凯特猫-博闻天下

　　A Gordian Knot直译“戈耳迪之结”。

　　戈耳迪(Gordius)是小亚细亚佛律基亚(Phrygia)的国王，传说他原先是个贫苦的农民。一天，他在耕地的时候，有只神鹰从天而且降，落在他马车的轭上，久不飞走。戈耳迪就赶着马车进城去请求神示。其时，佛律基亚的老王突然去世，一国无主，上下动乱不安，于是人们请求神示由谁来做国王。神示说：“在通向宙斯神庙的大陆上，你们遇到的第一个乘马车者就是新王。”恰好这时戈耳迪正乘着牛车前往宙斯的神庙，人们看见巍然屹立在车轭上的神鹰，认为这是掌握政权的象征，就一致拥戴戈耳迪为国王。戈耳迪当了国王后，就把那辆象征命运的马车献给宙斯，放置在婶庙中。他用绳索打了个非常复杂的死结，把车轭牢牢得系在车辕上，谁也无法解开。

　　由此，人们常用a Gordian knot比喻a knot difficult or impossibe to unite;the difficult problem or task.

　　eg:We must try to solve the problem even if it is really a Gordian knot.

　　The knot which you thought a Gordian one will untie it before you.

English Version:

The Gordian Knot is a metaphor for an intractable problem, solved by a bold stroke ("cutting the Gordian knot"). The myth it refers to is associated in legend with Alexander the Great.

According to a Phrygian tradition, an oracle at Telmissus, the ancient capital of Phrygia, decreed to the Phrygians, who found themselves temporarily without a legitimate king, that the next man to enter the city driving an ox-cart should become their king.

Gordias, a poor peasant, happened to drive into town with his wife, both riding on an ox-cart, and he was declared king.

In gratitude, he dedicated the ox-cart to the Phrygian god Sabazios, whom the Greeks identified with Zeus, and either tied it to a post or tied its shaft with an intricate knot of cornel (Cornus mas) bark. It was further prophesied by an oracle that the one to untie the knot would become the king of Asia, or at least so claimed the publicists in the circle of Alexander the Great.

The ox-cart, often depicted as a chariot, was an emblem of power and constant military readiness. It still stood in the palace of the former kings of Phrygia at Gordium in the 4th century BC when Alexander arrived, at which point Phrygia had been reduced to a satrapy of the Persian Empire.

In 333 BC, wintering at Gordium, Alexander attempted to untie the knot. When he could find no end to the knot, to unbind it, he sliced it in half with a stroke of his sword, producing the required ends (the so-called "Alexandrian solution"). Ever since then, when a person has settled a difficulty by bold or violent means instead of patiently solving it, the custom has been to say that he has "cut the Gordian knot," in memory of Alexander's feat.

关键词: 典故