Rock and Gold - A short love story

In ancient times, when Zeus was still chasing after every single female being he laid his eyes upon, and people were lighting their nourishments on fire to please the heavenly beings, there lived a man who didn’t do anything like that.

Not like he would have been the earliest herald of Christianity, no, he simply despised the immortals. He wasn’t the only one at this time, numerous poor bastards had already been punished by the transcendent. Sisyphus had been rolling the boulder up the hill long before he even had the chance to sin against the gods.

So, what made our ancient villain so unique? His chastisement. Unlike other criminals, he wasn’t tortured physically, but mentally. Because of his greed and hunger for money, the inhabitants of Mount Olympus scourged him with a bitter-sweet curse. Whatever he touched, turned into gold. His name is Midas.

Once Midas was walking lonely on the seashore, surrounded by a fabulous set of golden trees and bushes. He had been solitary ever since his great punishment. Before that, he had been a king who ruled over a large town. People didn’t adore him that much even back then, but now everyone feared him, because of his “ability”. He hadn’t seen a single human being for a century.

That was why he was flabbergasted when he noticed a human-shaped figure not too far away. At first, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He was fooled too many times by the golden statues of his daughter and servants. But after a more careful examination, he realized that this was truly a living, breathing being, which was looking the other way.

Midas started running towards the figure. As he got closer, he guessed by its shape that it was a woman. The man, even more excited, reached the woman and touched her arm. The old king realized too late what he had done. Then the woman turned her face towards him. Midas hadn’t seen anyone so utterly hideous. Her hair was made of snakes that were spitting venom everywhere, and the ugliness of her face couldn’t be matched by any monster he had seen throughout his long life. It was Medusa. It was truly love at first sight.

If we take a look around this place nowadays, we can see many statues of gold and stone, placed in a somewhat circular shape, statues of long dead adventurers who strived to find the source of infinite fortune. However, if we look closer to the circle’s center, we can see two strange figures, ground down by the iron fangs of time, a man made of rock and a woman made of gold.

Rácz Gábor IX. H