Colchians

“ Yea, my friend, come, save the woe-stricken maid from the Colchians and show grace to the Minyae. Argos is near our isle and the men of Haemonia; but Aeetes dwells not near, nor do we know of Aeetes one whit: we hear but his name; but this maiden of dread suffering hath broken my heart by her prayers. O king, give her not up to the Colchians to be borne back to her father’s home. She was distraught when first she gave him the drugs to charm the oxen; and next, to cure one ill by another, as in our sinning we do often, she fled from her haughty sire’s heavy wrath. ”

“ It is quite possible that there was an ancient trade connexion between the Colchians and the Mediterranean peoples. We learn that women were buried, while the corpses of men were suspended on trees. The principal coast town was the Milesian colony of Dioscurias (Roman Sebastopolis; mod. Sukhum Kaleh) , the ancient name being preserved in the modern C. Iskuria. The chief river was the Phasis (mod. Rion) . From Colchis is derived the name of the plant Colchicum (q.v.) ”

“ At last Polemon [Pg 229] obtained possession of Colchis, and after his death his wife Pythodoris reigned over the Colchians, Trapezus, Pharnacia, and the Barbarians situated above them, of whom I shall speak in another place.
The territory of the Moschi, in which is situated the temple, is divided into three portions, one of which is occupied by Colchians, another by Iberians, and the third by Armenians. There is in Iberia on the confines of Colchis, a small city, the city of Phrixus, the present Idessa, a place of strength. The river Charis953 flows near Dioscurias. ”

“ It is very certain, that the people of Colchis, who were a colony from Egypt, had charts of this sort, with written descriptions of the seas and shores, whithersoever they traded: and they at one time carried on a most extensive commerce. We are told, says the [200] Scholiast upon Apollonius, that the Colchians still retain the laws and customs of their forefathers: and they have pillars of stone, upon which are engraved maps of the continent, and of the ocean: Εισι δε, φησι, και νομοι παρ' αυτοις των Προγωνον, και Στηλαι, εν ἁις γης και θαλασσης αναγραφαι εισι. ”

“ The Colchians are now called Mingrelians by the 246Italians. They are one of the tribes settled between the Caspian Gates, called by the Turks ‘Demit Capi,’ i.e., ‘Iron Gates,’ and the Black and Caspian Seas, which are now called Georgians, either from the sect of Christianity to which they belong, or because it is their ancient name, which last seems the more probable theory, among whom are also included the Albanians and Iberians (Imeritians) . ”

“ Yet amidst the rudest ignorance, the untaught natives discover a singular dexterity both of mind and hand; and, although the want of union and discipline exposes them to their more powerful neighbours, a bold and intrepid spirit has animated the Colchians of every age. In the host of Xerxes, they served on foot; and their arms were a dagger or a javelin, a wooden casque, and a buckler of raw hides. But in their own country the use of cavalry has more generally prevailed; the meanest of the peasants disdain to walk; the martial nobles are possessed, perhaps, of two hundred horses ”

“ The Colchian government has been always a pure and hereditary kingdom: and the authority of the sovereign is only restrained by the turbulence of his subjects. Whenever they were obedient, he could lead a numerous army into the field; but some faith is requisite to believe that the single tribe of the Suanians was composed of two hundred thousand soldiers, or that the population of Mingrelia now amounts to four millions of inhabitants. [81]
Revolutions of Colchos It was the boast of the Colchians, that their ancestors had checked the victories of Sesostris ”

“ The chariots of the Colchians were upon the banks. Jason saw King Æetes in his chariot, a blazing torch lighting his corselet and his helmet. Swiftly the Argo went, but there were ships behind her, and they went swiftly too.
They came into the Sea of Pontus, and Phrontis, the son of Phrixus, gave counsel to them. “Do not strive to make the passage of the Symplegades,” he said. “All who live around the Sea of Pontus are friendly to King Æetes; they will be warned by him, and they will be ready to slay us and take the Argo. ”

