One of the countries i have travelled more than any other country is Turkey .Its also one of the most beautiful and if you love history -very very romantic .Nearly every town is seeped in history and i went to nearly all of them -from Konya ,to Ephesus and Gordian .Not to forget Istanbul and Troya ( Helen of Troy !!).
At the Museum in Gordian with my sister Kusum. |
We( Sangeeta ,Pratique and my sister Kusum and brother in law Murli ) drove to Gordium(or Gordion) a city associated with King Midas .Who was Midas ?Midas
was the son of Gordias who was the king of Phrygia .He is particularly known in
the way he became the king .For many years it is said Phrygia was without a
king .When people went to a oracle at Delphi ,the oracle said that the next man
who rode into Phrygia on a ox cart would become the king .Gordias was a peasant
who was unaware of the oracles prophecy and when he rode into Phrygia ,the
people proclaimed the peasant king .In respect and reverence to the ox cart
,Gordias tied it to a pole with a rope, and ''knotted'' it in such a way
that he challenged anyone to untie it .It became a popular belief that anyone
who could untie the ''Gordian Knot'',would rule the whole of Asia .The
peculiarity of the knot was ,that it was knotted in such a way ,that no one
could see its ends .!!Many came and tried .No one succeeded.Till finally one Macedonian
set out to conquer the world .His name was Alexander and he was haughty enough
to believe that he would untie it .He came to modern day Gordium .He must have
stood in the vicinity of where we stood .In a very hypothetical way -I was
doing something that Alexander did many centuries ago-he had come to Gordium
.So had I.!!We were equal at least in one way .It was this feel of history that
had brought me to Gordium .I was lapping up every bit of it
.!!
Alexander came to
Gordium when it was on a decline -it had become a part of the Persian empire
.It fell to him without much resistance -resisting Alexander on his march
was akin to a ant resisting the flow of a tidal wave .But he wanted to untie
the Gordian Knot .The belief had grown that anyone who untied it would conquer
Asia .There are different accounts here .Of course he tried very hard to untie
it .But he could not.But how could Alexander go without untieing the knot ?He
was ultimate conquerer ,the ultimate male ,the ultimate soldier .He cut the
knot with the sword .!!Some historians say that he pulled it out of its groove
.But he did not untie it .!!
Alexander went on to
conquer large parts of Asia -but did not manage to conquer India -he came only
till the kingdom of Porous in Punjab,before a mutiny broke out among his troops
.Could it be because he cut the Gordion Knot instead of untieing it .?Its a great topic to discuss if one believes in the "ifs" and "buts" of history !!
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