Colchis
The Distant Kingdom of the Golden Fleece
⚡ Quick Facts
The Edge of the Known World
To the ancient Greeks, Colchis represented the very edge of the known world — a mysterious, wealthy kingdom on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, in what is now the Republic of Georgia. It was ruled by King Aeëtes, a son of Helios the sun god and brother of the sorceress Circe.
Colchis was imagined as a land of wonders: rivers that ran with gold dust (which the Colchians captured using sheep fleeces laid in streambeds — possibly the origin of the Golden Fleece legend itself), forests of exotic plants, and a population skilled in magic and metalwork.
The Quest for the Golden Fleece
The Golden Fleece hung in a sacred grove in Colchis, guarded by a dragon that never slept. Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis to retrieve it. King Aeëtes agreed to surrender the Fleece if Jason could complete impossible tasks: yoking fire-breathing bulls, plowing a field with dragon's teeth, and defeating the warriors that sprouted.
Jason succeeded only because Aeëtes' daughter Medea, a powerful sorceress, fell in love with him (with help from Aphrodite and Eros). She provided him with protective ointments and spells, drugged the dragon, and fled with Jason — betraying her father and killing her own brother Apsyrtus to slow the pursuit.