Pactolus

Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23-79) said that grains of gold were found in the stream-beds of the Tagus in Spain, the Po in Italy, the Hebrus in Thracia, the Pactolus in Asia Minor, and the Ganges in India (5). In the second century before Christ, a cupellation process was used for refining the metal, and in Pliny s time the mercury process was well known (6). 

It seems this was just what Dionysus expected. Laughing, he told the king to bathe in the Pactolus River, which flowed from Mount Tmolus in Anatolia. On doing so, Midas found that his golden touch... 

Gold is sometimes designated also as stone or body of the river Iberus [the Ebro], of the Pactolus, or of the Tagus or some other, because grains of gold are found in these. 

In despair Midas was compelled to ask the god to take back his dangerous gift. He was ordered to bathe in the river Pactolus. As the Jordan washed away the leprous scales from Naaman so did the Pactolus wash the golden touch from Midas. Where the king trod as he entered the water the sands were turned to gold, in proof of which the sands of the river, even to this day, yield alluvial gold to him who works for it. 

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