Aeëtes and Medea

Colchis in Greek myth

myth

In Greek myth Aeëtes was the son of the sun god Helios, brother of the sorceress Circe and king of the wondrous land of Aea, which from the fifth century BC came to be identified with Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea. In one version of the myth Aeëtes came from Corinth and founded his capital near the mouth of the great river Phasis, today's Rioni; in Georgia it is customarily linked with Kutaisi. Phrixus flew to Colchis on a golden ram, fleeing his stepmother, and the golden fleece was hung in a sacred grove guarded by a sleepless dragon.

Jason and the Argonauts sailed for the fleece. Aeëtes set him impossible tasks: to yoke the fire-breathing bronze-footed bulls, plough a field and sow it with dragon's teeth. Help came from the king's daughter Medea, priestess of Hecate and a sorceress, who fell in love with Jason: she gave him a magic ointment, lulled the dragon to sleep and fled with the Argonauts, and in the darkest version of the myth killed her brother Absyrtus to delay her father's pursuit. Medea's later fate in Greece, Jason's betrayal and her terrible revenge, became the subject of Euripides' tragedy.

Behind the myth stands the real fame of Colchis. Strabo explained the golden fleece by the highlanders' custom of catching gold dust in mountain torrents with sheepskins, and archaeologists have found the richest gold jewellery at Vani, in the very heart of ancient Colchis. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that the Iberians considered themselves descendants of Thessalians who had come with Jason. In Georgia Medea is still a common woman's name today, and in Batumi a monument shows her holding the golden fleece.