M A N
'Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee'
Bassanio, Merchant of Venice
Midas
Midas, in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia in
Asia Minor. For his hospitality to the satyr Silenus, Dionysus, god of
wine, offered to grant Midas anything he wished. The king requested that
everything he touched be turned to gold, but he soon regretted his choice
because even his food and water were changed to gold. To free himself from
the enchantment, Midas was instructed by Dionysus to bathe in the Pactolus
River. It was said that afterward the sands of the river contained gold.
Midas was also one of the judges in a musical
contest between the gods Apollo and Pan. When Midas preferred Pan's playing
of the pipes to Apollo's playing of the lyre, Apollo changed Midas's ears
to those of an ass. Midas was able to conceal his ears from all but his
barber, who whispered the secret into a hole in the ground. When the wind
blew, the reeds that grew over the hole repeated the story.
'In such a night
stood Dido with a willow in her hand
Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love
to come again to Carthage'
Lorento, Merchant of Venice
Dido
Daughter of Belus, king of Tyre. When Dido's husband
was killed by her brother Pygmalion, Dido fled with her followers to North
Africa. She purchased the site of Carthage from a native ruler, Larbus,
who, when the new city began to prosper, threatened Dido with war unless
she married him. Rather than submit Dido stabbed herself, or, in another
version, the Trojan prince Aeneas was shipwrecked at Carthage. He remained
there with Dido, who had fallen in love with him, until commanded by the
god Jupiter to abandon her and continue his journey. In despair at his
departure, Dido killed herself on a funeral pyre.
'Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;
See, and then speak yourselves.'
Macduff, Macbeth
Gorgon
Gorgon, in greek mythology, one of three monstrous
daughters if the sea god Phorcys and his wife Ceto, The Gorgons were terrifying,
dragon like creatures, covered with golden scales and having snakes for
hair. They live on the farthest side of the western ocean, shunned because
their glance turned people into stone. Two of the Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale,
were immortal; Medusa alone could be killed. The hero Perseus killed Medusa
and brought back her head, with the help of the deities Hermes and Athena.
From her blood sprang the wing horse Pegasus, her son by the god Poseidon.
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