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101-649: The territory of Khoni municipality is part of the historical kingdom of Colchis . The origin and development of the Khoni is related to the trade-caravan routes passing through the area. The abutment of "Bumbua Bridge" on the Tskhenistsqali river is preserved to the present day. Here, in 65 BC the Roman commander Pompey passed through and built a lifting bridge. The remains of ancient smeltings are found in Kveda Kinchkha. There

202-611: A band of heroes in Greek mythology , who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC ) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece . Their name comes from their ship, Argo , named after its builder, Argus . They were sometimes called Minyans , after a prehistoric tribe in the area. After the death of King Cretheus , the Aeolian Pelias usurped

303-437: A cave. Then next day when they came to court, and Medea was found to be a wife she was given to her husband. Nevertheless, when they had left, Absyrtus, fearing his father's commands, pursued them to the island of Athena. When Jason was sacrificing there to Athena, and Absyrtus came upon him, he was killed by Jason. Medea gave him burial, and they departed. The Colchians who had come with Absyrtus, fearing Aeëtes, settled down among

404-662: A counter-melody. Butes alone swam off to the Sirens, but Aphrodite carried him away and settled him in Lilybaion. After the Sirens, the ship encountered Charybdis and Scylla and the Wandering Rocks, above which a great flame and smoke were seen rising. Thetis with the Nereids steered the ship safely through them at the summons of Hera. Having passed by the Island of Thrinacia, where are the kine of

505-569: A doughty man, he compelled the strangers who came to his kingdom to contend with him in boxing and slew the vanquished. When he challenged the best man of the crew to a boxing match, Pollux fought against him and slew him with a blow on the elbow. When the Bebryces made a rush at him, the chiefs snatched up their arms and put them to flight with great slaughter. Thence, they put to sea and came to land at Salmydessus in Thrace, where Phineus dwelt. The latter

606-427: A dove between the rocks, and, if they saw it pass safe through, to thread the narrows with an easy mind, but if they saw it perish, then not to force a passage. When they heard that, they put to sea, and on nearing the rocks let fly a dove from the prow, and as she flew the clash of the rocks nipped off the tip of her tail. So, waiting till the rocks had recoiled, with hard rowing and the help of Hera, they passed through,

707-599: A dragon that never slept. Pelias swore before Zeus that he would give up the throne at Jason's return while expecting that Jason's attempt to steal the Golden Fleece would be a fatal enterprise. However, Hera acted in Jason's favour during the perilous journey. There is no definite list of the Argonauts. H. J. Rose explains this was because "an Argonautic ancestor was an addition to even the proudest of pedigrees." The following list

808-404: A drug with which she bade him anoint his shield, spear, and body when he was about to yoke the bulls; for she said that, anointed with it, for a single day he could be harmed neither by fire nor by iron. She signified to him that when the teeth were sown, armed men would spring up from the ground against him; and when he saw a knot of them he was to throw stones into their midst from a distance. When

909-473: A high proportion of Neogene and Palaeogene relict plants and animals, with the closest relatives in distant parts of the world: five species of Rhododendrons and other evergreen shrubs, wingnuts , Caucasian salamander , Caucasian parsley frog , eight endemic species of lizards from the genus Darevskia , the Caucasus adder ( Vipera kaznakovi ), Robert's snow vole , and endemic cave shrimp . Millet

1010-449: A later era the name "Colchians" was organically connected with the name " Lazi ", it should be remembered that Byzantine sources saw the northern limit of the spread of Laz people somewhere between the Phasis (modern. Poti ) and Dioscurias". The Greek name Kolchís ( Κολχίς ) is first used to describe a geographic area in the writings of Aeschylus and Pindar . Earlier writers speak of

1111-606: A maid he would send her away to her father. However, Arete, wife of Alcinous, anticipated matters by marrying Medea to Jason. In some accounts, however, Absyrtus with armed guards was sent in pursuit of the Argo by his father Aeëtes. When the latter had caught up with her in the Adriatic Sea in Histria at King Alcinous' court, and would fight for her, Alcinous intervened to prevent their fighting. They took him as arbiter, and he put them off till

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1212-628: A major uprising against the Roman Empire , which ended unsuccessfully. The lowlands and coastal area were frequently raided by fierce mountain tribes, with the Svaneti and Heniochi being the most powerful of them. Paying a nominal homage to Rome , they created their own kingdoms and enjoyed significant independence. Under Hadrian, the Romans established relations with Colchian tribes. Hadrian sent his advisor, Arrian , to tour Colchis and Iberia. Arrian depicted

1313-467: A son named Jason. Pelias intended to kill the baby at once, but Alcimede summoned her kinswomen to weep over him as if he were stillborn. She faked a burial and smuggled the baby to Mount Pelion . He was raised by the centaur Chiron , the trainer of heroes. When Jason was 20 years old, an oracle ordered him to dress as a Magnesian and head to the Iolcan court. While traveling Jason lost his sandal crossing

