This man tries to keep the secret, but finally must whisper it into a hole in the ground. Embarrassed, Midas covers his ears with a turban, but the man who cuts his hair discovers the transformation. In response Apollo transforms Midas' ears into those of an ass. Tmolus, the mountain god, is the judge, and he declares Apollo the winner only Midas dares to raise his voice and object. Even then he finds trouble: one day Pan challenges Phoebus Apollo to a music contest - his pipes against Apollo's lyre. Bacchus undoes the wish, telling him to wash himself in a certain river, and Midas lives out his days an ascetic follower of Pan. At first overjoyed, King Midas realizes the foolish nature of his wish when he can no longer eat or drink. As a reward, Bacchus offers to grant King Midas one wish, and Midas wishes that whatever he touches will turn to gold. Bacchus then returns to his home, only to find that his foster-father Silenus has been captured by the Phrygians and brought to King Midas, who, a follower of Bacchus himself, returns Silenus. Bacchus punishes his Maenads for killing Orpheus, who sung about his attributes, and transforms them into oak trees.

Meanwhile, Orpheus himself is quite happy, because he joins his Eurydice in the afterlife. The birds and beasts, who loved to hear him sing, mourn Orpheus. They tear him to pieces in a Bacchic frenzy. While Orpheus sings, a group of women arrive who claim that he has scorned them.

Tales from ovid