midas son of gordias son of midas son of gordias each king of phrygia bestowed his father’s name upon his son one midas is said to have invented currency this may or may not be the same midas cursed so that all he touched transformed to gold since coinage transmutes each thing to its monetary price even human beings as midas discovered when he held his daughter the curse was lifted by washing his hands in the river pactolus releasing liquidity into the market so the river’s sands were hence replete with gold another midas or maybe the same was blighted with donkey’s ears after he undervalued music of apollo this midas hid the ears under a phrygian cap only his barber knew the secret but couldn’t hold it the barber hissed “midas has ass’s ears” into a hole and then covered it up wealth grew out of this buried talent the reeds whispered “midas has ass’s ears midas has ass’s ears” as breezes stirred the yield of sound investment a variant of the myth spread to turkmenistan’s yenisei basin this barber whispered the secret into a dark well overnight its waters rose to submerge the kingdom beneath lake issyk-kul capital’s offensive once more totalised then there’s gordias father or son of one midas he tied a knot that no one could undo and promised that whoever solved it would conquer the world at last alexander the great cheated and cut it open gordias had invented the same thing as his father-son revealing how capital entangles itself throughout space and time but which of these feats is greatest
• the first minting of coins
• the gordian knot