1414-568: A symbol of excess condemned by Roman moralists. The Colchian hinterland lacked salt and demand was satisfied partially by local production on the coast and partially by imports from the northern coast of the Black Sea. Colchis provided slaves as a tribute to the Achaemenid Empire and Colchian slaves are also attested in Ancient Greece. The eastern Black Sea region in antiquity was home to

1515-519: A tall youth in leopard skin with only one sandal. Pelias recognized that Jason was his nephew. He could not kill him because prominent kings of the Aeolian family were present. Instead, he asked Jason: "What would you do if an oracle announced that one of your fellow-citizens were destined to kill you?" Jason replied that he would send him to go and fetch the Golden Fleece , not knowing that Hera had put those words in his mouth. Jason learned later that Pelias

1616-573: A turbulent fluctuation of tribal powers and boundaries, with various hostile and anarchic tribes in the area. The Laz controlled most of coastal Colchis, while other tribes such as the Sanigs and Abasgoi escaped Roman jurisdiction. Other tribes, like the Apsilae , were becoming powerful and their king with the Romanised name Julianus was recognized by Trajan. Arrian listed the following peoples in his Periplus of

1717-453: Is BC 65 years old "Bumbua" or Pompey Bridge in the village of Khidi. There are two Early Feudal Age fortresses in the village of Matkhoji. Khoni Church is notable- 8th–9th-century St. George's Church in Khoni. The medieval settlement of Kibula is found in the village of Kveda Kinchkha. Here are the churches of Saviour and St. George, Tareshi Church and burial vault. 17th-century Gvashtibi Fortress and

1818-538: Is a representative body in Khoni Municipality. currently consisting of 30 members. The council assembles into session regularly, to consider subject matters such as code changes, utilities, taxes, city budget, oversight of city government and more. Khoni sakrebulo is elected every four year. The last election was held in October 2021 . The ancient historical monument which preserved on the territory of Khoni Municipality

1919-429: Is also found a gold money of ancient times, the stater of king Ake (3rd century BC), in Khoni there are 1270 pieces of "Colchian white" coins, Byzantine or Turkish coins. Late Bronze Age hill settlements - "Gorikebi" - are found in Khoni, Little Jikhaishi, Kutiri, Ghvedi. The population still finds various items of bronze fighting, agricultural, cult-ritual purposes and copper ingots. In the first centuries of Christianity

2020-489: Is collated from several lists given in ancient sources. In Pindar's Pythian Odes , the following heroes are either named or implied as part of the Argonauts: Jason, Heracles, Castor, Polydeuces, Euphemus, Periclymenus, Echion, Erytus, Orpheus, Zetes, Calais and Mopsus. Several more names are discoverable from other sources: Jason, along with his other 49 crew-mates, sailed off from Iolcus to Colchis to fetch

2121-574: Is disputed. Some scholars argue the name Qulḫa (Colchís) originally referred to a land to the west of Georgia. Others argue Qulḫa may have been located in the south, near modern Göle, Turkey . According to Levan Gordeziani, while the Greek Colchis etymologically descends from Urartian Qulḫa , the Greeks may have applied the name to a different region (and/or cultures) than the preceding Urartians had. Further confusion rests in possible differences in

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2222-842: Is usually defined as the area east of the Black Sea coast, restricted from the north by the southwestern slopes of the Greater Caucasus , from the south by the northern slopes of the Lesser Caucasus in Georgia and Eastern Black Sea (Karadeniz) Mountains in Turkey, and from the east by Likhi Range , connecting the Greater and the Lesser Caucasus. The central part of the region is Colchis Plain, stretching between Sukhumi and Kobuleti ; most of that lies on

2323-510: The c.  13th to the 1st centuries BC, is regarded as an early ethnically Georgian polity; the name of the Colchians was used as the collective term for early Kartvelian tribes which populated the eastern coast of the Black Sea in Greco-Roman ethnography . According to Donald Rayfield , the ethnic makeup of Colchis is "obscure" and Kartvelian names "are conspicuously absent from

2424-579: The Adriatic Sea . Zosimus wrote that after they left from the Aeëtes, they arrived at the mouth of the Ister river which it discharges itself into the Black Sea and they went up that river against the stream, by the help of oars and convenient gales of wind. After they managed to do it, they built the city of Emona as a memorial of their arrival there. Afterwards placing the Argo, on machines they drew it as far as

2525-606: The Argives marching against Thebes learned from her the way to a spring in Nemea , where she served as nurse to King Lycurgus ' son Opheltes .) Her son Euneus later became king of Lemnos. In order to purify the island from blood guilt, he ordered that all Lemnian hearth-fires be put off for nine days and a new fire be brought on a ship from Apollo's altar in Delos . After Lemnos, the Argonauts made their second stop at Bear Mountain , an island of

