PART
4 –
Ch.XXVI.2
Prehistoric
monuments of metallurgic art in
(Chryseion Koas – The Golden Fleece)
XXVI. 2. The mountainous region named
The event of the heroic times known under
the name of the expedition of the Argonauts for taking the golden fleece, had a
great echo in the antique world.
This legend talked in fact about a
miraculous country, superior in its civilization to the meridional lands. The
inhabitants of that region, over which the famous king Aietes reigned, enjoyed
excellent economic well-being, pastoral and agricultural, as well as enormous
riches in metals (Strabo, Geogr.
lib. I. 2. 39).
The gold riches of king Aietes, who
reigned over
Pliny mentions the gold rooms of this king, the silver beams, columns and
pillars of his palace (H. N. lib. XXXIII. 15). In his gold rooms, says Mimnermus, the Sun’s rays were enclosed
(Strabo, Geogr. lib. I. 2. 40). And
the Argonauts, according to the Orphic poem, upon arriving at Aiete’s capital,
were astonished at seeing this king going along the river in a gold carriage in
which he shined exactly like a sun, as his vestments radiated only light (Orpheus, Argonautica, v. 811 seqq).
We shall examine firstly the
Argonautic legend from the point of view of the geographical traditions, in
order to get to the historical secrets of this legendary event.
It had been observed even during
Greek antiquity that the oldest geographical data about the expedition of the
Argonauts did not correspond to the eastern parts of the
According to the old legends, king
Aietes’ mother was the daughter of the great river Oceanos, or Istru. King Aietes himself marries Idyia, a daughter of
the Ocean (Hesiodus, Theog. v. 956
seqq; Apollodorus, Bibl. I. 9. 23.
6) and his splendid residence is also near the river Oceanos or Istru (Homer, Odyss. X. 137; Strabo, Geogr. I. 2. 10).
Phrixus, as Hesiodus tells us (Fragm LIX), running away from his step-mother’s
persecution, comes to
In the epic poem of Valerius Flaccus, the theatre of the
most important events of the Argonautic legend, is the European Scythia. Aietes was a king of
Inside the magnificent temple of the
Sun, which formed the particular splendor of Aietes’ capital, the Argonauts see
the statue of powerful Atlas, on
whose knees were breaking the waves of the Ocean, while on the copper gates of
this temple was represented the victory of the Getae over the Egyptian king Sesostris (Valerius Flaccus, Argon. Lib. V. v. 408 seqq). The capital of king
Aietes was therefore in the country of the valiant people of the Getae, near the Istru.
The geographical region over which
king Aietes reigned is called by the ancient authors by the old name of Aia,
meaning “Tera” (TN – country). Even the name of Aietes himself is only a
derivate form of Aia (Stephanos
Byzanthinos), with the meaning of “Teran”
(TN – countryman, peasant) [1].
[1. In the Romanian heroic poems of Dobrogea we find even today the word
“aian”, pl. “aieni”, with the meaning “of
the land, ethnic” (Burada, O
calatorie in Dobrogea, p. 120-125, 127).
The word “aian” probably
introduced by the commercial colonies of
That this word had existed on the
This Aia or “Tera”, renowned
for its fabulous riches, is the goal of the Argonauts’ voyage [2].
[2. In later legends about the Argonauts, the territory where Aietes had
his residence was also called Cytaea,
or Cutaea (Cutaies gaia. Apollonius Rhodius, IV. 511); Cytaea terra (Valerius Flaccus, VI. 693); Cytaeis
(Stephanos Byzanthinos, see Kyta).
The same population, mentioned by Ptolemy
by the name of Kotensioi, had their dwellings on
But where was
In the Argonautic traditions Colchis
appears only as a mountainous region of the extended kingdom of Aietes, called Aia or Tera in particular, and Scythia
in general [3].
[3. According to the Orphic poem (v. 821-824; 1006-1012), Aietes reigned
over tera Cytea Kyteida gaian and over
the land of the Colchi, Kolchon
choron.
