Midas was king of Phrygia.  He was the son of Gordius, a poor countryman, who was taken by the people and made king, in obedience to the command of the oracle, which had said that their future king should come in a wagon.  While the people were deliberating, Gordius with his wife and son came driving his wagon into the public square.

Gordius, being made king, dedicated his wagon to the deity of the oracle, and tied it up in its place with a fast knot.  This was the celebrated Gordian knot, which, in after times it was said, whoever should untie should become lord of all Asia.  Many tried to untie it, but none succeeded, till Alexander the Great, in his career of conquest, came to Phrygia.  He tried his skill with as ill success as others, till growing impatient he drew his sword and cut the knot.  When he afterwards succeeded in subjecting all Asia to his sway, people began to think that he had complied with the terms of the oracle according to its true meaning.

BAUCIS AND PHILEMON

On a certain hill in Phrygia stands a linden tree and an oak, enclosed by a low wall.  Not far from the spot is a marsh, formerly good habitable land, but now indented with pools, the resort of fen-birds and cormorants.  Once on a time Jupiter, in, human shape, visited this country, and with him his son Mercury (he of the caduceus), without his wings.  They presented themselves, as weary travellers, at many a door, seeking rest and shelter, but found all closed, for it was late, and the inhospitable inhabitants would not rouse themselves to open for their reception.  At last a humble mansion received them, a small thatched cottage, where Baucis, a pious old dame, and her husband Philemon, united when young, had grown old together.  Not ashamed of their poverty, they made it endurable by moderate desires and kind dispositions.  One need not look there for master or for servant; they two were the whole household, master and servant alike.  When the two heavenly guests crossed the humble threshold, and bowed their heads to pass under the low door, the old man placed a seat, on which Baucis, bustling and attentive, spread a cloth, and begged them to sit down.  Then she raked out the coals from the ashes, and kindled up a fire, fed it with leaves and dry bark, and with her scanty breath blew it into a flame.  She brought out of a corner split sticks and dry branches, broke them up, and placed them under the small kettle.  Her husband collected some pot-herbs in the garden, and she shred them from the stalks, and prepared them for the pot.  He reached down with a forked stick a flitch of bacon hanging in the chimney, cut a small piece, and put it in the pot to boil with the herbs, setting away the rest for another time.  A beechen bowl was filled with warm water, that their guests might wash.  While all was doing, they beguiled the time with conversation.