The conundrum of the constitution: cutting the Gordian knot

A very long time ago, when dragons still roamed these hills, there lived in Turkey a gentleman farmer whose name was Gordius. He comes down to us as famous for two things: being the inventor of the unlooseable knot that bears his name, and as the father of Midas - the king with the taste for gold.

Midas himself arrived as a kind of thank-you gift from his mother, the headstrong goddess Cybele. She happened to be touring the rural hinterland of Anatolia, for some reason, in a chariot pul...