Colchis in Mythology
According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of the war god Ares, King Aeëtes hung the Golden Fleece until it was seized by Jason and the Argonauts. Colchis was also the land where the mythological Prometheus was punished by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing to humanity the secret of fire. Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis.
Apollonius of Rhodes named Aea as the main city (Argonautica, passim). The main mythical characters from Colchis are:
- Aeëtes, King of Colchis, son of the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid Perseis, (a daughter of Oceanus), brother of Circe and Pasiphae, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus
- Eidyia, Queen of Colchis, mother of Medea, Chalciope and Apsyrtus
- Medea, daughter of King Aeëtes
- Chalciope, daughter of King Aeëtes
- Absyrtus, son of Aeëtes
- Circe, sister of King Aeëtes
- Pasiphaë, niece of Medea
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