2626-628: The Echinadian Islands , which are now called Strophades after her; for when she came to them she turned (estraphe) and being at the shore fell for very weariness with her pursuer. But Apollonius in the Argonautica says that the Harpies were pursued to the Strophades Islands and suffered no harm, having sworn an oath that they would wrong Phineus no more. Eventually, the Argonauts freed Phineus from

2727-594: The Euxine , and the Anticites or Atticitus (now Kuban ). Arrian mentions many others by name, but they would seem to have been little more than mountain torrents: the most important of them were Charieis, Chobus or Cobus, Singames, Tarsuras, Hippus, Astelephus, Chrysorrhoas, several of which are also noticed by Ptolemy and Pliny . The chief towns were Dioscurias or Dioscuris (under the Romans called Sebastopolis, now Sukhumi ) on

2828-558: The Golden Fleece , and the fire-breathing Colchis bulls and was the destination of the Argonauts . Colchis also is thought to be a possible homeland of the Amazons . Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis. According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of

2929-493: The Machelones , Heniochi , Zydretae , Lazi , Chalybes , Tibareni / Tubal , Mossynoeci , Macrones , Moschi , Marres , Apsilae , Abasci , Sanigae , Coraxi , Coli , Melanchlaeni , Geloni and Soani (Suani) . The ancients assigned various origins to the tribes that inhabited Colchis. Herodotus regarded the Colchians as "dark-skinned ( μελάγχροες ) and woolly-haired" and calls them Egyptians. Herodotus states that

3030-545: The Propontis shaped like a bear. The locals, called the Doliones , were all descended from Poseidon . Their king Cyzicus , son of Eusorus , who had just gotten married, received the Argonauts with generous hospitality and decided to have a huge party with them. During that event, the king tried to tell Jason not to go to the eastern side of the island, but he got distracted by Heracles, and forgot to tell Jason. When they had left

3131-420: The golden fleece . The Argonauts first stopped at Lemnos where they learned that all the males had been murdered. The reason of which was as follows: for several years, the women did not honor and make offerings to Aphrodite and because of her anger, she visited them with a noisome smell. Therefore, their spouses took captive women from the neighboring country of Thrace and bedded with them. Dishonored, all

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3232-420: The "Kolchian" ( Κολχίδα ) people and their mythical king Aeëtes ( Αἰήτης ), as well as his eponymous city Aea or Aia ( Αἶα ) , but don't make explicit references to a Kolchis nation or region. The main river was known as the Phasis (now Rioni ) and was, according to some writers the southern boundary of Colchis, but more probably flowed through the middle of that country from the Caucasus west into

3333-614: The Apsyrtides Islands, the ship spoke, saying that the wrath of Zeus would not cease unless they journeyed to Ausonia and were purified by Circe for the murder of Apsyrtus. So when they had sailed past the Ligurian and Celtic nations and had voyaged through the Sardinian Sea, they skirted Tyrrhenia and came to Aeaea, where they supplicated Circe and were purified. As the Argonauts sailed past the Sirens, Orpheus restrained them by chanting

3434-428: The Argonauts mourned and cut off their hair. Jason gave Cyzicus a costly burial and handed over the kingdom to his sons. After the burial, the Argonauts sailed away and touched at Mysia , where they left behind Heracles and Polyphemus. Hylas , son of Thiodamas, had been sent to draw water and was ravished away by nymphs on account of his beauty. However, Polyphemus heard him cry out and gave chase, believing that he

3535-544: The Argonauts were staying with Lycus and went out to gather straw, the seer Idmon, son of Apollo, was wounded by a wild boar and died. Also, on that island Tiphys died, and Ancaeus undertook to steer the ship. By the will of Hera they were borne to the island of Dia. There the Stymphalian Birds were wounding them, using their feathers as arrows. They were not able to cope with the great numbers of birds. Following Phineus' advice they seized shields and spears, and dispersed

3636-591: The Colchian land. Subsequently, the Colchis people appear to have overthrown the Persian Authority, and to have formed an independent state. According to Ronald Suny this western Georgian state was federated to Kartli-Iberia, and its kings ruled through skeptoukhi (royal governors) who received a staff from the king. According to David Braund's reading of Strabo 's account, the native Colchian dynasty continued ruling

3737-475: The Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from

3838-537: The Colchians, with the Ancient Egyptians and the Ethiopians , were the first to practice circumcision , a custom which he claims that the Colchians inherited from remnants of the army of Pharaoh Sesostris ( Senusret III ). Herodotus writes: For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and

3939-671: The Euxine Sea written in 130-131 (from south to north): Sanni, Machelones , Heniochi , Zudreitae, Lazi , Apsilae , Abasgoi , Sanigs and Zilchi . According to traditional accounts Christianity began to spread in the early first century by Andrew the Apostle , Simon the Zealot , and Saint Matthias . A change in burial patterns in the 3rd century was possibly due to Christian influence. The Hellenistic civilization , local paganism and Mithraic Mysteries would, however, remain widespread until

