Why didn't he just have a servant feed him? He was rich enough to afford one.

Do only things he touch with his fingers turn to gold, or does any part of his person suffice?

If the latter, then food turns to indigestible gold upon touching his digestive track, his servant, no doubt quaking from the fear being accidentally touched, can help him.

It isn't supposed to make literal sense. It's one of those literary, whaddyacallem, alligatories.

Boru

I guess every (old) fairytale doesn't make sense. Snow White - a beautiful girl runs away from her stepmother and lives with dwarves but then her stepmom finds her and kills her until she resurrects when a handsome prince kisses her.
Red Riding Hood: a girl dressed in red visits her grandmother who is actually a wolf in drag so that girl doesn't recognize him and he can eat her.

They make so little sense that people today make whatever they want with them, like Freud and alike who tried to explain them as some subconscious sexual musings.

People were perhaps dumber in the past, or stories lose meaning with time, and the stories that we find interesting today will make no sense for people in thousands of years in the future.

(April 25, 2022 at 3:21 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: It isn't supposed to make literal sense. It's one of those literary, whaddyacallem, alligatories.

Boru

Are crocodile tears also an alligatory?

(April 25, 2022 at 12:36 am)Foxaire Wrote: Why didn't he just have a servant feed him? He was rich enough to afford one.

It's allegory. Midas was king of Phrygia, the place that supposedly invented the concept of coined money (according to legend, that is). So this kingdom was fantastically rich, which leads to other problems.

Midas also supposedly had the ears of a donkey, which he kept secret from everyone except his barber. The barber whispered this secret into the ground (he had to say it out load). Some reeds grew from this spot and the wind passing through revealed Midas' secret.

And yes, in the story, the food and drink would turn to gold upon touching his mouth.

Midas' father was named Gordias. According to another legend, the city of Phrygia was told that the new king would appear with a wagon. Gordias and Midas then appeared leading a wagon and Gordias (or Midas, depending on the version) was made king.  The wagon was tied up with a knot that was supposedly very complicated. This Gordian knot carried a prophecy that anyone who could untie it would become ruler of the world.

Later, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot, but got so frustrated that he took out his sword and sliced through it. When he later conquered a good part of the known world, it was decided that he solved the knot in the right way.

Again, an allegory for being able to find an out-of-the-box solution to a problem.

Stop ruining 'Gold Finger' for me.

(I'm gonna send Random Task to your house)

(April 25, 2022 at 8:25 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Later, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot, but got so frustrated that he took out his sword and sliced through it. When he later conquered a good part of the known world, it was decided that he solved the knot in the right way.

What I find interesting is that a historical figure comes along and participates in a myth.

(April 25, 2022 at 11:16 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:

(April 25, 2022 at 8:25 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Later, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot, but got so frustrated that he took out his sword and sliced through it. When he later conquered a good part of the known world, it was decided that he solved the knot in the right way.

What I find interesting is that a historical figure comes along and participates in a myth.

A lot of historical figures wrote themselves into mythologies.

(April 25, 2022 at 11:16 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote:

(April 25, 2022 at 8:25 pm)polymath257 Wrote: Later, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot, but got so frustrated that he took out his sword and sliced through it. When he later conquered a good part of the known world, it was decided that he solved the knot in the right way.

What I find interesting is that a historical figure comes along and participates in a myth.

A historic figure?   

King Midas himself is quite as historic as Alexander the Great, I assure you, even if his touch is as mythical as the sword thar sliced the knot.