ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND
DARTUS.

In the citadel of Gordium, an ancient town of
Phrygia in Asia Minor, was preserved an old wagon,
rudely built, and very primitive in structure. Tra.
dition said that it had originally belonged to the
peasant Gordius and his son Midas, rustic chiefs who
had been selected by the gods and chosen by the
people as the primitive kings of Phrygia. The cord
which attached the yoke of this wagon to the pole,
composed of fibres from the bark of the cornel-tree,
was tied into a knot so twisted and entangled that
it seemed as if the fingers of the gods themselves
must have tied it, so intricate was it and so impos-
sible, seemingly, to untie.

An oracle had declared that the man who should
untie this famous knot would become lord and
monarch of all Asia. As may well be imagined,
many ambitious men sought to perform the task,
> but all in vain. The Gordian knot remained tied
and Asia unconquered in the year 333 3.c., when
Alexander of Macedon, who the year before had in-
vaded Asia, and so far had swept all before him,
entered Gordium with his victorious army. As may
be surmised, it was not long before he sought the
citadel to view this ancient relic, which contained
within itself the promise of what he had set out to

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