Anchūrus

, a son of Midas king of Phrygia, who sacrificed himself for the good of his country when the earth had opened and swallowed up many buildings. The oracle had been consulted, and gave for answer, that the gulf would never close, if Midas did not throw into it whatever he had most precious. Though the king had parted with many things of immense value, yet the gulf continued open, till Anchurus, thinking himself the most precious of his father’s po e ions, took a tender leave of his wife and family, and leaped into the earth, which closed immediately over his head. Midas erected there an altar of stones to Jupiter, and that altar was the first object which he turned to gold, when he had received his fatal gift from the gods. This unpolished lump of gold existed still in the age of Plutarch. Plutarch , Parallel a minor a .