gordian

adj

1. Of or pertaining to Gordium (now Yassihüyük in Turkey), capital of Phrygia.
2. Of or pertaining to Gordius, king of Phrygia
3. Of the Gordian knot.
4. Twisted; convoluted; tied as a knot.

   “[…] cloſe the Serpent ſly, Inſinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train, […]”

   “[…] he found a palpitating snake, / Bright, and cirque-couchant in a dusky brake. / She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, / Vermilion-spotted, golden, green, and blue; […]”

   “When you put it that way it was so simple, so self-explanatory, so beautiful, so obvious that what had seemed the most Gordian problem was instantly almost mundane, and its elegance was its own proof.”

5. (alt-of, alternative, not-comparable)Alternative form of Gordian.

   “The final disentanglement of sister chromatids can only be achieved by cleavage of the "gordian knot" by separin.”

   “This fire, like the eye of gordian snake, Bewitch'd me towards; and I soon was near A sight too fearful for the feel of fear: In thicket hid I curs'd the haggard scene-- 500 The banquet of my arms, my arbour queen, Seated upon an uptorn forest root; And all around her shapes, wizard and brute, Laughing, and wailing, groveling, serpenting, Shewing tooth, tusk, and venom-bag, and sting!”

name

1. Gordianus, name of three Roman emperors.