King Midas
Had a sudden realisation that I might have missed that Midas might be a metaphor for capitalism.
The Myth I'm referring to
Greek mythology has many stories for the same character, so here I'm talking about one of the many interpretations and mixing Ovid with Claudian, where:
- Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold.
- Midas understood that this gift was a bane and in his loathing for gold, cursed his prayer
This king had to choose a power, and desired more wealth. His power, given by Dionysus (whom is a bit morally blurry) turned into a curse when he realised that everything he touched turned into gold: items, food and drinks.
I kind of imagine Dionysus, laughing in his bush, thinking "Go, boy, go get all the gold, more than you even want to, that will teach you", after Midas asks for such a compensation for just taking care of Dionysus's friend for 10 days.
Another author, N.Hawthorne even goes further and writes that when he touched his daughter, she turned to gold as well.
My interpretation
Now, what if this was just a metaphor for capitalism? When you want (or have) to turn everything into gold, it becomes a curse and everything lose meaning.
If you want to turn nature around you into gold, it loses its scent. A petrified rose is no longer a rose. It's not even living anymore. Selling the roses makes you lose the roses. I can extrapolate the "food into gold" concept by comparing it to those streamers eating continuously, at the cost of their health and probably some eating disorders. Even water into gold. Water access should be a public service and where I live, many private companies bottle up our ressources to sell them, at the cost of the people actually living there. Some companies even use scarce water resources to mine gold where the locals are forced to drink bottled up water instead. It's not ok. Finally, turning persons into gold, even family members seems self explanatory.
This myth seems to warn us about greed and seems still relevant today. Not everything should be done for profit. It also seems that this story targets the kings and the wealthy more than the common people. It's good to remember that Ovid was born in a important equestrian family near Rome, and Claudian was a court poet.
A balance to find for your own craft
As an artist, it also reminds me that not everything should be sold or even shared. Keeping our own secret garden away from the gold is a good way to still keep its meaning and keep our craft a gift. And it makes also sense why I hate it so much when people say "oh you're good at this, you should sell them!!!!". My partner does crochet and it's like 50% of chance of having this sentence, with the other % being: "who taught you??".
I think you can politely ask if this person sells its craft, but advising repeatedly to make profit out of everything is annoying. Same for commissions. Even free one.
It's a balance of what you want to share and what you don't want to, and keeping a limit between your visible art and your hidden art. To go even further, I also like to keep some of my hobbies hidden from my colleagues and find it important to hide from the professional setting what I like to do. Especially my online artsy life. 👀
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