Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: JUVENILE FICTION / General
Publisher: Oxbow Books, Limited
Published: 2017-10-30T00:00:00+00:00

King Midas had learned a harsh lesson. He now hated the sight of gold, and he no longer had any wish to be wealthy. Instead, he developed the ambition to become a great musician. He started to study music with the god Pan, who was an expert in playing the reed pipes.

The god Pan thought that he was the best musician amongst the gods. But the god Apollo, an expert in playing the lyre, thought that he was the best musician amongst the gods. Pan and Apollo decided to hold a competition to decide who was the best musician. They would each play a tune, and a judge would award a prize for the best performance. Pan and Apollo chose King Midas as the competition judge.

A large audience assembled, Midas sat at the judge’s desk, and the competition began. First Pan played a lovely tune on his reed pipes, then Apollo played a lovely tune on his lyre. The audience clapped and cheered for Pan, but they clapped and cheered much louder for Apollo. Apollo was the audience’s favourite musician; he should have won the prize. But Midas foolishly decided to award the prize for the best performance to his friend and teacher, Pan.

Apollo was very angry. He had really wanted to win the music competition. He knew that he was the better musician, and he knew that the king had deliberately given the prize to his own friend, Pan. Apollo cursed Midas, shouting that he could not have listened to the music properly, because he had the ears of a donkey. And instantly, Midas grew a pair of long, hairy donkey ears. Apollo laughed and laughed, the audience laughed and laughed, and even Pan smiled a bit. King Midas looked very silly with his new ears.

Midas did not laugh. He was horrified and embarrassed by his long, hairy donkey ears. He tried to hide them by always wearing a very tall hat. This worked quite well but, of course, he had to take his hat off when he had his hair cut. Apart from the queen, the royal barber was therefore the only person in the land who knew that King Midas had donkey ears. The barber was told that he must not, under any circumstances, tell anyone about the king’s unusual ears. But the barber was a very talkative man, and he found it difficult to keep such an interesting secret. So, driven mad by his desire to tell someone – anyone – that King Midas had donkey ears, the barber thought of a plan.

Late one night, the royal barber crept out of the palace. He ran to the river bank and, having looked around nervously to make sure that no one was watching, dug a deep hole in the ground. He then bent over, stuck his head right into the hole, and whispered the secret that he had been longing to tell: “King Midas has donkey’s ears”. Immediately, the barber felt much better. He returned to the palace, and never spoke about the king’s ears again.

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