Colchis

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Colchis

Colchis (kŏlˈkĭs), ancient country on the eastern shore of the Black Sea and in the Caucasus region. Centered about the fertile valley of the Phasis River (the modern Rion), Colchis corresponds to the present-day region of Mingrelia in Georgia. In Greek legend it was the home of Aeëtes and Medea, the land where the Golden Fleece was sought by Jason and the Argonauts; modern inhabitants of Svanetia, inland from Mingrelia, still use sheepskins to trap gold grains and flakes in streams. Greek trading posts were established in Colchis, but the land remained independent until conquered (c.100 B.C.) and held briefly by Mithradates VI of Pontus. After the time of Trajan to the end of the Roman Empire, Rome exerted considerable influence on the region.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Colchis

(Russian, Kolkhida; local name, Egrisi), the Greek name for an ancient region of western Georgia. The name was given by writers in the early first millennium B.C. to the territory of the southeastern and eastern Black Sea region, after the Colchians, who lived there. In the sixth century B.C., the Greek colonies of Dioscurias and Phasis arose there. In the sixth to second centuries B.C., the Colchian Kingdom occupied Colchis, which later became part of the various states of Georgia.

Colchis

an ancient country on the Black Sea south of the Caucasus; the land of Medea and the Golden Fleece in Greek mythology

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

References in periodicals archive ?

Inadze, "[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] [t'erminebi k'olxi da k'olxeti ant'ik'ur mts'erlobasi; 'The Terms "Colchians" and "Colchis" in Classical Sources']," 43-55; V.

The lives and literary roles of children in advancing conversion to Christianity: hagiography from the Caucasus in late antiquity and the middle ages (1)

To undertake his dangerous task, Jason gathered about fifty heroes and sailed to Colchis. Jason's companions were called Argonauts after their ship, the Argo.

Apollonius and the Golden Fleece: A neo-mythological screen legacy

(19.) Although he expected to regain both upon his return to Iolcus, Medea cannot know that this will definitively occur at the time she agrees to leave Colchis with him.

Filicide in Euripides' Medea: a biopoetic approach

Before blaming his son's lust on his maternal and Amazonian roots, Theseus first suggests Medea's home, "Colchian Phasis" (the only other mention of Colchis in the play), as the kind of wild, un-Greek land that could generate such savagery (906-8, 926-9):

Specters of Medea the rhetoric of stepmotherhood and motherhood in Seneca's Phaedra

In Theocritus 13, Hercules again gets separated from the Argonauts, but completes the journey to Colchis on foot.

Reading models and the homeric program in Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica

Colchos (or Colchis; modern Georgia) was a barbarian (i.e., non-Greek) kingdom on the eastern coast of the Black Sea where Jason ventured to retrieve the Fleece.

From Parmenius to Paton: 350 Years of Classical Learning in (and about) Newfoundland

Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Thomvest, Colchis Capital, Felicis Ventures, and others participated along with new investors Solon Mack and Navitas Capital.

PeerStreet announces close of a Series B funding round

However, by mentioning the flames of Colchis as well as Iolcos and Hiberia, Horace wants to distance his audience from the nefarious reality of magic, by taking them into a literary and exotic dimension, (34) connected with the figure of Medea.

The Real Tools of Magic: Pamphile's Macabre Paraphernalia (Apuleius, Met. 3,17,4-5)

Just a list of her actions: Medea personally kills her brother Apsyrt after Jason's arrival at Colchis (this episode is recalled by the same Euripides, v.

The law in Euripides' Medea

(1) The episode is a key component in the story of Jason and the Argonauts, because it explains why Heracles was not present when they reached Colchis and successfully (with Medea's help) captured the Golden Fleece.

Heracles, Hylas, and the Homeric Hymn to Demeter in Apollonius's Argonautica

Strabo left us a detailed description of Colchis, and Alexandre Dumas makes reference to it this way: "The silver tops of the double Caucasian chain still shone in the sky, like petrified clouds."

Excursions in the Caucasus; From the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea: 1875 - 1881

Other investors included two Tier 1 commercial banks and Colchis Capital Management LLC San Francisco.