In Greek legend, the Gordian knot was the name given to an intricate knot used by Gordius to lash his oxcart to a pole. Gordius, a poor peasant, arrived by oxcart with his wife in a public square of Phrygia, which is now part of Turkey. An oracle had decreed that the future king would come riding in a wagon. Seeing Gordius, the people made him their king. In gratitude, Gordius dedicated his oxcart to Zeus, the righteous governor of the ancient world, tying it up with a particularly complex knot. An oracle foretold that he who untied the knot would rule all of Asia. According to a later legend, in 333 B.C., Alexander the Great severed the knot with his sword. From that day to this, "cutting the Gordian knot" has meant solving a difficult problem.