Trying to remember the details to a myth i once heard.

[TheLoreman]

Hello.
I've just joined the forum. I'm a huge fan of myths and folklore and in particular the Greek ones. However there is a story I once heard when I was a child and I am struggling to find whether or not it is indeed a Greek Myth or one I just dreamt up. Any chance someone here can help me?
It goes thus:
A man has a secret that he cannot keep to himself so he whispers it into a hole in the ground. Over time a flower grows from the hole and that flower is then picked by a passer by who gives the flower to someone of nobility (I think) perhaps a King or Queen... When the King/Queen smells the flower it divulges the secret whispered by the man and it's a secret of great significance. I believe it alerts a person to a great betrayal?

Anyone heard of something like this? I must have been eight or nine when I heard this and now some thrity years later it still has me intrigued. I'm not entirely sure but there's a chance the man who whispered the secret was told he would perish if he ever told it to a mortal..?
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.

 

[fibi ducks]

I'm sorry I can't help you, but that's a great story - thanks for it so far.
If you did get it from a dream, then it may still qualify to be entered in the mythological books. Dreams can be sent by the gods (Iliad, Zeus send a false dream to Agamemnon) - so you might have got it from a divine source. There are true ones and false ones though. So it might not have happened - you should be aware of that. Even so, many myths get passed on (perhaps all) without certainty as to whether they really happend. Hesiod (in Theogeny) tells us that the Muses told him - that they are able to tell many things that look like the truth, but, that, when they want to they can tell the truth too. It seems that we are happy to pass on stories efven when we don't know if they are true.

Taking your story in this way: well, its frustrating because it would be much better to know who the charac ters were. I think that there was someone under the ground who could hear the secret, and told it to the flower. If we could work out who this was then we might be able to go a bit further. Obvious candidates are 1. local deceased, 2. local underworld gods. I'm not ruling out other possibilities. I hope we get further on this.

 

[TheLoreman]

Thanks fibi ducks. Well in all honesty I'm only guessing that It may have been from a dream, one of the 'Oneiroi' perhaps ? It has been with me a long time. I once based a college project on it.

When I was in junior school we had an English teacher who used to read the classics to us and I'm hoping I picked it up from then... But who knows. It's just one of those stories floating around my head...
The trouble is that over the years the chances that my memory has 'distorted' the story becomes a real possibility.
However the enduring image from the minds eye is of the underworlds. Which ties in with your idea that maybe someone was underground... Hmmm

 

[LegendofJoe]

I have heard variations of this sort of story and beleive it is Greek.
Usually someone is given a secret that he just cannot keep. So he yells it into the ground and a tree grows.
Someone cuts a flute from it and the flute divulges the secret. In this case it was the secret that King Midas had ears of an ass.
Supposedly, Apollo gave him ass's ears because he felt that he had poor taste in music.

 

[TheLoreman]

I have heard variations of this sort of story and beleive it is Greek.
Usually someone is given a secret that he just cannot keep. So he yells it into the ground and a tree grows.
Someone cuts a flute from it and the flute divulges the secret. In this case it was the secret that King Midas had ears of an ass.
Supposedly, Apollo gave him ass's ears because he felt that he had poor taste in music.

This is it LegendofJoe.! It was Midas' barber who whispered the secret into a hole in the ground. Fantastic. Thanks you so much. for this.

 

[Allie-Gator]

Good story! I've never heard that one before. I had heard of King Midas of course but had never read the stories about him. It's funny how something can be so familiar and so unknown at the same time.

 

[Myrddin]

I quite enjoy the stories of King Midas. The golden touch, being cursed with the ears of an ass, and his daughter giving birth to the Minotaur as some kind of punishment for something he did. I forget what it was though.

 

[LegendofJoe]

I quite enjoy the stories of King Midas. The golden touch, being cursed with the ears of an ass, and his daughter giving birth to the Minotaur as some kind of punishment for something he did. I forget what it was though.

I believe it was the wife of King Minos (not Midas), who gave birth to the minotaur.
He was supposed to give a bull as a sacrifice to Poseiden but reneged. Poseiden then made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull, and the Minotaur was created.
(Unless Pasiphae was also the daughter of Midas????)

 

[Myrddin]

I believe it was the wife of King Minos (not Midas), who gave birth to the minotaur.
He was supposed to give a bull as a sacrifice to Poseiden but reneged. Poseiden then made Pasiphae fall in love with the bull, and the Minotaur was created.
(Unless Pasiphae was also the daughter of Midas????)

Thank you! That's right. I could have sworn it was Minos's daughter who gave birth to the half bull creature, though.

I get Minos and Midas mixed up sometimes.

