We have all heard of the legendary Colchis and the Argonauts from Greek mythology. But not every one of us knows that this ancient state was located in the west of modern Georgia, along the eastern coast of the Black Sea, in the 1-2 millennium BC. The two largest cities of Colchis – the port of Fazis and Dioskuriada – were the focus of the Transcaucasian trade. In the worldview of the ancient Greeks, Colchis was a “country of the rising sun,” that is, a country located on the edge of the existing world, where Helios begins his journey, every day ascending in a chariot of fire across the horizon.

An ancient Greek legend about the origin of metallurgy is associated with Colchis land, in which the titan Prometheus, called Amirani in the Georgian tales, in spite of the prohibitions of the gods, taught people how to forge iron. For this he was chained to the rock of the Caucasus Range, where his liver was constantly pecked by an eagle, and only the devoted dog of the hero remained beside the owner, licking the chain that bound him.

However, the most famous evidence of the important role of Colchis in ancient Greek mythology is the myth of the Golden Fleece and the Argonauts, travelers on the ship “Argo” and the powerful king Aeetes, the son of the sun god. In addition to other untold riches, he possessed the treasured golden fleece – sheep skin with golden wool. Aeetes’s daughter, Medea, was a sorceress, the legendary founder of medicine and the beloved of the argonaut Jason. According to the myth, the Argonauts set sail from Iolk to Colchis by sea. Jason led this campaign, on which King Peli entrusted the order to obtain a golden fleece in Colchis. With the help of a magic potion prepared by Medea, Jason passed all the tests that King Aeetes subjected him to. Then Medea put the herbs to the dragon, guarding the fleece, so that her lover could abduct the golden fleece and return home with his wife.