According to the poet Ovid, the martial people of the Colchi
dwelt on the northern part of the
[4. The geographical position of the Colchi appears at Mela (
And the same Latin poet says in
another place the following: “Consider that in these parts had once come Eson’s son, and how much praise has
the posterity heaped on him, although his trials were much lighter and fewer
than ours” (Ep. Ex Ponto. I. 4. v. 23-26). Finally, Ovid shows Medea in another
poem, uttering the following words towards Iason: “and my father (Aietes) reigns over the
whole region from the left side of the Pontos as far as the snow covered
The Colchi of Ovid, who dwelt near another warlike people, called by
him Meterea turba, were therefore
identical with the famous Colchi of
the Argonautic legends.
The origin and meaning of the
topical name
We meet very often, in the highlands
of the Carpathians, once inhabited by Pelasgian pastoral tribes, the orographic
name of Colti (TN – read Coltzi, fangs), a word with the meaning
of sharp, pointed and prominent peaks of rock formations.
The Greek name of
[5. The Greek language, not having the Pelasgian, or barbarian, sounds of ch and tz, expressed them very often by the
letter k (ch). So, the Greek authors wrote Kolchis, a word which in
Romanian is pronounced today Colti (TN – read Coltzi) and which was surely similarly pronounced by the ethnics in
ancient times.
We find another similar example with the historian Nicolae the Damascene, from the time of the emperor Augustus.
According to this author, an Indian came along with a party of envoys, sent by
king Por (Pandion) from
According to Apollonius Rhodius, the erudite Alexandrian poet (lib. III. v.
1275-6), the warlike Colchi people lived on the rocky outcrops (schopeloi) of the
It is the
Coltii (schopeloi),
huge rocky outcrops with pyramidal shapes,
in the village Colti (Kolchoi, Colchi), Buzeu district,
The mountainous area of the district
of Buzeu had a particular economic
and strategic importance in ancient times, placed as it was close to the mouths
of the
In this region of Buzeu, covered in
secular forests, with widespread, excellent pastures, sheer cliffs, high and
sharp mountain peaks, there exists a considerable group of Romanian villages
named Colti, with a population of
2080 and four churches. The cradle of this group is the village named Colti, nestled at the foot of some wild
cliffs, in the shape of colti (TN – fangs), which bear this same name [6].
[6. The territory of Colti appears
to have been inhabited even during Neolithic.
Near the cliffs in the photo, the villagers often find chips of sylex and pot shards with ashes in them. In the hamlet of Alunis, part of the Colti group of
villages, there is also a monument belonging to the primitive times, a little church, entirely cut in a stone
cliff. According to the oral tradition this old sanctuary had been hewn by
a shepherd].
Another hamlet in this group is
called Materea, and south of the
Colti area is the mountain also called Materea,
covered but with little forest (Iorgulescu,
Dict. geogr. jud. Buzeu, p 317).
These two villages Colti and Materea, on the tableland of Buzeu, are the “Colchi, Metereaque turba”
of Ovid, pastoral tribes which, driving their flocks on the territory of
Scythia Minor, inspired such terror in that poet, used to live the soft life of
imperial Rome, far from the severe and bellicose people of the mountains.
Phasis
According to what the legends of
antiquity say, along the territory of the Colchi flew the fast river called Phasis, which had a particular economic
and commercial importance.
Near Phasis, Suidas tells us (see Phasianoi), was produced that fine
race of horses, so admired by the Greeks. Near Phasis had been established in
remote times some commercial Ionian (Milesian) colonies.
As we had
seen many times before, an infinite number of topographical names of rivers,
tribes, villages and cities from the territory of the Barbarians, had been
altered in Greek geographical literature, some modified only in form, others
completely changed, as the ancient geographers, historians and poets had used
just simple Greek translations of the original names, which has caused and will
also cause in the next centuries, enormous difficulties for the historical science.
The same case is with the name of
the river Phasis in the geography of
the Argonautica.
The old legends tell us that
Phrixus, after arriving in Colchis, sacrifices the miraculous ram to Zeus
Phyxios (Phuxios) (Apollodorus, Bibl. lib. I. 9. 1. 6), namely
“Jove who protects the flight”, as the Greek authors explain this epithet; and
he presents the fleece to king Aietes, who nails it in the temple, or in the
grove consecrated to the god Mars.
