legendary king of ancient Phrygia who was said to be responsible for the Gordian knot

Gordius (or Gordias) was the legendary first king of Phrygia and the adopted father of famous King Midas. According to myth, originally he was a farmer and became the proclaimed king in response to the decree of an oracle that he happened to be the first person to ride into the town of Gordium during a particular assembly of the people. The legend continues that he rode into the city on a wagon, to which the yoke was attached by the Gordian Knot.

A genus of long, slender, nematoid worms, parasitic in insects until near maturity, when they leave the insect, and live in water, in which they deposit their eggs; -- called also hair eel, hairworm, and hair snake, from the absurd, but common and widely diffused, notion that they are metamorphosed horsehairs.