Whereupon Bacchus offered Midas his choice of a reward, whatever he might wish. […] A beechen bowl was filled with warm water, that their guests might wash. […] For her husband, who was no more, she prayed incessantly: that he might be safe; that he might come home; that he might not, in his absence, see any one that he would love better than her. […] O that it might please the gods to take him away! […] He raised his arms to heaven to try whether prayer might not avail.