Gordios

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Gordios (after Herodotus Gordias ) was according to the Greek legend the father of Midas , founder of Gordion and king of Phrygia . When a dispute broke out among the Phrygians as to who should be at their head, they consulted an oracle. This instructed them to make the king who the questioners first encountered on a chariot. That was Gordios. Long before that, a fortune teller had prophesied that he would become king. Thereupon Gordios married the seer. After he was named King of the Phrygians , he founded Gordion and consecrated his chariot with an indissoluble knot in the Temple of Zeus. He prophesied that whoever could untie the knot ( Gordian Knot ) would gain dominion over all of Asia Minor. Many centuries later, Alexander the Great came to Gordion (in the winter of 334/333 BC), looked at the knot and cut it in two with his sword. Then Alexander conquered all of Asia Minor.

According to legend, Gordios is also considered the founder of the Phrygian Empire.

Herodotus names several Phrygians with the name Gordios. Such a Phrygian king Midas, the son of Gordios in Macedonia ( Hdt. VIII, 138 )! Furthermore, a Gordios as the father of Adrastos , who in the 6th century BC. Atonement by the Lydian king Kroisos ( Hdt. I, 35; I, 45 ). Adrastos was also the grandson of a Midas, who was therefore the father of Gordios. At another point Herodotus tells of Midas, who donated a throne in Delphi and whose father was called Gordios. The latter Midas was probably the historically clearly documented King Midas from the 2nd half of the 8th century (see Midas).

It was tried a long time ago to bring the various Phrygian rulers with the names Gordios and Midas into a sequence based on the information in ancient sources (especially Herodotus). Up to four kings with the name Gordios have been suspected. Such investigations are extremely problematic due to the sources. Recently, however, such investigations have been resumed by some historians, since it appears questionable whether the Midas of the 2nd half of the 8th century, who also appears as Mita von Muschki in Assyrian sources, is identical with the Midas who is in Onslaught of the Cimmerians on Gordion in 696 or 679 BC Took life. Those who doubt this now partially take a Gordios for the time around 700 BC. As well as at least one Gordios who ruled before the well-known Midas of the 8th century. However, the whole thing is extremely vague and debatable.

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