PART
4 –
Ch.XXVI.7
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in
(Chryseion Koas – The Golden Fleece)
XXVI.7. The legend about the stealing of the
golden fleece, as it appears in Romanian heroic songs.
In antiquity, as the grammarian Apollodorus tells us (Bibl. lib. I. 9. 19. 7), had existed another
tradition regarding the Argonauts, according to which the leader of the
expedition might have been Hercules,
not Iason.
We find even today in Romanian folklore some important
traces of this form of the Argonauts’ legend. In Romanian traditions Hercules, this great hero of Pelasgian
times, appears usually under the name
Iovan Iorgovan, arm of mace, proud handsome captain. But in the old songs
he is very often also called Iorgu,
Gheorghe, Gheorghita, Gheorghelas (see Ch.XVII). And especially under these
latter names, his travels, adventures and brave deeds are sung in the lower
parts of
The story of the Romanian version is the following:
Captain Gheorghita, young strongman, armed with a scimitar
in his belt, a mace in his left hand and a club in his right, neither long, nor
short, not carved, not polished, hewn only by axe (Hercules’ weapon of
predilection), goes up Istrita mountain at lambing time, and from there on to
the plateau of Buzeu, walking from sheepfold to sheepfold, from sheep pen to
sheep pen, to chose a fleece, to
make himself a cap, a shepherd’s cap, so that nobody would know him. Captain
Gheorghita finally arrives at the pasture of Macoveiu, at the “Fountain of the
fir tree” (which is on the
[1.
Various versions of this heroic song are published by Teodorescu (Poesii pop. p. 591. 594), Bibicescu (Poesii poporale din Transilvania, p. 335), Tocilescu (Revista p. istorie, vol.
VII. 420; Materialuri folklorice. Vol. I. 155), Negoescu (Balade, p. 172), and some newly collected ones are in our
collection].
Captain Gheorghita complains to Mos Radu Barba-sura that for
seven years he had served Macoveiu as “argat” (TN – paid farm hand), but that
Macoveiu had despoiled him of all that he had amassed, so that now he is forced
to walk from sheepfold to sheepfold, to gather fleeces, to trade them. But
Macoveiu should know that, if he caught him, he won’t be among the living any
more. Then Captain Gheorghita keeps asking Mos Radu to bring him fleeces, he
throws away the small ones and chooses the big ones, when lo, and behold, he
spies Macoveiu at the back of the sheepfold. He starts judging him, grabs him
by the nape, throws him around the place, hits him with the club, and forces
him to hand back his wealth, and in the end he even appropriates his sheep
flocks for good measure [2].
[2.
TN – the author gives here an extract from the version published by Teodorescu (p. 594 seqq.), after which
he follows thus:
The
archaic character of our heroic
songs has been completely ignored up to this day. Teodorescu, one of our best collectors of folk poetry, was of the
opinion that the hero (strongman) Gheorghita
of this folk poem might have lived during the first half of the 19th
century. Teodorescu had fallen into this error because he could not realize the
age of our heroic poetry, and had neither tried to bring in a synthesis, at
least rhapsodic if not historic, the entire Romanian heroic cycle about Iorgu, Gheorghe and Gheorghita.
Greater understanding was shown by Anton
Pan when, publishing a version about Ghita Catanuta (O sezatoare la tara,
P. II. p. 72), writes the following introduction: "This song is not from
now, new, childish, but from other ages,
preserved by our old ones, this is
how Romanian songs of those times were”].
We have here a part of the Argonauts’ legend, but in a form
accommodated to modern times, from which all elements of paganism have
disappeared. The golden fleece is replaced here with simple lamb or ram
fleeces. Of all the Argonaut heroes, only their leader Hercules is mentioned in this rhapsodic poem, under the name Gheorghita or Gheorghelas, while the god Mars
figures here as Macoveiu [3].
[3.
In Romanian traditions Macoveiu is
the name of the god Mars: “Luni (TN
– Monday) is Luneiu, Marti (TN –
Tuesday) is Macoveiu” or “Marcoveiu”
(Marianu, Nunta la Romani, p. 256).
In
the popular calendar, Macoveiu is
also the beginning of fasting in the month of Marte (Codrescu,
Uricarul, Vol. XII. 437). The etymology of the name Macoveiu derives from machea
(machomai) and bios, meaning he who lives by
fighting].
The legendary dragon, Lado
or Ladon, which guarded the golden
apples, probably the same as the dragon guarding the golden fleece, appears in
this series of traditional songs under the name Mos Radu Barba-sura. Lado and
Radu is the same name in this heroic
cycle [4].
[4.
In the vase picture which we presented earlier, the Colchic dragon is shown with a sort of grey beard. We can suppose therefore that this folk song about Mos Radu Barba-sura was known also to
Greek antiquity.
According
to Pisandrus (fragm. 16), Lado was born apo teas geas, a
geographical expression whose primitive meaning was “din tera” (TN – from the country, tera, today
Gea (poet.
Gaia)
was the name of the region between the lower Istru and the Carpathians. As the
geographical meaning later disappeared, the Greek authors understood these
words as meaning “from the earth”].
The geographical setting though is identical. The action
happens in the upper regions of Buzeu river,
or old Phasis, and close to Colti village (Colchi or