“ King Alcinous said: "Æetes is strong, and although his kingdom is far from ours, he can bring war upon us." But still Arete pleaded with him to protect Medea from the Colchians. Alcinous went within; he raised up Medea from where she crouched on the floor of the palace, and he promised her that the Argonauts would be protected in his city.
Then the king mounted his chariot; Medea went with him, and they came down to the seashore where the heroes had made their encampment. The Argonauts and the Colchians were drawn up against each other, and the Colchians far outnumbered the wearied heroes. ”

“ Jason remembered the counsel of Medea. He raised a boulder that four men could hardly raise and with arms hardened by the plowing he cast it. The Colchians shouted to see such a stone cast by the hands of one man. Right into the middle of the Earth-born Men the stone came. ”

“ The bravest man in each company must head the column, and lead it up the mountain by the best path he can find. The Colchians will not venture to charge, for if they were to press in between the columns, they would be surrounded by enemies on both sides.’
This plan was agreed upon, and the hoplites were formed into eighty companies of a hundred men each, while the light-armed troops were divided into three detachments of about six hundred men each, and posted in the centre and at the two wings. ”

“ But the king drove his chariot to where the heroes stood, and he took the hand of each, and received them as his guests. Then the Colchians knew that they might not make war upon the heroes. They drew off. The next day they marched away.
It was a rich land that they had come to. Once Aristæus dwelt there, the king who discovered how to make bees store up their honey for men and how to make the good olive grow. Macris, his daughter, tended Dionysus, the son of Zeus, when Hermes brought him of the flame, and moistened his lips with honey. ”

“ And the heroes themselves strode in gladness through the throng, even as though they had set foot in the heart of Haemonia; but soon were they to arm and raise the battle-cry; so near to them appeared a boundless host of Colchians, who had passed through the mouth of Pontus and between the Cyanean rocks in search of the chieftains. They desired forthwith to carry off Medea to her father’s house apart from the rest, or else they threatened with fierce cruelty to raise the dread war-cry both then and thereafter on the coming of Aeetes. ”

“ Now some of the Colchians, in a vain search, passed out from Pontus through the Cyanean rocks; but the rest went to the river, and them Apsyrtus led, and, turning aside, he entered the mouth called Fair. Wherefore he outstripped the heroes by crossing a neck of land into the furthest gulf of the Ionian sea. For a certain island is enclosed by Ister, by name Peuce, three-cornered, its base stretching along the coast, and with a sharp angle towards the river; and round it the outfall is cleft in two. One mouth they call the mouth of Narex, and the other, at the lower end, the Fair mouth. ”

“ They are always represented as adjoining on the Colchians to the east and southeast, so that they must evidently have inhabited the greater part of the modern province of Georgia. ... There is reason to believe that the modern Georgians—still called 'Virk' by their neighbours—are their descendants, and preserve, in the original seat of the nation, a name and a nationality which have defied the destroying touch of time for more than twenty-four centuries. ”

“ The remaining shores are occupied by savage nations, as the Melanchlæni and Coraxi, Dioscurias, a City of the Colchians, near the river Anthemus, being now deserted, although formerly so illustrious, that Timosthenes has recorded that three hundred nations used to resort to it speaking different languages ”

“ And while to a great extent he lacks the peculiar merits of the Greek, [491] he possesses his most serious blemish, the blemish that is so salient a characteristic of both Alexandrian and Silver Latin literature, the passion for obscure learning. A good example is the huge, though most ingenious, catalogue of the tribes of Scythia at the opening of the sixth book, with its detailed inventory of strange names and customs, and its minute descriptions of barbaric armour. His love of learning lands him, moreover, in strange anachronisms. We are told that the Colchians are descended from Sesostris ”

“ His comrades fancied, not without reason, that he was a great deal too careful of his person.
But if the ground, broken with rocks and overgrown with wood was not suited to scientific wrestling, it certainly helped to make some of the other sports more than usually amusing. The first contest was a mile race for boys. Most of the competitors were lads who had been taken prisoners on the march, but a few Colchians entered for the prize, as did also two or three boys of Trapezus, who had the reputation of being particularly fleet of foot. ”

