Of course, if we can mix our classical references, Russia has its Sword of Damocles to cut this gordian knot.
It might have been the sword that would have cut the gordian knot.
It was Captain Martin who cut the gordian knot and ended the already too-long debate.
It cuts the gordian knot with the sword, extinguishes all the rights of man, and makes fear the corner-stone of government.
On that account, Ugalde knew that the sword would be necessary in order to cut the gordian knot of so obstinate an insurrection.
“Tommy” cut the gordian knot himself by following us down to the boat like a dog and leaping aboard.
When recovered by the divers, this mass of steel wire was a gordian knot of utter confusion.
We shall have cut the gordian knot of slavery, and the death agonies of the hydra would soon be visible.
He believed that abject slavery awaited the colonists unless the gordian knot of allegiance was cut at one bold stroke.
Hemestertius supposes the gordian knot to have been nothing but a variety of the himantiliginos.
1560s, tied by Gordius, king of Phrygia in Asia Minor, who predicted the one to loosen it would rule Asia. Instead, Alexander the Great cut the Gordian knot with his sword; hence the extended sense (1570s in English) "solve a difficult problem in a quick, dramatic way."
A complex knot tied by a Greek king. According to legend, whoever loosed it would rule all Asia. Alexander the Great, according to some accounts, undid the Gordian knot by cutting through it with his sword.
Note: By extension, to “cut the Gordian knot” is to solve quickly any very complex problem or to get to the heart of a problem.