 

[lilith_morningstar]

Hello.
I've just joined the forum. I'm a huge fan of myths and folklore and in particular the Greek ones. However there is a story I once heard when I was a child and I am struggling to find whether or not it is indeed a Greek Myth or one I just dreamt up. Any chance someone here can help me?
It goes thus:
A man has a secret that he cannot keep to himself so he whispers it into a hole in the ground. Over time a flower grows from the hole and that flower is then picked by a passer by who gives the flower to someone of nobility (I think) perhaps a King or Queen... When the King/Queen smells the flower it divulges the secret whispered by the man and it's a secret of great significance. I believe it alerts a person to a great betrayal?

Anyone heard of something like this? I must have been eight or nine when I heard this and now some thrity years later it still has me intrigued. I'm not entirely sure but there's a chance the man who whispered the secret was told he would perish if he ever told it to a mortal..?
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Many thanks in advance.

sounds just like king midus when he had asses ears.

 

[TheLoreman]

It's nice to have had this cleared up for me. This place is great!

 

[Nadai]

I know the story...Myrddin had it...

Bacchus offered King Midas a gift of his choosing, Kind Midas asked that whatever he touch be turned to gold. Midas was ecstatic when he began to touch his possessions and they all turned to gold, but he soon realized what Bacchus had failed to tell him, he'd made a grave mistake. When he went to eat, the food and wine turned to gold so he began to starve. He went to Bacchus and begged him to take away his "gift". Bacchus told him to wash in a river and when King Midas was finished, the "gift" was taken back...this is where I get foggy on the myth...Bacchus cursed King Midas, because of his greed, with the ears of an ass. He covered his head so that no one would know and the only one he ever revealed this to was his barber. He made the man swear to never reveal that his king had asses ears under penalty of death. Eventually the secret became too much for the barber to bear so one day he went down to the beach and dug a hole and burried his head in the sand. There he whispered, "King Midas has asses ears". Eventually a flower (or tree) grew and whenever the breeze would blow on this "plant" it would whisper, "King Midas has asses ears".

Ovid gives the funniest interpretation of this story in his book Metamorphosis.

 

[Myrddin]

I forgot about how Midas's asses ears connected to the story of his golden touch. Thank you.

 

[TheLoreman]

Cheers Nadai - I'm so glad I posted this query on here. It's been interesting to follow up on this tale.

 

[Nadai]

"One is glad to be of service"

 

[lilith_morningstar]

I know the story...Myrddin had it...

Bacchus offered King Midas a gift of his choosing, Kind Midas asked that whatever he touch be turned to gold. Midas was ecstatic when he began to touch his possessions and they all turned to gold, but he soon realized what Bacchus had failed to tell him, he'd made a grave mistake. When he went to eat, the food and wine turned to gold so he began to starve. He went to Bacchus and begged him to take away his "gift". Bacchus told him to wash in a river and when King Midas was finished, the "gift" was taken back...this is where I get foggy on the myth...Bacchus cursed King Midas, because of his greed, with the ears of an ass. He covered his head so that no one would know and the only one he ever revealed this to was his barber. He made the man swear to never reveal that his king had asses ears under penalty of death. Eventually the secret became too much for the barber to bear so one day he went down to the beach and dug a hole and burried his head in the sand. There he whispered, "King Midas has asses ears". Eventually a flower (or tree) grew and whenever the breeze would blow on this "plant" it would whisper, "King Midas has asses ears".

Ovid gives the funniest interpretation of this story in his book Metamorphosis.

the asses ears actually came from apollo, there was a compotation between apollo and pan i belive and midas choose pan over apollo and apollo cursed him with the ears of an ass, well he hid his ears with a hat and then only his barber knew of the ears and he asked him to keep it to himself, well the barber needed to tell someone so he dug a hole and told the ground the story of midas and then the weeds grew and when the wind blew everyone could hear bout the asses ears the midas had.........when the king found out what happened he had the barber killed.................................................hope this helps tie in the story

 

[~DragonRider~]

Two things:
First: Your right Pasifea is his WIFE who you know got infaturated with the er bull...'nuff said
Second: Minos didn't get ears because of his bad taste in music I don't think. I believe it was the cause of him picking someone else in a contest than Apollo. The story is...
Apollo and this guy were in a contest, who can play the instrument better. Apollo called Minos and some others to judge and when Minos picked the other man he got angry and gave him some flashy new ears. (All the others picked Apollo). Well since it was Apolllo and a centaur the centaur lost and Apollo skinned it. When Minos went to the barber the barber saw his ears and laughed but didn't tell anyone only whispered it to the ground. and then the weeds grew and when the wind blew everyone could hear bout the asses ears the midas. Oh and I believe the ah barber had been killed too because Midas knew he betrayed his secret albeit involuntarily.
hehe
~~~~~~Drago~~~~~