This epithet, or name Phuxios, attributed to Jove, appears
for the first time in the Argonautic legend. It is without doubt a local
epithet of the great divinity adored by the Colchi, a name originating with the
altars or the temple where Phrixus had sacrificed the ram.
In fact, the origin of the word
Phuxios is, by its form, as well as geographical circumstances, the same
indigenous topical name, which in Greek literature appears as Phasis because, as the old geographers
tell us, there also existed a city with the name Phasis, founded by the
Milesians (Mela, lib. I. c. 19; Stephanos Byzanthinos, Phasis),
and situated at the point where the river Phasis came out from the straits of
the mountains.
The ancient Greeks used to change
very often the sound b with ph, especially in words
spoken by the Pelasgians from the northern parts of Hellada. They said
therefore Phryges instead of Bryges (Herodotus, lib. VII. 73), Philippos
instead of Bilippos, Phalacros instead of Balacros, and Pherenice instead of Berenice,
as pronounced in fact by the Macedonians. They also called Physios instead of Bysios
the month or the time when it was customary to consult the Hyperborean oracle
from Delphi (Plutarc, Oeuvres, Ed.
1784, Tome XIII. p. 105).
The true name of the river Phasis,
considering the geographical location of the Colchis territory, as well as the
location of the city Phasis, and the
local epithet of Phuxios attributed
to the great god of Colchis, could not be translated in Greek but as Buxios, or more correctly Buzios, namely Buzeu of today, the important river, which crosses the
south-eastern arc of the Carpathians from one country to another.
This identification of the river
Phasis with Buzeu is also confirmed in the Argonautic poem of Apollonius Rhodius, who mentions (lib.
II. v. 396. 1244) as a neighboring people of the Colchi, or near Phasis, the Buxeres
(Buzeres), called Buxeri by Pliny (lib. VI. 11) and Mela
(lib. I. 107), surely a name formed after the name of the river Buzeu. And it is confirmed again by the
fact that the river Phasis was called Boas
[7] (Procopius, Bell. Pers. II. 29;
Ibid. Bell. Goth. IV. 2) in its higher regions and finally, that the city of
Phasis was situated at the point where the river Phasis came out of the
mountain straits (Pliny, lib. VI. 4.
4), therefore where we have today the city of Buzeu.
[7. The correct name should apparently be Bosa, not Boas, because
the Hungarians in Transilvania call even today the superior course of this
river, Bodza].
Saranges
The famous Phasis from the geography
of the Argonauts, had an important tributary with the name Saranges (Orpheus, Arg.
v. 1052). Both these rivers appear to have been of almost the same size, but
Phasis was fast (Ovid, Met. Lib.
VII. v. 6), wide and with rapids (Apollonius
Rhodius, lib. II. v. 400-401; 1261; Eusthatius,
Comm. In Dionys. v. 689), while Saranges was slow.
The river Saranges in the Orphic
poem appears at Pliny (lib. VI. 4.
5; II. 106. 5) with the name Surius
[8], the same in fact with Siret of
today, which joins Buzeu river near the village Maxineni, on the vast plain of the
Lower Danube.
[8. The river named Surius by
Pliny, which flew into Phasis at the point from where the big ships could not
proceed further upstream, corresponds therefore only to Siret, and should not be mistaken for Siriu, another tributary of
Buzeu inside the mountains, and close to its sources].
Buzeu and Siret rivers of today
present the same physiognomy which Phasis
and Saranges had in antiquity. The
Romanian Geographical Society Dictionary tells us that the incline on which Buzeu river flows being very steep,
makes this river one of the fastest rivers of the country. Its bed being
covered with great boulders, makes the ford crossing difficult. The width of
its bed reaches 300 and 400m. As for Siret,
colonel Iannescu tells us in his
Military Geography (I, 1889, p.126, 162): The bed of Siret, sandy in its upper
course, becomes muddy in its lower course. The incline of the bed is small,
therefore the flow of the river is slow.
We have to add that we find even
today in the district of Buzeu a village called Saringa (Iorgulescu,
Dict. p.477), proof that Saranges was quite a usual name in the geographical
nomenclature of these lands.
The Orphic poem tells us (Orpheus, Arg. v. 1046) that a group of Sindi dwelt near Saranges, this
considerable tributary of the river Phasis. It is the same people called Sindi by Apollonius Rhodius (lib. IV. v. 322), who had their dwellings
upstream from the mouths of the Danube.
