Colchis Jason And The Golden Fleece

In the highlands of Svaneti and Racha, shepherds used to secure sheepskins across the waters of some rivers to sift and catch tiny filaments of gold. This is thought to be the basis for the ancient Greek myth about Jason and the Golden Fleece. In the 13th century BC, Jason set out from Greece for the land of Colchis (Kolkheti), the ancient kingdom that corresponds roughly to western Georgia, including Samegrelo and the coastal parts of Abkhazia, Guria and Adjara. In their boat, the Argo, Jason and his Argonauts rowed from Greece across the Black Sea and up the Phasis River (today’s Rioni, it runs between Samegrelo and Guria) to the city of King Aeëtes, thought to be Kutaisi or Vani. Before Jason could claim the Golden Fleece, he was set three tasks by Aeëtes. Princess Medea, his daughter, is said to have been born in Cutatisium, or Kutaisi. She fell in love with Jason and used her knowledge of narcotic plants to help him accomplish the tasks and to win both the Fleece and her hand in marriage. Did she use some of the marijuana that grows wild in the Caucasian mountains to do it?