King Midas and the Golden Touch: The Complete Story of the Gift That Became a Curse | Greek Mythology for Sleep

King Midas and the Golden Touch: The Complete Story of the Gift That Became a Curse | Greek Mythology for SleepA slow, quiet retelling of the story of Midas, made for falling asleep to.Everybody knows the one sentence: a king wished that everything he touched would turn to gold, and got it. What almost nobody remembers is that the wish was a reward. He'd done somebody a kindness — an old man found wandering drunk in his rose garden, looked after for days and returned safely home — and this was the thanks. Nobody tricked him. He asked for it himself, and it was granted exactly as he asked.The next part takes longer than the versions you were told as a child. There is a stretch where it's wonderful. Then there's a meal, and a cup, and the slow arithmetic of a man working out what he's actually done to himself. And then, in most tellings, a daughter, though she's a much later addition to the story. What he does next — the walking, the river, the washing of his hands — is the only part of the myth where he behaves well.And then it keeps going, which surprises people. There's a second half to Midas: a music contest he was unwise enough to have an opinion about, a punishment that left him with something he had to keep hidden under a hat for the rest of his life, and a barber who couldn't stand knowing a secret and whispered it into a hole in the ground. The reeds that grew there repeated it to everyone who passed. He is the only figure in Greek myth punished twice for the same flaw, and the second time is funnier.The recording itself is the usual thing. A low, even voice, no music, no sound effects, nothing that rises or drops or suddenly arrives. Long enough that the end of it isn't really the destination, slow enough that following along stops feeling necessary somewhere in the first twenty minutes. If you drift off in the rose garden and surface again by the river, that's the intended use. Most people don't make it past the first half hour, and the rest will still be here tomorrow night.Put it on, turn the volume down, and let it go on without you.Mythology & Folklore for Sleep — long, calm retellings of Greek myths, Norse legends, Egyptian tales, Hindu epics, Chinese classics and old folklore from around the world, made for insomnia and the hours when you can't sleep. Bedtime stories for adults, told in a slow, quiet voice. New episodes every day.