inner
development of the soul. He overcomes the Nemaean lion and brings him
to Mycenae. This means that he becomes master of purely physical force
in man; he tames it. Afterwards he slays the nine-headed Hydra. He
overcomes it with firebrands and dips his arrows in its gall, so that
they become deadly. This means that he overcomes lower knowledge, that
which comes through the senses. He does this through the fire of the
spirit, and from what he has gained through the lower knowledge, he
draws the power to look at lower things in the light which belongs to
spiritual sight. Heracles captures the hind of Artemis, goddess of
hunting: everything which free nature offers to the human soul,
Heracles conquers and subdues. The other labours may be interpreted in
the same way. We cannot here trace out every detail, and only wish to
describe how the general sense of the myth points to inner
development.

A similar interpretation is possible of the expedition of the
Argonauts. Phrixus and his sister Helle, children of a Boeotian king,
suffered many things from their step-mother. The gods sent them a ram
with a golden fleece, which flew away with them. When they came to the
straits between Europe and Asia, Helle was drowned. Hence the strait
is called the Hellespont. Phrixus came to the King of Colchis, on the
east shore of the Black Sea. He sacrificed the ram to the gods, and
gave its fleece to King AEetes. The king had it hung up in a grove and
guarded by a terrible dragon. The Greek hero Jason undertook to fetch
the fleece from Colchis, in company with other heroes, Heracles,
Theseus, and Orpheus. Heavy tasks were laid upon Jason by AEetes for
the obtaining of the treasure, but Medea, the king's daughter, who was
versed in magic, aided him. He subdued two fire-breathing bulls. He
ploughed a field and sowed in it dragon's teeth from which armed men
grew up out of the earth. By Medea's advice he threw a stone into
their midst, whereupon they killed each other. Jason lulls the dragon
to sleep with a charm of Medea's and is then able to win the fleece.
He returns with it to Greece, Medea accompanying him as his wife. The
king pursues the fugitives. In order to detain him, Medea slays her
little brother Absyrtus, and scatters his limbs in the sea. AEetes
stays to collect them, and the pair are able to reach Jason's home
with the fleece.

Each of these facts requires a deep elucidation. The fleece is
something belonging to man, and