Lord Byron raised a monument and wrote a poem for his noble companion. It probably doesn't do justice to Midas.
Newstead Abbey, in Great Britain, is the ancestral home belonging to Lord Byron's family. In 1808, his beloved Newfoundland, Boatswain, died. Lord Byron was heartbroken, and had the dog buried there and raised a memorial to him. Lord Byron wrote the following epitaph in memory of Boatswain.
Marker on Monument at Newstead Abbey
"Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed
beauty without vanity, strength without violence, courage
without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices.
This praise, which would be unmeaning flattery if inscribed
over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the memory
of Boatswain, a dog, who was born in Newfoundland May 1803,
and died in Newstead Nov 18th, 1808"
"When some proud Son of Man returns to Earth,
Unknown to Glory, but upheld by Birth,
The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,
And storied urns record who rests below:
When all is done, upon the Tomb is seen
Not what he was, but what he should have been.
But the poor Dog, in life the firmest friend,
The first to welcome, foremost to defend,
Whose honest heart is still his Masters own,
Who labours, fights, lives, breathes for him alone,
Unhonour'd falls, unnotic'd all his worth,
Deny'd in heaven the Soul he held on earth:
While man, vain insect! hopes to be forgiven;
And claims himself a sole exclusive heaven,
Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debas'd by slavery, or corrupt by power,
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
They love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit,
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame,
Ye! who behold perchance this simple urn,
Pass on, it honours none you wish to mourn,
To mark a friend's remains these stones arise
I never knew but one - and here he lies."
