MIDAS, king of Phrygia, is one of those half-legendary heroes in whom religious legends have gathered round a real person. The name Midas the king, MIΔAI FANAKTEI, occurs on a very ancient tomb in the valley of the Sangarius, the legendary seat of the Phrygian kingdom {Iliad iii. 189). The Phrygian monarchy was destroyed by the Cimmerians about 670 b.c., and the last king Midas committed suicide by drinking bull’s blood. The name Midas became in Greek tradition the representative of this ancient dynasty, but all that is told of him is religious myth. He is a figure in the cycle of Cybele legends, the son of the goddess and her first priest. He is also closely connected with the cultus of Dionysus, like the two heroic personages Marsyas and Silenus. The Midas legend was known on Mount Bermius in Macedonia, and must at one time have existed in Greece; two cities Midea, in Argolis and in Boeotia, recall the Phrygian city Midaeium.

See Herod, viii. 138; Xen., Anab., i. 2, 13; Paus. i. 45, &c.

MIDDELBURG, in Holland, the ancient capital of the province of Zealand, situated in the middle of the island of Walcheren, is mentioned as early as 1153, and receives the title “town” in a charter granted it in 1227. It has all the characteristics of an old and worn-out place. The population (25,000 in 1739) had sunk to 12,000 or 13,000 by the beginning of the 19th century, and has only begun recently to increase again, being 15,939 in 1882. The dwelling-houses, which in 1739 were about 3800, are now but 3000, and of these about 600 are unoccupied. The vast warehouses and imposing mansions once belonging to wealthy families, which have either died out or left the place, call up the memory of that prosperity which Middelburg enjoyed before its extensive trade, with the East and West Indies, with England and Flanders, was ruined by the war with England and the French occupation. By the opening of the railway (1872) and of the ship canal (1873) to Flushing Middelburg was lifted out of its isolation, and, with the assistance of the chamber of commerce, manufacturing industries (iron, machinery, furniture, oil, cigars, &c.) were established; but the prosperity anticipated for Flushing, and consequently for Middelburg, remains unrealized. One of the chief sights of Middelburg is the splendid town-house, for the most part erected in 1512-13, with its front gable adorned with twenty-five statues of counts and countesses of Holland and Zealand; it contains the archives, and a most valuable antiquarian and historical collection. The abbey, begun in 1150, has frequently been the residence of royal visitors (Maximilian, Philip the Fair, Charles V., and so on down to Napoleon I., and William I., II., and III.); part of it is now an hotel, and part of it is occupied by the ...