4040-453: The Greeks' own usage of the name Colchis in political and mythological contexts (i.e. the relationship between "Aia-Colchis" and "the land of Colchis"). According to the scholar of Caucasian studies Cyril Toumanoff : Colchis appears as the first Caucasian State to have achieved the coalescence of the newcomer. Colchis can be justly regarded as not a proto-Georgian, but a Georgian (West Georgian) kingdom. ... It would seem natural to seek

4141-457: The Lemnian women, except Hypsipyle , were instigated by the same goddess in conspiring to kill their fathers and husbands. They then deposed King Thoas , who should have died along with the whole tribe of men, but was secretly spared by his daughter Hypsipyle. She put Thoas on board a ship which a storm carried to the island of Taurica . In the meantime, the Argonauts sailing along, the guardian of

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4242-514: The Oceanid Idyia, with love. At Aphrodite's instigation, the witch conceived a passion for the man. Fearing that Jason might be destroyed by the bulls, she, keeping the thing from her father, promised to help him yoke the bulls and deliver the fleece to him. Medea also asked the hero to swear to have her become his wife and take her with him on the voyage to Greece. When Jason swore to do so, she aided him to be freed from all danger, for she gave him

4343-515: The Persian court 100 girls and 100 boys every five years. In 400 BC, shortly after the Ten Thousand reached Trapezus , a battle was fought between them and the Colchis in which the latter were decisively defeated. The influence exerted on Colchis by the vast Achaemenid Empire with its thriving commerce and wide economic and commercial ties with other regions accelerated the socio-economic development of

4444-728: The Phaeacians and founded a town which from Absyrtus' name they called Absoros. Now this island is located in Histria, opposite Pola. Sailing by night, the Argonauts encountered a violent storm, and Apollo, taking his stand on the Melantian ridges, flashed lightning down, shooting a shaft into the sea. Then they perceived an island close at hand, and anchoring there they named it Anaphe, because it had loomed up (anaphanenai) unexpectedly. So they founded an altar of Radiant Apollo, and having offered sacrifice they betook them to feasting; and twelve handmaids, whom Arete had given to Medea, jested merrily with

4545-543: The Province of Galatia (63) and later, in Cappadocia (81). Phasis , Dioscurias and other Greek settlements of the coast did not fully recover after the wars of 60-40 BC and Trebizond became the economical and political centre of the region. Despite the fact that all major fortresses along the sea coast were occupied by the Romans, their rule was relatively loose. In 69, the people of Pontus and Colchis under Anicetus staged

4646-566: The Sun, they came to Corcyra, the island of the Phaeacians, of which Alcinous was king. But when the Colchians could not find the ship, some of them settled at the Ceraunian mountains, and some journeyed to Illyria and colonized the Apsyrtides Islands. But some came to the Phaeacians, and finding the Argo there, they demanded of Alcinous that he should give up Medea. He answered, that if she already knew Jason, he would give her to him, but that if she were still

4747-474: The Thermodon and the Caucasus, they came to the river Phasis, which is in the Colchian land. The sons of Phrixus led Jason to land and bade the Argonauts to conceal the ship. They themselves went to their mother Chalciope, Medea's sister, and made known the kindness of Jason, and why they had come. Then Chalciope told them about Medea, and brought her with her sons to Jason. When she saw Jason, Medea recognized him as

4848-594: The Urartians and their territories were themselves conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . According to Svante Cornell , "What could be conceived as the proto Georgian statehood emerged mainly in the Western parts of today's Georgia, with the kingdom of Colchis ( Kolkheti ) in the sixth century BC." Colchis was inhabited by a number of tribes whose settlements lay along the shore of the Black Sea. Chief among those were

4949-424: The ankle. After tarrying a single night there, they put in to Aigina to draw water, and a contest arose among them concerning the drawing of the water. Thence they sailed betwixt Euboea and Locris and came to Iolcus, having completed the whole voyage in four months. Sozomen wrote that when the Argonauts left from the Aeëtes, they returned from a different route, crossed the sea of Scythia , sailed through some of

5050-523: The beginnings of Georgian social history in Colchis, the earliest Georgian formation. According to most Classical-era sources, Colchis was bordered on the south-west by Pontus , on the west by the Black Sea , as far as the river Corax. To its north was the Greater Caucasus , beyond which was Sarmatia . On its east it bordered the Kingdom of Iberia and Montes Moschici (now the Lesser Caucasus ). The south of Colchis bordered Armenia . The westward extent of

5151-469: The birds by the noise, after the manner of the Curetes. The Argonauts also found shipwrecked men on the island, naked and helpless—the sons of Phrixus and Chalciope—Argus, Phrontides, Melas, and Cylindrus. These told their misfortunes to Jason, how they had suffered shipwreck and been cast there when they were hastening to go to their grandfather Athamas, and Jason welcomed and aided them. And having sailed past

