# The story with the dude and the big knot **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844 "2002-04-26T20:03:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/1 "2002-04-26T20:03:44Z")
I vaguely recall hearing a story. It might be a biblical story or an ancient Greek myth or something, but I can’t remember what it is or what the dude’s name is. Anyway, I want to use the story as a metaphor but I can’t find it. The story is: Dude is walking around and comes upon this giant knot. The people tell him that the knot is so gigantically big, that no mortal has been able to untie it, no matter how long they have tried. So the dude, being a smartass, takes his sword and simply cuts the knot in half. Sound familiar? ---
**Author:** ![Spiratu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Spiratu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiratu)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/2 "2002-04-26T20:07:36Z")
It’s called the Gordian knot. The guy who had it (King Gord? I don’t know) said that no one could rule Asia unless they could untie the knot, and Alexander the Great was the one who cut it with his sword. ---
**Author:** ![Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/73ab20/32.png) [@Caesar\_s\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caesar_s_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/3 "2002-04-26T20:51:25Z")
I know it’s not what you’re looking for, but there’s a variation of this one in ‘Maniac Magee’ or ‘McGee’. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/4 "2002-04-26T20:52:00Z")
[Thus I cut all Gordian knots!](http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/fineart/gallery3.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/5 "2002-04-26T22:30:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiratu \* > \*\* . . . Alexander the Great was the one who cut it with his sword. \*\* Also sometimes known as Alex the Real Heavy Dude. ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/6 "2002-04-27T03:19:47Z")
More than you want to know but it is one of my favorite areas. The city of Gordion is about 55-60 miles southwest of Ankara. The site has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and was a Hittite city. Around 1200BC, when the entire eastern Mediterranean went up in flames, one of the invading peoples from Europe were the Phrygians. Successive waves of them ranged over and devastated Anatolia. Around 850BC they calmed down and made Gordion their capital. The eponymous Gordius and his son Midas came to the city during a time of trouble in a cart, which , as mentioned above, fulfilled an oracle. Gordius became the ruler and dedicated the cart and yoke to Zeus and they were placed in a temple. The famous knot apparently tied the yoke to the the pole of the cart and was made from the bark of a hard wood shrub similar to the dogwood. It seems that rulers were alternately named Gordius or Midas, one of which Midas’s was the one that got his wish that everything he touched turned to gold. Another Midas had his ears turned to the ears of an ass by Apollo because Midas picked the wrong winner in a musical competition. The city was destroyed by the Cimmerians in 684 BC and later was conquered by the Lydians and still later by the Persians. It makes you wonder if the origianl cart survived until 333BC when Alexander cut the knot with his sword. The ruins of Gordion are still there, very impressive among the hundreds of tumuli grave mounds in the surrounding plain. The most fascinating thing about the place is realizing Al himself was there. ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/7 "2002-04-27T03:27:41Z")
More than you want to know but it is one of my favorite areas. The city of Gordion is about 55-60 miles southwest of Ankara. The site has been inhabited since the Bronze Age and was a Hittite city. Around 1200BC, when the entire eastern Mediterranean went up in flames, one of the invading peoples from Europe were the Phrygians. Successive waves of them ranged over and devastated Anatolia. Around 850BC they calmed down and made Gordion their capital. The eponymous Gordius and his son Midas came to the city during a time of trouble in a cart, which , as mentioned above, fulfilled an oracle. Gordius became the ruler and dedicated the cart and yoke to Zeus and they were placed in a temple. The famous knot apparently tied the yoke to the the pole of the cart and was made from the bark of a hard wood shrub similar to the dogwood. It seems that rulers were alternately named Gordius or Midas, one of which Midas’s was the one that got his wish that everything he touched turned to gold. Another Midas had his ears turned to the ears of an ass by Apollo because Midas picked the wrong winner in a musical competition. The city was destroyed by the Cimmerians in 684 BC and later was conquered by the Lydians and still later by the Persians. It makes you wonder if the origianl cart survived until 333BC when Alexander cut the knot with his sword. The ruins of Gordion are still there, very impressive among the hundreds of tumuli grave mounds in the surrounding plain. The most fascinating thing about the place is realizing Alexander himself was there. ---
**Author:** ![Spiratu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@Spiratu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiratu)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-story-with-the-dude-and-the-big-knot/105844/8 "2002-04-27T03:55:53Z")
You know, when I saw the subject line the first thought I had was actually of that scene in Maniac Magee. But Magee actually untied the knot the old fashioned way, IIRC, spending all day picking at it until he found the end. There’s probably some significance to the way he actually untied the knot, whereas Al just chopped it up, but that should probably go in the Cafe or somewhere.