The legends told about this Midas and his father Gordias, credited with founding the Phrygian capital city Gordium and tying the Gordian Knot, indicate that they were believed to have lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC, well before the Trojan War.

According to Aristotle, legend held that Midas died of starvation as a result of his 'vain prayer' for the gold touch. The Phrygian city Midaeum was presumably named after him, and this is probably also the Midas that according to Pausanias founded Ancyra (today known as Ankara). This came to be called the golden touch, or the Midas touch. The most famous King Midas is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold.

Midas ( / ˈ m aɪ d ə s/ Greek: Μίδας) is the name of one of at least three members of the royal house of Phrygia. In the Nathaniel Hawthorne version of the Midas myth, Midas' daughter turns to a golden statue when he touches her (illustration by Walter Crane for the 1893 edition)

Midas civil