View source for Midas

== Midas (8th century BCE) ==
Another King Midas ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BCE, up until the [[Cimmerian invasion of Phrygia|sacking of Gordium]] by the [[Cimmerians]], when he is said to have committed suicide. Most historians believe this Midas is the same person as the ''Mita'', called king of the [[Mushki]] in Assyrian texts, who warred with [[Assyria]] and its [[Ancient Anatolians|Anatolian]] provinces during the same period.<ref name=":0" />

The King Midas who ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BCE is known from Greek and Assyrian sources. According to the former, he married a Greek princess, [[Hermodike II (Demodike II, Hermodice II, Damodice II)|Damodice]], daughter of Agamemnon of [[Cyme (Aeolis)|Cyme]], and traded extensively with the Greeks. Damodice is credited with inventing coined money by [[Julius Pollux]] after she married Midas.<ref>The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology, Martin Persson Nilsson, University of California Press, 1972, p. 48</ref> Some historians believe this Midas donated the throne that [[Herodotus]] says was offered to the [[Oracle of Delphi]] by "Midas son of Gordias" (see above). Assyrian tablets from the reign of [[Sargon II]] record attacks by a "Mita", king of the [[Mushki]], against Assyria's eastern Anatolian provinces. Some historians believe Assyrian texts called this Midas king of the "Mushki" because he had subjected the eastern Anatolian people of that name and incorporated them into his army. Greek sources including [[Strabo]]<ref>[[Strabo]] I.3.21.</ref> say that Midas committed suicide by drinking [[bull's blood]] during an attack by the Cimmerians, which [[Eusebius]] dated to around 695 BCE and [[Julius Africanus]] to around 676 BCE. Archeology has confirmed that [[Gordium]] was destroyed and burned around that time.<ref>Encyclopædia Britannica.</ref>

=== Possible tomb ===
[[Image:Museum of Anatolian Civilizations055 kopie1.jpg|thumb|Reconstruction of the Tumulus MM burial, [[Museum of Anatolian Civilizations]], Ankara, Turkey]]

In 1957, [[Rodney Young (archaeologist)|Rodney Young]] and a team from the [[University of Pennsylvania]] opened a chamber tomb at the heart of the Great Tumulus (in Greek, Μεγάλη Τούμπα)—53&nbsp;metres in height, about 300&nbsp;metres in diameter—on the site of ancient [[Gordium|Gordion]] (modern [[Yassıhüyük, Polatlı|Yassıhüyük]], Turkey), where there are more than 100 [[tumulus|tumuli]] of different sizes and from different periods.<ref>Rodney Young, ''Three Great Early Tumuli: The Gordion Excavations Final Reports, Volume 1,'' (1981):79–102.</ref> They discovered a royal burial, its timbers dated as cut to about 740 BCE<ref>{{cite book |first=Keith |last=DeVries |chapter=Greek Pottery and Gordion Chronology |editor-first=Lisa |editor-last=Kealhofer |title=The Archaeology of Midas and the Phrygians: Recent Work at Gordion |year=2005 |pages=42ff |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology |isbn=1-931707-76-6 }} {{cite journal |first=Sturt |last=Manning |title=Anatolian Tree Rings and a New Chronology for the East Mediterranean Bronze-Iron Ages |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=294 |issue=5551 |year=2001 |pages=2532–2535 [p. 2534] |doi=10.1126/science.1066112 |pmid=11743159|bibcode=2001Sci...294.2532M |s2cid=33497945 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free }}</ref> complete with remains of the funeral feast and "the best collection of Iron Age drinking vessels ever uncovered".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/1026/title/King_Midas_Modern_Mourners |work=Science News |title=King Midas' modern mourners |date=November 4, 2000 }}</ref> This inner chamber was rather large: 5.15&nbsp;metres by 6.2&nbsp;metres in breadth and 3.25&nbsp;metres high. On the remains of a wooden coffin in the northwest corner of the tomb lay a skeleton of a man 1.59&nbsp;metres in height and about 60 years old.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Elizabeth |last=Simpson |title=Midas' Bed and a Royal Phrygian Funeral |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |volume=17 |year=1990 |issue=1 |pages=69–87 |doi=10.1179/009346990791548484 }}</ref> In the tomb were found an ornate inlaid table, two inlaid serving stands, and [[Gordion Furniture and Wooden Artifacts|eight other tables]], as well as bronze and pottery vessels and bronze fibulae.<ref>Young (1981):102–190. {{cite book |first=Elizabeth |last=Simpson |chapter=Phrygian Furniture from Gordion |title=The Furniture of Western Asia: Ancient and Traditional |editor-first=Georgina |editor-last=Herrmann |editor-link= Georgina Herrmann |year=1996 |location=Mainz |publisher=Philipp Von Zabern |pages=187–209 |isbn=3-8053-1838-3 }}</ref> Although no identifying texts were originally associated with the site, it was called Tumulus MM (for "Midas Mound") by the excavator. As this funerary monument was erected before the traditional date given for the death of King Midas in the early 7th century BCE, it is now generally thought to have covered the burial of his father.