Midas ,Alexander and the Gordian Knot.!!

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 !!