Larry Miller, Tennessee Place Names: "This is the name of a small river in Asia Minor, in ancient Lydia, noted for the gold washed from its sands. Those who named this site Pactolus may have believed it to be a place where they could settle and prosper."
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| The last stop on my Tennessee Classical Road Trip was Pactolus, a community in the mountains of east Tennessee named for the river in Asia Minor associated with the mythological King Midas. When Midas finally comes to the realization that his request to have the “golden touch” was a foolish one, he prays to the gods for help. Bacchus advises him to submerge his body in the Pactolus River, and the “golden touch” is washed away, with the gold thereby transferred to the river from that point on. Just as Midas cleanses himself in the Pactolus, after more than 800 miles on the road, I concluded my odyssey with a ceremonial plunge into the nearby Holston River. |
Ancient Pactolus
Sample Latin Text:
Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.132-143
Midas, upon realizing the foolishness of his desire to have the "golden touch," asks Bacchus to relieve him of his suffering. Bacchus tells him to wash away his mistake in the Pactolus River.
"Da veniam, Lenaee pater! Peccavimus," inquit,
"sed miserere, precor, speciosoque eripe damno!"
Mite deum numen: Bacchus peccasse fatentem
restituit pactique fide data munera solvit
"Ne" ve "male optato maneas circumlitus auro,
vade" ait "ad magnis vicinum Sardibus amnem
perque iugum nitens labentibus obvius undis.
Carpe viam, donec venias ad fluminis ortus,
spumigeroque tuum fonti, qua plurimus exit,
subde caput corpusque simul, simul elue crimen."
Rex iussae succedit aquae: vis aurea tinxit
flumen et humano de corpore cessit in amnem.
Loeb Translation:
“Oh, pardon me, Lenaeus, father! I have sinned. Yet have mercy, I pray thee, and save me from this curse that looks so fair.” The gods are kind: Bacchus restored him to his former condition when he confessed his fault, and he relieved him of the boon which he had given in fulfillment of his pledge. And “That you may not remain encased in gold which you have so foolishly desired,” he said, “go to the stream which flows by mighty Sardis town, take your way climbing the slope up the tumbling stream until you come to the river’s source. There plunge your head and body beneath the foaming fountain where it comes leaping forth, and by that act wash your sin away.” The king went to the stream as he was bid. The power of the golden touch imbued the water and passed from the man’s body into the stream."
