half-piratical

Updated: May 8, 2025

It probably was the first important maritime expedition, and like the first attempts of the kind of all nations, as we know from history, was probably of a half-piratical character. If rich spoils were the result it was enough to give rise to the idea of the golden fleece. Another suggestion of a learned mythologist, Bryant, is that it is a corrupt tradition of the story of Noah and the ark.

Thomas Bulfinch - Bulfinch's Mythology