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5252-405: The bulls were yoked, Aeëtes did not give Jason the fleece for he wished to burn down the Argo and kill the crew. But before he could do so, Medea brought Jason by night to the shrine. Having lulled the dragon that guarded it to sleep with her drugs, she possessed herself of the fleece. In Jason's company, she came to the Argo, and the Argonauts put to sea by night to set off to their country. Medea

5353-399: The bulls, Hera wished to save him because once when she had come to a river and wished to test the minds of men, she assumed an old woman's form, and asked to be carried across. He had carried her across when others who had passed over despised her. And so, since she knew that Jason could not perform the commands without help of Medea, she asked Aphrodite to inspire Medea, daughter of Aeëtes and

5454-462: The chiefs; whence it is still customary for the women to jest at the sacrifice. Putting to sea from there, they were hindered from touching at Crete by Talos. Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a brazen man, but some say that he was a bull. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles, and a bronze nail was rammed home at

5555-408: The children of Phrixus how they could sail from Colchis to Greece. Zeus then set over him the Harpies, who are called the hounds of Zeus. These were winged female creatures, and when a table was laid for Phineus, they flew down from the sky and snatched up most of the victuals from his lips, and what little they left stank so that nobody could touch it. When the Argonauts would have consulted him about

5656-711: The church in Gvashtibi; Ghvedi Fortress in the village of Ghvedi. In the territory of the village of Kveda Gordi are the 18th-century Rekhi and Veli Fortresses. In the same village there are monuments of the 19th century on the estates belonging to Dadiani: Forest-Park, Kari Church, historical sources. On the territory of the municipality historical monuments are also preserved in the villages: 42°19′N 42°26′E  /  42.317°N 42.433°E  / 42.317; 42.433 Kingdom of Colchis In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography , Colchis ( / ˈ k ɒ l k ɪ s / ; Ancient Greek : Κολχίς )

5757-668: The churches of the first martyr were built in: Khoni, Gelaveri, Kveda Kinchkha and Khidi. In the Middle Ages, the territory of the municipality was the property of the King. During the Russian conquest of the kingdom of Imereti and Russian rule, the territory of the municipality was part of Vake Mazra and the Daba Khoni - center of Mazra. Since 1846, this territory merged with Kutaisi Governorate . Khoni Municipal Assembly ( Georgian : ხონის საკრებულო)

5858-479: The country in spite of its fragmentation into skeptoukhies . Gocha R. Tsetskhladze explains that although Colchis and neighboring Iberia were once viewed as not having been under Achaemenid rule, "ever more evidence is emerging to show that they were, forming a lesser part of the Armenian satrapy ". Mithridates VI quelled an uprising in the region in 83 BC and gave Colchis to his son Mithridates , who, soon being suspected in having plotted against his father,

5959-435: The country is considered differently by different authors: Strabo makes Colchis begin at Trabzon , while Ptolemy , on the other hand, extends Pontus to the Rioni River . Although some ancient authors consider Dioscurias to be the extreme northern settlement point of Colchians (in an ethnic sense), nevertheless "they consider it as a point located on the territory of non-Colchian tribes ( Heniochi , Sanigs )". Since in

6060-426: The destination of the Argonauts , as well as the home to Medea and the Golden Fleece . It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that would export its resources mostly to ancient Hellenic city-states. Colchis likely had a diverse population. According to Greek and Roman sources, between 70 and 300 languages were spoken in Dioscourias (modern Sukhumi) alone. According to Rayfield,

6161-418: The earliest ages, that Sesostris king of Egypt was overcome in Scythia , and put to fight, by the king of Colchis, which if true, that the Colchians not only had kings in those times, but were a very powerful people. Many modern theories suggest that the ancestors of the Laz - Mingrelians constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in

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6262-463: The elevation below 20 m (66 ft) above sea level. Marginal parts of the region are mountains of the Great and the Lesser Caucasus and Likhi Range. Its territory mostly corresponds to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo , Imereti , Guria , Adjara , Abkhazia , Svaneti , Racha ; the modern Turkey ’s Rize , Trabzon and Artvin provinces ( Lazistan , Tao-Klarjeti ); and

6363-440: The end of the vein. This Talos kept guard, running round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw the Argo standing inshore, he pelted it as usual with stones. His death was brought about by the wiles of Medea, whether, as some say, she drove him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she promised to make him immortal and then drew out the nail, so that all the ichor gushed out and he died. But some say that Poeas shot him dead in

6464-408: The ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians . Pausanias , a 1st-century BC Greek geographer, citing the poet Eumelos, assigned Aeëtes , the mythological first king of Colchis, a Greek origin. The tribes living in the southern Colchis ( Macrones , Moschi , and Marres ) were incorporated into Persia and formed the 19th satrapy , while the northern tribes submitted "voluntarily" and had to send to

