The Golden Fleece And The Holy Crown

Has anyone ever noticed the great similarity between the story of the Golden Fleece, of ancient Greek Mythology, and the Holy Crown of Hungary?

One of the two most popular stories to be adopted from Greek mythology is the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. A fleece is the fur from around the neck of a sheep or ram.

The Golden Fleece was a very special fleece, being from a divine ram. The Golden Fleece was a symbol of divine authority, and a legitimate king was absolutely required to be crowned with it. 

This is one of the two great stories from ancient Greece. The other is the Trojan War, and the two epics that center around it. The first is the Iliad, which takes place during the war. The second is the Odyssey, which tells the story of the journey home of Odysseus after the war. Both epics were written by Homer.

The thing that I find to be just so striking is the resemblance between the story of the Golden Fleece and that of the real-life Holy Crown of Hungary.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is linked to a hero. Unlike the mythical Jason, St. Stephen was the real first king of Hungary, who Christianized the country.

Like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary is considered to be absolutely essential that a legitimate Hungarian king be crowned with it. In fact, the Hungarian monarchy differs from others in that it is the crown itself that rules. The king is just someone deemed worthy to be crowned with it. The Holy Crown of Hungary is a coronation crown, used only for coronations and not worn on a daily basis.

Also like the Golden Fleece, the Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained. The Holy Crown of Hungary has been lost and regained most recently when it was captured by U.S. forces, and taken to Fort Knox for safekeeping, near the end of the Second World War. U.S. President Jimmy Carter had the crown returned to Hungary, where it is prominently displayed today in a glass case in the Parliament Building.

The question is whether the story of the Golden Fleece directly influenced the Holy Crown of Hungary. The crown was actually made in Byzantium, which was the Greek-speaking former eastern half of the Roman Empire, centered on Constantinople.