The two early Georgian Kingdoms of late antiquity were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as Iberia. In Greek Mythology, Colchis was home to the Golden Fleece.
According to legend Jason was the heir to the throne of Iolcus,which was unrightfully occupied by his half-brother, Pelias, with whom he shared a mother. The power –hungry Pelias overthrew his own father and killed all his descendants. Jason, however survived, and his mother and sent him to the centaur, Chiron, for education. From here, Jason learned the ways he would later use to return to Iolcus and claim the rightful throne.
In return, instead a of yielding the throne to the lawful ruler, Pelias sent Jason to Colchis to reclaim the magic ram, or rather what was left of it, as it had already been turned into the Golden Fleece.
Jason gathered all the heroes of Greece, and departed to Colchis on a ship built by the sailors of Argos, hence the name of the ship and its crew, the Argonauts.
The Kingdom of Colchis is described as a fable land, rich in gold and fancy fountains, covered with jeweled domes and sacred bulls made from copper. Here, everything one could imagine stood in ornate gold and luxurious style. King Aeetes ruled over this magnificent country, and he held guard over its main treasure: the Golden Fleece.
Medea, the daughter of King Aeetes, was a sorceress and a princess, who used her knowledge and magic to help Jason claim the Golden Fleece. She fell in love with him, left her homeland and eventually settled with Jason in Iolcus. Jason and Medea bore two children and gained a good reputation. However, Medea later discovered Jason was adulterous. Her vengeance was merciless and she killed her own children in anger and dispair.
Beside her striking appearance, she was known as a bearer of great mystical knowledge, skillfully mastering the secrets of the plants and using them as remedies for good or evil. Scholars today believe the word, medicine, originates from the name Medea.
Reality of the Golden Fleece
Geologists have uncovered evidence that a mountainous area of Svaneti, in the northwest of Georgia, was the country ‘rich of gold,’ as described in the legend.
They claim that villagers were part of the wealthy Kingdom of Colchis, existing from 6th-1st century BC, and these villagers used sheepskin to capture gold from mountain streams in the area.
The fleece lined bottom of sandy stream beds, and trapped tiny grains of gold that built up in the rock. The technique is a variation on “gold-panning” used elsewhere in the world, notably in the American west.
This, they say, would have lead to sheepskins containing flakes of gold and could lead to stories of a golden fleece.
