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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
A band of frenzied and rejected Thracian women kill Orpheus, angering the god Bacchus. Bacchus turns the Thracian women into trees.
Bacchus grants King Midas a wish for his help. Midas asks that everything he touch turn to gold. Soon Midas regrets this gift. Ovid writes, “no plenty can relieve his hunger; thirst / burns in his throat; justly the loathsome gold / tortures him” (253). Midas prays to Bacchus for help, and Bacchus undoes the gift.
Later, Midas judges a musical contest between Apollo and the god Pan. When he sides with Pan, Apollo angrily turns Midas’ ears into donkey ears.
By Ovid