6565-489: The extremity of the ship's ornamented poop being shorn away right round. Henceforth the Clashing Rocks stood still; for it was fated that, so soon as a ship had made the passage, they should come to rest completely. When the Argonauts entered the sea called Euxine through the Cyanean Cliffs (i.e. Clashing Rocks of the Symplegades), they arrived among the Mariandynians. There King Lycus received them kindly, grateful because they had killed Amycus, who had often attacked him. While

6666-424: The few anthronyms found in Colchian burials." Instead, Greek , Anatolian , Iranian , and possibly Abkhaz names are present. At the beginning of the XX century, a researcher of ancient history Peter Ushakov notes: "In ancient times, during the 15th-18th centuries BC, the tribes of the Abkhazian - Circassian group inhabited the entire space of the western half of the Caucasus from the Black Sea province through

6767-586: The first mention of Colchis is during the reign of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I of the Middle Assyrian Empire (1245–1209 BC) when he mentions "40 kings by the Upper [Black] Sea". Colchis territory is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo , Imereti , Guria , Adjara , Svaneti , Racha ; Abkhazia ; modern Russia 's Sochi and Tuapse districts; and present-day Turkey ’s Artvin , Rize , and Trabzon provinces. Colchis, Kolkha, Qulḫa, or Kilkhi, which existed from

6868-459: The first practised circumcision. These claims have been widely rejected by modern historians. It is in doubt if Herodotus had ever been to Colchis or Egypt, and no Egyptian army ever set foot in the Caucasus, a region shielded by states to the south of the Caucasus too powerful for any Egyptian army to pass through, such as Urartu , Hittia , Assyria and Mitanni . According to Pliny the Elder : The Colchians were governed by their own kings in

6969-539: The fleece. The other promised to give it if single-handed he yoked with adamant the brazen-footed bulls. These were two wild bulls of enormous size that he had got as a gift of Hephaestus; they had brazen feet and puffed flames from their mouths and nostrils. These creatures Aeëtes ordered him to yoke and plow, and to sow from a helmet the dragon's teeth; for he had got from Athena half of the dragon's teeth which Cadmus sowed in Thebes. These tribe of armed men should arise and slay each other. While Jason puzzled how he could yoke

7070-408: The fourth century. Goths , dwelling in the Crimea and looking for new homes, raided Colchis in 253, but were repulsed with the help of the Roman garrison of Pitsunda . By the first century BC, the Lazica (or the Laz) kingdom was established in the region. Lazica became known as Egrisi in 66 BC when Egrisi became a vassal of the Roman Empire after the Caucasian campaign of Pompey . Colchian coins,

7171-581: The harbour Iphinoe saw them and announced their coming to Hypsipyle, the new queen. Polyxo who by virtue of her middle age, gave advice that she should put them under obligation to the gods of hospitality and invite them to a friendly reception. Hypsipyle fell in love with their captain Jason. They had sons, Euneus and Nebrophonus or Deipylus . The other Argonauts consorted with the Lemnian women, and their descendants were called Minyans , since some among them had previously emigrated from Minyan Orchomenus to Iolcus. (Later, these Minyans were driven out from

7272-458: The island and came to Lacedaemon ). The Lemnian women gave the names of the Argonauts to the children they had conceived by them. Delayed many days there, they were chided by Hercules and departed. But later, when the other women learned that Hypsipyle had spared her father, they tried to kill her. She fled from them, but pirates captured and took her to Thebes where they sold her as a slave to King Lycus . (Hypsipyle reappeared years later, when

7373-430: The king and sailed a whole day, a storm that arose in the night brought them unaware to the same island. Cyzicus, thinking they were a Pelasgican army (for they were constantly harassed by these enemies) attacked them on the shore at night in mutual ignorance of each other. The Argonauts slew many, including Cyzicus, who was killed by Jason himself. On the next day, when they came near the shore and knew what they had done,

7474-473: The men fought each other about that, he was taken to kill them. On hearing that, Jason anointed himself with the drug. He arrived to the grove of the temple and sought the bulls. And, even though they charged him with a flame of fire, he managed to yoke them. Then, when he had sown the teeth, armed men rose from the ground; and where he saw several together, he pelted them unseen with stones, and when they fought each other, he drew near and slew them. However, though

7575-440: The modern Russia ’s Sochi and Tuapse districts. The climate is mild humid; near Batumi , annual rainfall level reaches 4,000 mm (160 in), which is the absolute maximum for continental western Eurasia. The dominating natural landscapes of Colchis are temperate rainforests , yet degraded in the plain part of the region; wetlands (along the coastal parts of Colchis Plain); subalpine and alpine meadows . Colchis has

7676-588: The most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age ." It has been described in modern scholarship as "the earliest Georgian formation", which, along with the Kingdom of Iberia , would later contribute significantly to the development of the Kingdom of Georgia and the Georgian nation . Colchis is known in Greek mythology as

