[A proverb] in reference to those attempting to undo something which is hard to undo. From the waggon of
Midas. For an oracle had been issued to the Phrygians [which said] that if anyone could untie the binding of the waggon which had brought
Midas, this man would rule Asia. Alexander [the Great] undid it.
Kathamma lueis: epi tôn dusluton ti luein epicheirountôn. apo tês hamaxês Midou. logion gar tois Phruxin ekpeptôkei, tês komisasês ton Midan hamaxês ei tis epiluseie ton desmon, touton tês Asias arxein. Alexandros de eluse.
cf.
Zenobius 4.46.
The famous Gordian knot (at
Gordion in
Phrygia). In 333 BCE Alexander the Great 'visited the ancient palace of the Phrygian kings and inspected the legendary waggon of Gordius, the mythical founder of the Phrygian dynasty. The yoke of this vehicle was fastened to its pole by an elaborate fastening of cornel bark, the ends of which were invisible. According to a local legend, whether authentic or fabricated for the occasion, the person who released the fastening would be lord of Asia. Alexander duly solved the problem, either cutting through the fastening to reveal the secret ends or (as
Aristobulus claimed) removing the pin that secured the yoke and drawing it off, fastening and all. In both versions Alexander avoided the main problem yet could be said to have fulfilled the prophecy' (A.B. Bosworth,
Conquest and Empire: the reign of Alexander the Great (Cambridge 1988) 53-4).
