How King Midas's touch became golden and other stories behind everyday phrases, idioms, and literary allusions

Finding silver would not spark the same excitement if all a prospector could say was, "There it is!" nor would anyone be menacing with the moniker "Arthur the Somewhat Disgruntled." But thanks to thousands of years of evolving language, we have words and phrases like "Eureka!" and "Attila the Hun" that bring color and vibrancy to our conversations and our writing.

Unfortunately, often lost in the millennia is the history of how these sayings came to be. "Green-Eyed Monsters...