Who is the author of a legend? No single person. Over the years, many people add to an initial story, which is based on fact.

Publius Ovidius Naso, the Roman poet known as Ovid, included the Midas story in his great poem Metamorphoses. This tells around 250 Roman and Greek Legends in 15 books.

The Midas tales, in a story collection connected with Dionysus, first appeared in the Athenian ‘satyr’ comedy plays in Ancient Greece.

Ovid wrote poetry at the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus. In 8 CE, Augustus banished Ovid from Rome to Tomis, on the Black Sea.