“ But the vulgar and more credible Opinion was, that he came to desire the Assistance of some Gallies against his Neighbour, the Iberian, who had slain his Father; which if he could obtain, then he would become Tributary to the Sultan. For, you must know, that there is an old and inveterate Hatred between the Colchians and the Iberians. Once there were some Overtures of Accommodation between them, and a Conference was had thereupon, between great Numbers of both Nations. At this Meeting, they began, first, to try who should be the greatest Drinkers ”

“ Colchis was celebrated in Greek mythology as the destination of the Argonauts, the home of Medea and the special domain of sorcery. Several Greek colonies were founded there by Miletus. At a remote period it seems to have been incorporated with the Persian empire, though the inhabitants evidently enjoyed a considerable degree of independence ”

“ Colchis was properly Col-Chus; and therefore called also Cuta, and Cutaia. But what was Colchian being sometimes rendered Chalcion, Καλκιον, gave rise to the fable of brazen bulls; which were only Colchic Tor, or towers. There was a region named Colchis in [142] India: for where the Cuthites settled, they continually kept up the memory of their forefathers, and called places by their names. This being a secret to Philostratus, has led him into a deal of mysterious error. It is well known that this people were styled Oreitæ, and Auritæ, both in Egypt and in other parts. ”

“ Unless you set sail from Colchis before to-morrow's sunrise, the king means to burn your fifty-oared galley and put yourself and your forty-nine brave comrades to the sword. But be of good courage. The Golden Fleece you [Pg 233] shall have, if it lies within the power of my enchantments to get it for you. Wait for me here an hour before midnight."
79. At the appointed hour you might again have seen Prince Jason and the Princess Medea, side by side, stealing through the streets of Colchis, on their way to the sacred grove, in the center of which the Golden Fleece was suspended to a tree. ”

“ Those heard it who dwelt in the Colchian land very far from Titanian Aea, near the outfall of Lycus, the river which parts from loud-roaring Araxes and blends his sacred stream with Phasis, and they twain flow on together in one and pour their waters into the Caucasian Sea. And through fear young mothers awoke, and round their new-born babes, who were sleeping in their arms, threw their hands in agony, for the small limbs started at that hiss. ”

“ Up that river was Colchis and the city of King Æetes, the end of their voyage, the place where was kept the Golden Fleece! Quickly they let down the sail; they lowered the mast and they laid it along the deck; strongly they grasped the oars; they swung the Argo around, and they entered the broad stream of the Phasis.
Up the river they went with the Mountain Caucasus on their left hand, and on their right the groves and gardens of Aea, King Æetes's city. As they went up the stream, Jason poured from a golden cup an offering to the gods. ”

“ Not as if the author of the iambic intended to speak of the river, nor of the city of the same name upon the river, but Colchis designated by a part, because from the city and the river there remains a voyage of not less than 600 stadia in a straight line to the recess of the bay. This same Dioscurias is the commencement of the isthmus lying between the Caspian Sea and the Euxine. It is a common mart of the nations situated above it, and in its neighbourhood. ”

“ All speak different languages, from living dispersed in various places and without intercourse, in consequence of their fierce and savage manners. They are chiefly Sarmatians, but all of them Caucasian tribes. So much then respecting Dioscurias.
17. The greater part of the rest of Colchis lies upon the sea. The Phasis,941 a large river, flows through it. It has its source in Armenia, and receives the Glaucus,942 and the Hippus,943 which issue from the neighbouring mountains. Vessels ascend it as far as the fortress of Sarapana,944 which is capable of containing the population even of a city. ”

“ Colchis, according to Strabo, abounded in fruit of every kind, and in material for ship building. It was inhabited by a number of tribes, whose dark complexion, crispy hair, language, and customs indicated, in the opinion of Herodotus, their Egyptian origin. They were famous for the manufacture of linen. Their chief town was Dioscurias. The Phasis (now the Rion) is the celebrated river of this country. ”

“ Before Colche, as a signal of its conquest, there stands to-day a monument of rock, as if he had formed it with his axe; this is on the coast called Petatayub, where it is still visible, so that everybody looks upon it as a sign of Quicab's valor. He could not be killed or conquered; verily he was a hero, and all nations brought to him their tribute. Then, all the princes having taken counsel, they went away to fortify the ravines and the towns, having taken possession of the towns of all nations. ”