In this and the next two issues of Business Partners magazine, readers are treated to a peek inside The Nameless King: 25 Stories of Leadership from Ancient Greece by Artemios Miropoulos. Linking history to modern corporate reality, The Nameless King features a series of stories that deal with different traits of Leadership such as building high potential teams and company culture, leading in crisis, talents, succession planning, women leaders, innovation, and behaviors such as resilience, trust, and fairness.
There was once a king called Midas. He ruled the kingdom of Phrygia at the heart of Asia Minor, and according to ancient sources, his kin had fought against the Amazons and, together with the Trojans, against the Greeks in the legendary Trojan War. Phrygians had established Ankara, today Turkey’s capital, and they spoke a language close to Greek, implying they had descended from Europe.
Midas was keen on money. He spent his days counting his gold coins and lived in wealth and luxury in a splendid palace surrounded by beautiful rose gardens. One day Dionysus, the god of fertility and wine, happened to pass by, along with his followers. One of them, Silenus, got drunk, strayed away from the group and became lost. Midas’ servants found him sleeping in the palace rose gardens and carried him to the king. Silenus was special to Dionysus as he was a senior satyr and the god’s schoolmaster. Midas welcomed him wholeheartedly and kept him at the palace for ten days where he enjoyed great banquets, singing and dancing. To cut a long story short, Dionysus was very pleased with Midas’ hospitality and offered to grant him any one wish that he most desired. Midas responded that he wished he could turn anything he touched to gold. Dionysus warned him to think carefully before committing to such a wish, but Midas insisted.
The next morning Midas was excitingly turning everything in the palace to gold. He strolled in the garden and passed his hand over the rosebuds, which also turned into gold. Pleased with himself, he ordered for a feast to be served. He quickly realized, though, that he was unable to eat or drink anything as the food and wine turned rigid and cold in his mouth. Midas panicked and immediately regretted his choice. But the final blow came when his daughter, meaning to complain of the garden roses having lost their fragrance, rushed into his arms before he could warn her to stop. She instantly changed into a gold statue.
The Nameless King: 25 Stories of Leadership from Ancient Greece
by Artemios Miropoulos
Published by Linkage Greece (2020)
ISBN 9786180015416