Finally, we have another
geographical circumstance. According to Hecateus
(fragm. 187. 339 in Frag. Hist. graec. I. p. 13. 26) and Pindar (Pyth. IV. 211. 251), the river
Phasis (joined with Saranges) did not flow directly into the sea, but into the
great river of the ancient world, Oceanos,
or Istru, while Phasis is a son of the river Oceanos at Hesiodus
(Theog. v. 340).
And also the waters of Buzeu, joined
with Siret, flow into the Danube. But we have to remark that the slow Siret,
right after its confluence with the fast Buzeu, changes its south-western
direction and flows eastwards on the natural bed of Buzeu. This is why Phasis
was considered in antiquity, as Buzeu is today, the principal river, while
Saranges, or Siret, only as its tributary [9].
[9. Other geographical data
regarding the region of the ancient Colchi:
According to Apollonius Rhodius
(II. v. 399-400), the sources of river Phasis were far away, in the mountains
of the Amaranti. These were a
people, a tribe. Their name has been preserved to this day in the word Maruntis, a village situated in the
heart of the Carpathians, on both banks of Buzeu
river. But according to Eratosthenes,
the river Phasis had its sources in the mountains named Mosci (Pliny, VI. 4. 4 says Moschis; Strabo, XI. 14. 1 says Moschica; Mela, I.
19 says Moschici).
In the higher parts of Buzeu district, near the boundary with
Transylvania, an important group of mountains bear to this day the name Big Musa, Little Musa and Musica. Along these mountains flows one
of the tributaries of Buzeu river, called Little Basca (Iorgulescu, Dict. geogr. Buzeu, p. 343-344).
According to Scylax (c. 82),
beyond the Colchi people dwelt the tribe called Buzeres by Pliny and Buxeri by Mela. They lived according to Strabo
(XII. 3. 18) on the rocky mountain Scudises, whose ramifications joined
with the mountains called Moschica situated
above Colchi village. Scudises from Strabo’s geography, seems to be by name and
position, one and the same with the vast mountain called Spedis, located above the Straits of Buzeu. According to Scylax again (c. 83), beyond the
Buzeres dwelt another tribe called Ekechiries.
We have here an ethnic name derived from the name of a place. In truth, further
up from Spedis mountain, on the left bank of Buzeu river, close to the boundary
with Transylvania, there is a mountain called today Tehereu (Charta Romaniei meridionale, 1856).
Another mountain in the vicinity, part of the Tataru massif, appears on
the Special map of the Austrian high
command with the name Chichereu.
The inhabitants named by Scylax Ekechiries
are therefore the pastoral tribes living on the mountains Tehereu or Chichereu, from the higher parts of
Buzeu river.
In Valerius Flaccus’ poem
about the Argonauts (VI. 130. 155) are also mentioned the Colchic tribes Cessaeae and Coastes. These seem to have been the ancient inhabitants of the
villages called today Tisan and Chiosd, situated in the mountainous
parts of Buzeu.
The river Phasis, coming down from the mountains of the Amaranti, Apollonius Rhodius tells us (II.
400-401), passes over the plain Circeu.
It is a name found often in the region where Buzeu river emerges from the
mountain straits. On the
Pliny (VI. 4. 5) and Stephanos
Byzanthinos (see Aia) also mention two other
tributaries of the river Phasis, Hippos
and Cyaneos, which seem to be
identical with Valea Calului (TN –
Valley of the Horse) and Calnau,
both of which flow into Buzeu river.
Close to the city of
Another locality in the Colchi region was called Pyenis (Stephanos
Byzanthinos). The topical name Poieni
is very usual in the region of the Carpathians. A hamlet of Colti village is called even today Poiena. According to the ancient
authors, the lower region of the river Phasis appeared to be full of swamps and
fluvial lakes, exactly as the plain of Buzeu is today. Appolonius Rhodius mentions one of these lakes as Amarantiou
(III. 1220). Doubtless, the geographical sources used by Apollonius
referred thus to the most considerable lake near the banks of the river Phasis,
or Buzeu, a lake which is called even today Balta Amara (TN – the Bitter Lake)].