them, he realized that they had turned in to gold! So had his pillows. He stretched out his hand and touched the bed posts. They immediately became pillars of solid gold. He jumped out of bed with a glad cry. He had been given the “Golden Touch!” As he dressed, his royal robes of crimson and purple changed in to clothes of gold. When he moved about the room, his foot prints on the floor showed the same precious metal. His sandals, as he slipped his feet in to them, because golden. Over joyed, he went from room to room, touching things here and there. Hangings, rugs, chairs, and tables, even a bird in its cage his magic touch transformed them all. Upon entering the garden, he breathed deeply the scent of the roses and the other flowers. How lovely they looked with the dew upon them! Midas touched them lightly, thinking to make them! Midas touched them lightly, thinking to make them lovelier still. The scent and the color faded but to Midas, the golden blossoms on their stiff golden stems seemed much more beautiful than they were before.