[1] The headword phrase, here in the garbled form *ga/llous ti temei=n, should actually be *gallisti\ temei+n, "to cut Gallos-fashion". See further below, n.3.
2Eunuch priests of Cybele, who severed their genitalia in ecstatic fervor; see already gamma 41.↩
3The transmitted text breaks off at this point, but not before revealing that it had continued by explaining the proverb's application. Some of the paroemiographers have it in full ("in reference to those wishing to make an end of things thoughtlessly": so e.g. Appendix Proverbiorum 1.67); and LSJ s.v. comments "cutting the Gordian knot". One might add "throwing the baby out with the bath water."