Page:The book of wonder voyages (1919).djvu/241

 Legend, starting with Homer, who mentions or refers to the ship Argo, Jason, Pelias, and Æson, and the Symplegades, all of course in the Odyssey, where such references would naturally be. The fragments of Hesiod also contain numerous references, while Pindar has a whole Pythian Ode devoted to it. Then comes an interesting section devoted to the local traditions dealing with the Voyage, in which comes out the interesting point that a chain of hills on the east of the Black Sea was called the Jasmonian Mountains in antiquity, and is still known as Iassan Burun. The supposed connection of the sorceress with the Kingdom of Media also comes up for discussion under this head. Then we have another section dealing with the monumental remains of the Myth, in which the dragon is always represented as a serpent pur et simple. Dr. Seeliger sums up his conclusion that the Legend is certainly a physical myth!—and therein all Teutons are at one, though they vary as usual as to what branch of Physics they affiliate the story. Forchhammer regards it as an Agrarian Year Myth, the agriculture being represented by the tale of Cadmus, and the Year being of course indicated by the Golden Fleece. Kuhn and Mannhardt—those names of weight in mythological investigation—agree for once in calling it a Day Myth. According to the former Gelehrter, the Oak with the Golden Fleece, is the Night Sun-Tree (Nachtsonnenbaum), whatever that precisely may mean. In other words, these scholars make the central point of the story out of what is only one of its imaginative trappings. Even if we regard the winning of the Golden Fleece as the central incident of the story it is difficult to see in what sense we can make the Fleece a representative either of the Year or of the Day. How can a Hero win a year, even though he gained the day? It is abundantly obvious that these interpretations have only been arrived at in the interests of a theory, and without the slightest attempt to reconstruct the state of mind of the original tale-teller. It is fair to add that Dr. Seeliger regards the original