Is there any evidence of the Gordian knot before Alexander?

[m0n0phthalm0s]

Hi to all Pothosians; this is my first post here.

Is anyone here aware of any report of this legend previous to the Macedonian invasion of 333 BC?

Thanks in advance.

[marcus]

Hi to all Pothosians; this is my first post here.

Is anyone here aware of any report of this legend previous to the Macedonian invasion of 333 BC?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Monophthalmos, and welcome to Pothos.

As far as I am aware, there is not report of the legend prior to Alexander's visit to Gordion in 333. However, there was a link between Macedonia and Midas, which might suggest that the legend was known to Alexander and the Macedonians prior to the campaign. It certainly appears that Alexander would have been familiar with a legend that Gordios and Midas migrated from Macedonia to Phrygia.

If you can get hold of it, there's an interesting article by Ernest Fredricksmeyer, "Alexander, Midas and the Oracle at Gordium", in Classical Philology, 56 (1961) pp.160-168.

All the best

[m0n0phthalm0s]

Hi to all Pothosians; this is my first post here.

Is anyone here aware of any report of this legend previous to the Macedonian invasion of 333 BC?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Monophthalmos, and welcome to Pothos.

As far as I am aware, there is not report of the legend prior to Alexander's visit to Gordion in 333. However, there was a link between Macedonia and Midas, which might suggest that the legend was known to Alexander and the Macedonians prior to the campaign. It certainly appears that Alexander would have been familiar with a legend that Gordios and Midas migrated from Macedonia to Phrygia.

If you can get hold of it, there's an interesting article by Ernest Fredricksmeyer, "Alexander, Midas and the Oracle at Gordium", in Classical Philology, 56 (1961) pp.160-168.

All the best

Thanks a lot for the warm welcome and the quick answer.

[agesilaos]

In Macedonian Legacies, edited by Reames-Zimmmerman there is this essay which counters Fredrickmayer; I found it turgid but the subject does not set my boat rocking

Mark Munn asks why the legend of the Gordian knot ("heretofore unknown to the Greeks") held significance for Alexander. He offers a convincing refutation of Fredricksmeyer's hypothesis that it was due to the legend of Midas as a Macedonian king who moved to Asia -- as Munn shows, the story is Augustan and goes against all previous versions. Instead, Munn argues that several of Midas' attributes were useful to Alexander, especially his association with wealth and its production and the fact that his realm predated that of the Persians. He also raises the intriguing possibility that Midas was a "key thematic figure in Aristotle's instruction of Alexander . . . touching on the connections between royalty and divinity" (133).

The reviewer for Bryn Mawr was more impressed

[marcus]

In Macedonian Legacies, edited by Reames-Zimmmerman there is this essay which counters Fredrickmayer; I found it turgid but the subject does not set my boat rocking

I shall have to go back to "Macedonian Legacies" - it's a while since I read it and I don't remember it much. Not too motivated by the turgidness, though ...

ATB