The Tale of The Gordian Knot
A popular account from antiquity
The term Gordian knot is used to describe a tricky problem with no easy solution or answers. Untangling a web or deception or getting to the heart of a particularly complex matter has been described as undoing the Gordian knot. Those phrases come from a particular tale in mythology that explains how a farmer became a king, and a knot ended up representing the world’s most complex problems.
The tale hails from ancient Greece and begins in the ancient kingdom of Phrygia.
The Myth
Sometime in antiquity, the Phrygian people had no king and were looking to solve the problem. They consulted the oracle in the nearby city of Telmissus, which was the capital of neighboring Lycia. The oracle had a solution for the people, but it was an odd one. The oracle proclaimed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox cart should be made king of Phrygia.
The lucky man to enter the capital driving an ox cart was a peasant farmer by the name of Goridas. Gordias was astonished when a great crowd rushed around him and said that he was to be their king. The peasant was shocked and deeply grateful.
The cart he was driving was dedicated to the gods, and his son, Midas, tied the cart to a post outside of the temple as a permanent…
