Alexander+the+Great+and+the+Gordian+Knot


 * Background Story: **

A group of people known as the Phrygians have no king. It is made a prophecy that a man driving an ox-cart into their town would be declared as their new king. Eventually, a man named Gordias drives into their city on an ox cart, and the priests of the city declare him to be their new king. Gordias' son dedicates the ox cart to the gods and ties it up by use of a complex knot structure. Many years later, Alexander arrives to the ox cart in his military conquests. He finds the cart bound with the knot and attempts to untie it. When he realizes he cannot, he cuts the knot with his sword, and the gods are pleased with his work. He later went on to have many victories.

*This story's theme suggests that are alternative ways to solve a problem which could turn out to be the simplest, and you shouldn't always take a straight-forward approach.


 * Allusions: **

An allusion to the myth of Alexander and the Gordian Knot almost always refers to Alexander's approach on the task of untying it. Rather than waste his time in an attempt to unbind the knot, Alexander instead slices the knot in half with his sword. In literature, "cutting the Gordian Knot" refers to taking an alternative approach to a problem. Just how Alexander's method of getting past the knot was much more simpler than untying it, alternative approaches in real life can be just as helpful as well.
 * Poem || * "Gordian Knot"- Mrjansanman ||
 * Play || * "Henry the Fifth"- Shakespeare
 * "August: Osage County"- Tracy Letts ||
 * Book || * "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves"- Karen Jay Fowler
 * "The Stand"- Stephen King ||
 * TV Show || * Phineas and Ferb- Episode: "Knot my Problem" ||

**Gordian Knot** "Mrjansanman" The world keeps growing without a plan

billions of eaters since it began

eating and breeding contributing little

earth's resources becoming so brittle

Elitist and leaders just like a beast

enjoying the best of everything feast

Raping the land and causing pollution

What will be the "final solution"?

Is there now a sinister plot

to finally untie the Gordian knot

to become king of an empire broken

to whisper horrific things unspoken?

Will they use food to starve out the masses

or pestilence spread with green colored gases

to cut the eaters by ninety percent

the rest will slave to their discontent

Working and slaving for the global elite

the world as we know it will be obsolete

Delahunty, Andrew, and Sheila Dignen. Oxford Dictionary of Reference and Allusion. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Fowler, Karen Joy. //We Are All Completely beside Ourselves //. New York: Putnam, 2013. Print.

"Gordian Knot." //Princeton University //. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

King, Stephen, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Mike Perkins, Laura DePuy, Chris Eliopoulos, and Stephen King. //The Stand //. New York: Marvel Pub., 2009. Print

Mrjansanman. "Gordian Knot" All Poetry. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014

Shakespeare, William. //Henry the IV //. Oxford: Clarendon Pr., 1966. Print.