Gordias /ˈɡɔːrdiəs/ (Ancient Greek: Γορδίας, romanized: Gordías; also Γόρδιος, Górdios, 'Gordius') was the name of at least two members of the royal house of Phrygia.

The best-known Gordias was reputedly the founder of the Phrygian capital city Gordium, the maker of the legendary Gordian Knot, and the father of the legendary King Midas who turned whatever he touched to gold. The various legends about this Gordias and Midas imply that they lived sometime in the 2nd millennium BC.

Gordias (father of Midas)

In the founding myth of Gordium, the first Gordias was a poor farmer from Macedonia who was the last descendant of the royal family of Bryges.[1] When an eagle landed on the pole of his ox-cart, he interpreted it as a sign that he would one day become a king. The eagle did not stir as he drove the cart to the oracle of Sabazios[2] at the old, more easterly cult center, Telmissus, in the part of Phrygia that later became part of Galatia. At the gates of the city he encountered a seeress, who counselled him to offer sacrifices to Zeus/Sabazios:

Gordias (Herodotus)

According to Herodotus, another member of the Phrygian royal line named Gordias was a contemporary of Croesus of Lydia. His son Adrastus accidentally killed his own brother and fled to Lydia where Croesus gave him asylum. Phrygia was a Lydian subject at this time. This Gordias was the son of another Midas. Herodotus does not mention if this Gordias was still alive when Adrastus fled, or if this Gordias or his father Midas ever reigned as (vassal) kings.[7] This Gordias and Midas pair are otherwise unknown.

Some historians believe Herodotus used the name Gordias for the father of another Midas still, who ruled Phrygia in the late 8th century BC.[8] Herodotus wrote that a "Midas, son of Gordias" donated a throne to the Oracle of Delphi. This Midas, of the late 8th century BC, had a Greek wife and strong ties to the Greeks, which suggests it was he who made the offering; but Herodotus also says Gyges of Lydia, a contemporary of this Midas, was "the first foreigner since Midas" to make an offering at Delphi, which suggests Herodotus believed the throne was donated by the more ancient Midas.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Phrygians, as Macedonians say, were called Bryges as long time as they were Europeans residing with Macedonians, but when they moved to Asia changed their name simultaneously with their homeland" Herodotus VII 73
  2. ↑ Sabazius is equated with Zeus by the Greeks, in interpretatio graeca.
  3. ↑ Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955, §83d.
  4. ↑ Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, ii.3.
  5. ↑ Arrian, Alexandri Anabasis, B.3.4–6
  6. ↑ Herodotus VIII.138.
  7. ↑ Herodotus I.35.
  8. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica, notes to Penguin edition of Herodotus.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordias