Community Category: Educational

The Gordian Knot was the intricate knot that was tied to the chariot of King Gordius, who was the father of Midas.  Gordius had seen an eagle sitting on the yoke of the chariot he was ploughing and took it as an omen, and later when he confessed to a girl who was a fortune teller what had happened, she told him when he came to Phrygia with the chariot, to sacrifice to Zeus. Gordius fell in love with her, married her and had a son Midas. An oracle said that the Phrygians would have to make a king who would come to the country in a chariot, in order to stop the civil war between them. So when Gordius came with his wife and his son Midas to this place, they made him king of Phrygia, and he stopped the rebellion. Later he was succeeded by his son,  Midas. To honor Zeus, in addition to the necessary sacrifice, Gordios left his chariot as a tribute to the god. The chariot was tied with a rope of skull bark to the old palace of the kings of Phrygia, in the city of Gordian, and no one could untie it. Tradition said that whoever untied it would rule Asia.  When Alexander the Great arrived in Gordium, he heard about the Gordian Knot, examined it and managed to untie it. One version says that he took his sword and cut it saying: “what cannot be untied, can be cut.” This, although it is the most popular version, is the least likely. Another version, according to Arrian and Plutarch, say that there was an eyewitness, Aristobulus, who saw that Alexander the Great, simple took the pin out of the steering wheel of the chariot and the knot that held on it, untied by itself. Today when we say that a problem is like the “Gordian Knot” we mean that it is a difficult and intractable problem. (But which can either have a very simple solution, or it will take extreme measures to solve it).

The image below shows some nautical knots.

The ichthys or ichthus symbol (picture 1), from the Greek word “ΙΧΘΥΣ” which means fish, was adopted by early Christians as a secret symbol to recognize each other. This was needed because of the Christian prosecution at the time by the Roman Empire.

ἸΧΘΥΣ or also ἸΧΘΥϹ with a lunate sigma, is an acronym for “Ἰησοῦς Χρῑστός Θεοῦ Υἱός Σωτήρ”, Iēsoûs Khrīstós, Theoû Huiós,  sōtḗr which translates into English as ‘Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior’.

 Ι : Iota (i), Iēsoûs (Ἰησοῦς), “Jesus”

Χ: Chi (ch), Khrīstós (Χρῑστός), “anointed”

Θ: Theta (th), Theoû (Θεοῦ), “of God”, the genitive singular of Θεóς, Theós, “God”

Υ: Ypsilon (y or u), (h)uiós (Yἱός), “Son”

Σ or C: Sigma (s), sōtḗr (Σωτήρ), “Savior”

Another way to represent the word fish is the symbol in picture 2.

CAN YOU LOCATE ALL 5 LETTERS OF THE WORD «ΙΧΘΥΣ» (or “ΙΧΘΥC”) IN THIS SYMBOL?

During World War II the Germans exchanged coded messages with the “Enigma” device. It was a typewriter-like device that had one sender and one receiver. This machine changed the letters you typed with other letters. If you typed the letter F, for example, the letter S was printed. But if you typed the letter F again, it was not the letter S that was printed, but a different letter was printed. The correspondence of the letters changed with each typing. In order for the recipient to decipher the message, he had to have placed some wiring and some components of this machine in the same way as the sender had placed them. The Germans changed the wiring and components at regular intervals, so even if the Allies had the “Enigma” machine, if they did not know the correct placement they were unable to decipher the messages they intercepted.

 

The British turned to the mathematician Alan Turing who was known for his work on “algorithms” and the famous “Turing machine“, which was theoretically capable of calculating anything that could be calculated algorithmically.

 

Turing formed the Group of “Hut 8” who, without breaks and sleep, in a secret location, tried to crack the code of the “Enigma” machine. For this purpose they built the first digital computer, the “Colossus Mark I” which was much larger than a whole room. Alan Turing is considered the father of today’s computers.

 

The “Hut 8” team had not made significant progress until someone on the team thought that if they had an array of consecutive letters they could more easily decode the messages they were intercepting. Then, by taking a closer look at these messages, they noticed that at the end of each message two words were repeated in all of them. Then they realized that those words were the phrase: “High Hitler”. That was it. They set up the “Colossus Mark I” based on those words and cracked the code. This success was kept secret and played a significant  part  in the positive outcome of the war.

 

After the war, on February 19, 1946, Turing presented the first complete design of a computer.

 

In 1949 he worked on the software for one of the first computers, the “Manchester Mark H”. He also worked on the idea of artificial intelligence, and proposed an experiment known today as the “Turing Test” to determine when a machine could be called “intelligent”.

 

The end of Turing: In 1952, after a betrayal by his lover, Turing was accused of “sexual perversion” and “homosexuality”. In court, he did not defend himself. His sentence was either to go to jail or have estrogen injections for a year. He accepted the second and continued his research on morphogenesis, quantum theory and relativity.

 

Turing committed suicide on 7 June 1954 at the age of 42 by eating an apple containing cyanide. It is rumored that the company “Apple” created the logo with the bitten apple to honor his memory. 

