in fabulous history, a famous king of Phrygia, who having received Bacchus with great magnificence, that god, out of gratitude, offered to grant him whatever he should ask. Midas desired that every thing he touched should be changed into gold. Bacchus consented; and Midas, with extreme pleasure, everywhere found the effects of his touch. But he had soon reason to repent of his folly: for wanting to eat and drink, the aliments no sooner entered his mouth than they were changed into gold. This obliged him to have recourse to Bacchus again, to beseech him to restore him to his former state; on which the god ordered him to bathe in the river Pactolus, which from thenceforward had golden sands. Some time after, being chosen judge between Pan and Apollo, he gave another instance of his folly and bad taste, in preferring Pan's music to Apollo's; on which the latter being enraged, gave him a pair of asses ears. This Midas attempted to conceal from the knowledge of his subjects: but one of his servants saw the length of his ears, and being unable to keep the secret, yet afraid to rec- veal it from apprehension of the king's resentment, he opened a hole in the earth, and after he had whispered there that Midas had the ears of an ass, he covered the place as before, as if he had buried his words in the ground. On that place, as the poets mention, grew a number of reeds, which when agitated by the wind uttered the same sound that had been buried beneath, and published to the world that Midas had the ears of an ass. Some explain the fable of the ears of Midas, by the supposition that he kept a number of informers and spies, who were continually employed in gathering every seditious word that might drop from the mouths of his subjects. Midas, according to Strabo, died of drinking bull's hot blood. This he did, as Plutarch mentions, to free himself from the numerous ill dreams which continually tormented him. Midas, according to some, was son of Cybele. He built a town which he called Anycyr.

Midas, Ear-shell. See Haliotis, Conchology Index.

MID-heaven, the point of the ecliptic that culminates, or in which it cuts the meridian.