Page:Mikhail Veltman (Pavlovitch) - The Foundations of Imperialist Policy (1922).djvu/10



THE PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY OF THE ESSENCE OF IMPERIALISM—THE THEORY OF SEYÈRE

N ancient Greek legend relates the crusade of the Argonautæ, mythical heroes, who sailed in the ship Argo to the fabulous country Colchis, in modern Georgia, in search of the Golden Fleece, which these heroes succeeded in obtaining with the help of Medea, the daughter of the King of Colchis. To gain possession of the Golden Fleece the Argonautæ had to overcome the most difficult obstacles, to accomplish a series of heroic deeds.

In the course of centuries the poets have devoted to this beautiful legend of the Argonautæ many works. Many beautiful pictures have also been dedicated to it, as well as sculptures, such for instance as are contained in the Paris museum, the Louvre. The essence of the legend about the Argonautæ was expressed by the poets as a symbolisation of the eternal struggle of humanity towards the sun, towards the unattainable, to the truth, to beauty, to goodness. But prosaic historians and merciless philologians came