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GORDIAN KNOT, knot that gave its name to a proverbial term for a problem solvable only by bold action.
In 333 BC, Alexander the Great, on his march through Anatolia, reached Gordium,the capital
of Phyrygia. There he was shown the chariot of the ancient founder of the city, Gordius, with its yoke lashed to a
pole by means of an intricate knot with its ends hidden. According to tradition, this knot was to be untied only by
the future conqueror of Asia. In the popular account, probably invented as appropriate to an impetuous warrior,
Alexandra sliced through the knot with his sword, but in earlier versions, he found the ends either by cutting into
the knot or by drawing the pole. The phrase "cutting the Gordian knot" has thus come to denote a bold solution to
a complicated problem.

Ah yes Hope, the legend of Phrygian Gordium thank you kindly, and the subject of so much art:



Alexander cuts the Gordian Knot, by Jean-Simon Berthelemy (1743–1812)

'Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter'

William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act 1 Scene 1. 45–47

Gordium was the capital city of ancient Phrygia. It was located at the site of modern Yassihuyuk about 70 to 80 kilometres southwest of present day Turkish capital. Ankara, in the immediate vicinity of Polati district. The site was excavated by Gustav Körte and Alfred Körte in 1900, followed by a later dig by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, under the direction of Rodney S. Young, between 1950 and 1973. Excavations have continued at the site under the auspices of the University of Pennsylvania Museum using an international team.

The ox-cart was tied it to a post with an intricate knot of cornel bark (Cornus mas). Cornus mas is a species of flowering plant in the dogwood family Cornaceae native to Southern Europe and South western Asia.

The knot was later described by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus as comprising 'several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened'.



Alexander Cutting the Gordian Knot by Andre Castaigne (1898-1899)

Writer Albert Camus, gave a lecture at the University of Uppsala on December 14, 1957, and used the Gordian knot as a metaphor for the civilisation falling apart at the sword of rampant politics of power and nihilism of the 20th century. He called for the newborn artists, the 'anti-Alexanders', to heal the wound and repair the knot: 'Yes, the rebirth is in the hands of all of us. It is up to us if the West is to bring forth any anti-Alexanders to tie together the Gordian Knot of civilisation cut by the sword. For this purpose, we must assume all the risks and labours of freedom.' An eerily resonating sentiment, equally as relevant to the current world's predicament as it was 60 years ago!