75 POINTS!!!!Read the passage carefully. One purpose of myths is to teach a lesson. Another purpose is to explain nature.
No abundance can relieve his famine: his throat is parched with burning thirst, and, justly, he is tortured by the hateful gold. Lifting his shining hands and arms to heaven, he cries out: “Father, Bacchus, forgive me! I have sinned. But have pity on me, I beg you, and save me from this costly evil!” The will of the gods is kindly. Bacchus, when he confessed his fault restored him, and took back what he had given in fulfilment of his promise. “So you do not remain coated with the gold you wished for so foolishly,” he said, “go to the river by great Sardis, make your way up the bright ridge against the falling waters, till you come to the source of the stream, and plunge your head and body at the same moment into the foaming fountain, where it gushes out, and at the same time wash away your sin.” The king went to the river as he was ordered: the golden virtue coloured the waters, and passed from his human body into the stream. Even now, gathering the grains of gold from the ancient vein, the fields harden, their soil soaked by the pale yellow waters.
–“Midas and the Golden Touch,”
Ovid
What natural event does the myth of King Midas explain?
how gold is formed
why rivers flow so quickly
how rivers are formed
why rivers have golden sand