7777-447: The muddy Anauros river while helping an old woman ( Hera in disguise). The goddess was angry with King Pelias for killing his stepgrandmother Sidero after she had sought refuge in Hera's temple. Another oracle warned Pelias to be on his guard against a man with one shoe. Pelias was presiding over a sacrifice to Poseidon with several neighboring kings in attendance. Among the crowd stood

7878-448: The next day. When he seemed depressed and Arete, his wife, asked him the cause of his sadness, he said he had been made arbiter by two different states, to judge between Colchians and Argives. When Arete asked him what judgment he would give, Alcinous replied that if Medea were a virgin, he would give her to her father, but if not, to her husband. When Arete heard this from her husband, she sent word to Jason, and he lay with Medea by night in

7979-438: The oldest of which were dated to the middle of the 6th century BC, served as the primary source of evidence for the Colchian state. A reassessment of the coins, however, has revealed that these early "Colchian" coins actually represent the production of a Achaemenid satrapy. Little is known of the rulers of Colchis. From the fifth century B.C.E. onwards, Colchis was identified as Aea, the mythical home of Aeëtes , Medea ,

8080-409: The one she had loved deeply in dreams by Hera's urging, and promised him everything. They brought him to the temple. An oracle told Aeëtes, son of Helios, that he would keep his kingdom as long as the fleece which Phrixus had dedicated remained at the shrine of Ares. When the ship was brought into port, Jason repaired to Aeëtes, and setting forth the charge laid on him by Pelias invited him to give him

8181-494: The place Tomi. He sent out many of the Colchians to search for the Argo, threatening that if they did not bring Medea to him, they should suffer the punishment due to her; so they separated and pursued the search in diverse places. When the Argonauts were already sailing past the Eridanus river, Zeus, in his anger at the murder of Apsyrtus, sent a furious storm upon them which drove them out of their course. And, as they were sailing past

8282-455: The punishment. Being rid of the Harpies, Phineus revealed to the Argonauts the course of their voyage, and advised them about the Symplegades. These were huge rocky cliffs, which, dashed together by the force of the winds, closed the sea passage. Thick was the mist that swept over them, and loud the crash, and it was impossible for even the birds to pass between them. So he told them to let fly

8383-502: The rivers there, and when they were near the shores of Italy , they built a city in order to stay at the winter, which they called Emona ( Ancient Greek : Ἤμονα ), part of modern-day Ljubljana in Slovenia . At summer, with the assistance of the locals, they dragged the Argo to the Aquilis river ( Ancient Greek : Ἄκυλιν ποταμὸν ), which falls into the Eridanus. The Eridanus itself falls into

8484-652: The sea-side and from there they went at the Thessalian shore. Pliny the Elder wrote that some writers claim that the Argo came down some river into the Adriatic Sea, not far from Tergeste but that river is now unknown. While other writers say that the ship was carried across the Alps on men's shoulders, having passed along the Ister river, then along the Savus river, and then to Nauportus which

8585-483: The seaboard of the Euxine, Sarapana (now Shorapani ), Phasis (now Poti ), Pityus (now Pitsunda ), Apsaros (now Gonio ), Surium (now Vani ), Archaeopolis (now Nokalakevi ), Macheiresis, and Cyta or Cutatisium or Aia (now Kutaisi ), the traditional birthplace of Medea . Scylax mentions also Mala or Male, which he, in contradiction to other writers, makes the birthplace of Medea . In physical geography , Colchis

8686-501: The smelting and casting of metals. Sophisticated farming implements were made, and fertile, well-watered lowlands and a mild climate promoted the growth of progressive agricultural techniques. The earliest attestations of the name of Colchis can be found in the 8th century Greek poet Eumelus of Corinth as Κολχίδα and earlier, in Urartian records as Qulḫa mentioned by the Urartian kings, who conquered it in 744 or 743 BC before

8787-537: The son and heir of Zenon, Colchis was part of the Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom . After the death of Polemon (8 BC), his second wife Pythodorida of Pontus retained possession of Colchis as well as of Pontus, although the kingdom of Bosporus was wrested from her power. Her son and successor, Polemon II of Pontus , was induced by Emperor Nero to abdicate the throne, and both Pontus and Colchis were incorporated in

8888-516: The sons of Boreas, and that the sons of Boreas should die when they could not catch up a fugitive. So the Harpies were pursued and one of them fell into the river Tigres in Peloponnese, the river that is now called Harpys after her; some call her Nicothoe, but others Aellopus. But the other, named Ocypete or, according to others, Ocythoe (but Hesiod calls her Ocypode) fled by the Propontis till she came to

8989-516: The throne from his half-brother Aeson and became king of Iolcus in Thessaly (near the modern city of Volos ). Because of this unlawful act, an oracle warned him that a descendant of Aeolus would seek revenge. Pelias put to death every prominent descendant of Aeolus he could, but spared Aeson because of the pleas of their mother Tyro . Instead, Pelias kept Aeson prisoner and forced him to renounce his inheritance. Aeson married Alcimede , who bore him

