SCIENCE REPORT - King Midas
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SCIENCE REPORT
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February 14, 2002: King Midas
By George Grow
This is the VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT.
An American archeologist has a new theory about an ancient statue found in Greece. Keith DeVries of the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia says the statue may have once belonged to King Midas.
He believes the statue may have once been part of the special chair used by the king, called a throne. He says
ancient records and other evidence show the statue came from a throne that Midas is believed to have given as a
gift to the Greek god Apollo.
The small statue is known as “The Lion Tamer.
”
It shows a man and a lion. It is about
twenty-three centimeters tall. It is made of ivory1, from the tusk2 of an elephant. It was
discovered in Nineteen-Thirty-Nine in Delphi, Greece. It had been buried with other objects
near the ruins of the Corinthian Treasury3 building.
King Midas ruled an ancient country called Phrygia in what is now central Turkey. He lived
about two-thousand-seven-hundred years ago. King Midas was said to be extremely rich.
Stories said he could change anything he touched into gold.
The ancient Greek historian4 Herodotus claimed to have seen King
Midas’s throne in the Corinthian treasury at Delphi three-hundred
years after the king died. The throne itself has not been found. The
statue has cuttings in its back. This suggests it was once attached to
something, possibly a chair.
“The Lion Tamer”
statue is in a museum in Delphi, Greece. For years,
experts have debated the statue ’s history. Many experts thought it
came from Greece. However, others thought it came from somewhere
else.
Mister DeVries says the discovery of similar ivory statues in Turkey adds support to his
argument that the statue is Phrygian. Those objects were recovered from burial areas at the ancient Phrygian
capital of Gordion and at Elmali.
Scientists used a process known as radiocarbon dating to confirm that the statues date to the time of King Midas.
Radiocarbon dating shows the level of a radioactive5 form of carbon in a substance. This can tell scientists when
an object was made.
Mister DeVries works for the Museum of Archaeology6 and Anthropology7 at the University of Pennsylvania. He
reported his research at a meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Philadelphia.
This VOA Special English SCIENCE REPORT was written by George Grow.
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King Midas
(Pictures -University of
Pennsylvania)
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