There are many opinions about from who, where and when chess was created. The most widespread opinion is that it was created by the Brahmin Sissa. When he presented it to the ruler of the region where he lived, he was so charmed that he said he would give him any reward he wanted… Sissa asked him for as much grain as would be needed to fill the 64 squares of the chessboard, if they placed one grain in the first square, two grains in the second, four in the third, etc., doubling the grains each time until they reached square 64. The ruler, who considered the quantity of grain insignificant, told him to ask for something more important. But when Sissa insisted, he asked the treasurer and storehouse manager to give him the amount of wheat he requested. But when the treasurer calculated the number, he told the king that even if all the land on the whole planet had been sown with wheat, it would not be enough to pay him, because the total wheat that would be needed amounted to the astronomical amount of 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 grains!

Join Ragnar’s Riddles group “Inspired by the Pure Heart of a Black Cat” on LinkedIn

Some wisdom comes in whispers, carried on silent paws through the night. This group is inspired by Ragnar, a stray black cat who appeared one cold winter’s day—wounded, wary, and wise beyond words. He carried with him a test, a journey, and a gift: the ancient riddles of the cosmos, hidden in the resilience of those who dare to seek truth.

Here, we explore the mysteries of the universe through Ragnar’s Riddles—stories of healing, wisdom, and unseen connections. Each puzzle is a challenge, a call to see beyond the ordinary, to care for the forgotten, and to rise against darkness.

Do you hear the whispers of the eternal? Are you ready to solve the riddles that guide us toward balance and meaning?

Join us and step into the mystery:
https://www.linkedin.com/groups/10037000

“In shadow I tread, with scars in my wake,
A voice from the stars, for hearts that ache…” – Ragnar the black cat 🐈‍⬛ and Igor the caretaker wizard 🧙

Alternatively search using #RagnarsRiddles

This is not done by chance but for aesthetic reasons.
Advertisers came up with this because, according to communicators,
they make the product more attractive:
1. This hour creates a sense of isometry.
2. Subconsciously the pointers remind you of a smile,
thus creating a feeling of pleasure, while on the contrary if it
were 8:20 they would remind you of a willful face which would create
the corresponding unpleasant feeling.
3. The hands appear to embrace the watch brand’s logo which is usually
located below the number 12.
4. Allows you to read other watch indications such as date, timer and more…
Some brands to differentiate show 10:08 or 10:09 or 10:11.

(In the first television watch commercial in 1941 in the USA,
for the Bulova company, which was also the first television
commercial in history, the clock showed exactly 8.)

On December 31, 1899, the ship Warrimoo with Captain Phillips managed to achieve something unique. While sailing in the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver, Canada to Australia, it passed where the equator intersected with the international time zone at exactly 12:00 midnight.

The front of the ship was in the southern hemisphere at midsummer on January 1, 1900, while the back was in the north hemisphere at midwinter on December 31, 1899!

So, the ship was simultaneously on two different days, in two different months (December – January), in two different years (1899 – 1900), in two different seasons, and finally, in two different centuries (19th – 20th)!

The Riddle of the Sphinx is a riddle taken from Greek mythology, which Oedipus solved.

The Sphinx was a monster with a woman’s head from the waist up, and a lion’s body from the waist down, who stood at the entrance to Thebes and asked any passerby to solve her riddle. Whoever did not manage to solve the riddle, the Sphinx would squeeze him to death… hence the name: sphigo (σφίγκω) = I tighten up.

The enigma of the Sphinx

According to the Oedipus myth, the riddle of the Sphinx is as follows:

“Which being in the morning stands on four, at noon stands on two, and at night stands on three?”

Oedipus saved the Thebans by answering her question correctly.

The second riddle of the Sphinx

 According to another tradition, the Sphinx also told a Second Riddle to Oedipus:

“There are two sisters: one gives birth to the other and, in turn, the second gives birth to the first. Who are the two sisters?’

Oedipus answered her correctly too, making the Sphinx fall into the sea and break into a thousand pieces…

At a crossroads in Thebes, before meeting the sphinx, after an intense argument he kills King Laius, not knowing that he was his father, and after the monster’s victory he is proclaimed king of Thebes, by the temporary king of the city, Creon, and married Jocasta, widow of Laius, not knowing that his new wife was also his mother!

Solutions

The answer given by Oedipus to the first question is that this being is none other than man himself, who at the dawn of his life crawls on all fours, when he is an adult, he walks on his two legs, while at the end of his life he walks on three, since an old man who leans on a cane to help him walk…

The answer given by Oedipus to the second question is that the two sisters are nothing more than day and night, eternally alternating with each other.

In the photo below from the Acropolis Museum, the sphinx is depicted in marble.

A safe maker called Harry Houdini so he could unlock a safe he had built. Before accepting the challenge, he checked the safe and found that it could not be opened from the outside, it was tamper-proof. Nevertheless, he accepted and won the challenge… How did he do it?

Solution:

Houdini found that it was impregnable to anyone who attempted to open it from the outside, so he ordered that he be locked inside, who could easily open it because the inside was not as impregnable, but easy to open.

The above event did really happen!

The following drawing was drawn for the Athens Academy of Magicians, where I am a member…

the Academy’s website is: https://www.kristofer.gr/english/index.html