Page 405 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

The True Love Knot 399

This is from Dryden's translation of Virgil's Eighth Eclogue. It is not more
than a literary exercise, but it reflects beliefs held by the common people in
Virgil's days [10].
A famous knot in the Greek and Roman culture was the Hercules Knot,
also called nodus Herculis, herculaneus or herculanus and hdmma herakleotikdn.
The origin of this name is not entirely clear and neither is the actual knot.
Edmund Saglio and Paul Wolters point out that the Hercules Knot was an ev-
eryday (utility) knot [25], [34]. People have chosen to make this Hercules Knot
something quite secret and at a certain stage, for some of the Mediterranean
peoples, it was identified with the Gordian Knot [36].

Fig. 1 . A Vestal statue
Caius Plinius Secundus (A.D. 23-79), in his Natural History 5 Book XVIII,
he describes (in Chap. 17) the healing powers of a Hercules knot, thus:
To thrust an iron nail into the spot where a person's head lay at
the moment he was seized with a fit of epilepsy, is said to have the
effect of curing him of that disease. For pains in the kidneys , loins,
or bladder, it is considered highly soothing to void the urine lying
on the face at full length in a reclining bath. It is quite surprising
how much more speedily wounds will heal if they are bound up and
tied with a Hercules knot: indeed, it is said, that if the girdle which
we wear every day is tied with a knot of this description , it will
be productive of certain beneficial effects, Hercules having been the
first to discover the fact.

It seems that this belief led to Hercules being recognised as a god who
could prevent all illnesses and other evil. Later this caused the emergence of
names such as Nodus Devinctus for this knot [29]. Traditionally Roman brides
tied their belts with the Hercules Knot, symbolising the hope that the couple
may be as successful in rearing children as Hercules, who had seventy offspring
[12].