The best-known myth about Silenus involved Midas, a king of Phrygia in western Asia. According to one version, the drunken Silenus lost his way and became separated from Dionysus and the other satyrs. He came to the beautiful gardens of King Midas, who invited him to stay and threw a great feast in his honor. When Dionysus found Silenus, he was so grateful to the king that he granted him his wish: he wanted to be able to turn anything into gold by touching it—Midas’s famous “golden touch.” However, in another version, Midas
Above: The Drunken Silenus by French artist Honore Daumier (1808—1879).This charcoal drawing depicts Silenus as an inebriated and overweight old man, supported by other satyrs and his donkey.
Trapped the satyr by filling a spring in his garden with wine. Silenus was tempted by this bait, and Midas caught him. Forced to reveal his wisdom in exchange for his freedom, Silenus told Midas that humans are happiest if they are never born, and if they are born, happiest if they die young.
In Cyclops, a play by Greek dramatist Euripides (c. 486—c. 406 BCE), Silenus is portrayed as a servant of the Cyclops Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant whom Odysseus encountered on his journey home from the Trojan War. Euripides explained that while pursuing robbers who had kidnapped Dionysus, the ship carrying Silenus and his sons was blown off course in the direction of Polyphemus’s island, where they were captured by the Cyclops, and made to serve him. Cyclops is a type of play known as a satyr, a comedy that includes a chorus—characters who chant, dance, and comment on the action—of satyrs.
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