9090-423: The voyage, he said that he would advise them about it if they would free him from the punishment. So the Argonauts laid a table of viands beside him, and the Harpies with a shriek suddenly pounced down and snatched away the food. When Zetes and Calais, the sons of Boreas, saw that, they drew their swords and, having wings on head and feet, pursued them through the air. Now it was fated that the Harpies should perish by

9191-701: The war god Ares , King Aeëtes hung the Golden Fleece until it was seized by Jason and the Argonauts . Colchis was also the land where the mythological Prometheus was punished by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing to humanity the secret of fire. Apollonius of Rhodes named Aea as the main city ( Argonautica , passim). The main mythical characters from Colchis are: 42°N 42°E  /  42°N 42°E  / 42; 42 Argonauts The Argonauts ( / ˈ ɑːr ɡ ə n ɔː t / AR -gə-nawt ; Ancient Greek : Ἀργοναῦται , romanized :  Argonaûtai , lit.   ' Argo sailors') were

9292-516: The well-developed Bronze Age culture known as the Colchian culture , related to the neighbouring Koban culture , that emerged toward the Middle Bronze Age . In at least some parts of Colchis, the process of urbanization seems to have been well advanced by the end of the second millennium BC. The Colchian Late Bronze Age (fifteenth to eighth century BC) saw the development of significant skill in

9393-508: The whole of Colchis in a continuous strip to the sources of the Euphrates and were divided into four branches: the people of Mitanni , Colchians, Abasgi and Ubykhs ." The name Colchis is thought to have derived from the Urartian Qulḫa . In the mid-eighth century BC, Sarduri II , the King of Urartu , inscribed his victory over Qulḫa on a stele; however, the exact location of Qulḫa

9494-510: Was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi ( Georgian : ეგრისი ) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea , centered in present-day western Georgia . Its population, the Colchians , are generally thought to have been mainly an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians , namely Svans and Zans . According to David Marshall Lang : "one of

9595-434: Was attended by her brother Apsyrtus when they escaped from Colchis. When he discovered the daring deeds done by Medea, he started off in pursuit of the ship. Medea noticed her brother's ship and murdered him. Then, she cut his body limb from limb and threw the pieces into the deep. Gathering his child's limbs, Aeëtes fell behind in the pursuit; wherefore he turned back, and, having buried the rescued limbs of his child, he called

9696-488: Was being carried off by robbers. After informing Heracles, the ship put to sea while the two searched for Hylas. Polyphemus ended up founding the city Cius in Mysia, reigning as king while Heracles returned to Argos, though accounts differ regarding Heracles' story. Herodorus ' version says that Heracles did not sail at all at that time, but was instead serving as a slave at the court of Omphale . Pherecydes ' version says that he

9797-529: Was being haunted by the ghost of Phrixus . Phrixus had fled from Orchomenus riding on a divine ram to avoid being sacrificed and took refuge in Colchis where he was later denied proper burial. According to an oracle, Iolcus would never prosper unless his ghost was taken back in a ship, together with the golden ram's fleece. This fleece now hung from a tree in the grove of the Colchian Ares, guarded night and day by

9898-825: Was executed. During the Third Mithridatic War , Mithridates VI made another of his sons, Machares , king of Bosporus and Colchis, who held his power, but only for a short period. On the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus in 65 BC, Colchis was occupied by Pompey , who captured one of the local chiefs (sceptuchus) Olthaces, and installed Aristarchus as a dynast (63–47 BC). On the fall of Pompey, Pharnaces II , son of Mithridates , took advantage of Julius Caesar being occupied in Egypt , and reduced Colchis, Armenia , and some part of Cappadocia , defeating Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus , whom Caesar subsequently sent against him. His triumph was, however, short-lived. Under Polemon I ,

9999-508: Was left behind at Aphetae in Thessaly, the Argo having declared with human voice that she could not bear his weight. Nevertheless, Demaratus recorded that Heracles sailed to Colchis; for Dionysius even affirmed that he was the leader of the Argonauts. From Mysia, they departed to the land of the Bebryces which was ruled by King Amycus , son of Poseidon and Melie , a Bithynian nymph. Being

10100-457: Was said to be the son of Agenor or of Poseidon , and a seer who was bestowed by Apollo with the gift of prophecy. Phineus had lost the sight of both eyes because of the following reasons, (1) blinded by Zeus because he revealed the deliberations of the gods and foretold the future to men, (2) by Boreas and the Argonauts because he blinded his own two sons by Cleopatra at the instigation of their stepmother; or (3) by Poseidon, because he revealed to

10201-399: Was the main staple crop in Colchis. Wheat grew in certain regions and was also imported by sea. Similarly, local wines were produced and some wines were brought from overseas. The Colchian plain provided ample grazing land for cattle and horses, with the name of Phasis associated with fine horses. The wetlands were a home for waterfowl, while Colchian pheasants were exported to Rome and became

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