Nomenclature
Greek Name: Κόλχων
Latin Name: Colchos
Toponyms: Colchis
Cultural Notes in Herodotos
Obviously Egyptians, due to appearance, practise of circumcision, a similar way of working linen, and similar way of life and speech. Wore wooden helmets and small shields of oxhide and carried short spears and swords.
Geographical Notes
One of four nations (along with Persians, Medes, and Saspires) who make up the land between the Southern and Northern Seas (Black Sea), including city of Aea. To the east of these four nations is the Red Sea and to the North, the Caspian Sea and Araxes River.
Citations in Herodotos
1.2 abduction of Colchian king's daughter in response to some Greeks' abduction of Europa; 2.104 circumcision; 2.106 shared way of working linen with Egyptians; 3.97 requiment to pay tribute; 4.37 land beyond the Saspires extending to the northern sea (Black Sea); 4.40 to the east is the Red Sea and to the North, the Caspian Sea and Araxes River; 7.79 wooden helmets, oxhide shields, spears and swords.
Key Passages in English Translation
[2.104] For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others. When it occurred to me, I inquired of both peoples; and the Colchians remembered the Egyptians better than the Egyptians remembered the Colchians; [2] the Egyptians said that they considered the Colchians part of Sesostris' army. I myself guessed it, partly because they are dark-skinned and woolly-haired; though that indeed counts for nothing, since other peoples are, too; but my better proof was that the Colchians and Egyptians and Ethiopians are the only nations that have from the first practised circumcision. [3] The Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine acknowledge that they learned the custom from the Egyptians, and the Syrians of the valleys of the Thermodon and the Parthenius, as well as their neighbors the Macrones, say that they learned it lately from the Colchians. These are the only nations that circumcise, and it is seen that they do just as the Egyptians. [4] But as to the Egyptians and Ethiopians themselves, I cannot say which nation learned it from the other; for it is evidently a very ancient custom. That the others learned it through traffic with Egypt, I consider clearly proved by this: that Phoenicians who traffic with Hellas cease to imitate the Egyptians in this matter and do not circumcise their children.
[2.105] Listen to something else about the Colchians, in which they are like the Egyptians: they and the Egyptians alone work linen and have the same way of working it, a way peculiar to themselves; and they are alike in all their way of life, and in their speech. Linen has two names: the Colchian kind is called by the Greeks Sardonian; that which comes from Egypt is called Egyptian.
English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920. Retreived from <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu>
Key Passages in Greek
[2.104] φαίνονται μὲν γὰρ ἐόντες οἱ Κόλχοι Αἰγύπτιοι, νοήσας δὲ πρότερον αὐτὸς ἢ ἀκούσας ἄλλων λέγω. ὡς δέ μοι ἐν φροντίδι ἐγένετο, εἰρόμην ἀμφοτέρους, καὶ μᾶλλον οἱ Κόλχοι ἐμεμνέατο τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἢ οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι τῶν Κόλχων: [2] νομίζειν δ᾽ ἔφασαν οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι τῆς Σεσώστριος στρατιῆς εἶναι τοὺς Κόλχους. αὐτὸς δὲ εἴκασα τῇδε, καὶ ὅτι μελάγχροες εἰσὶ καὶ οὐλότριχες. καὶ τοῦτο μὲν ἐς οὐδὲν ἀνήκει: εἰσὶ γὰρ καὶ ἕτεροι τοιοῦτοι: ἀλλὰ τοῖσιδε καὶ μᾶλλον, ὅτι μοῦνοι πάντων ἀνθρώπων Κόλχοι καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ Αἰθίοπες περιτάμνονται ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς τὰ αἰδοῖα. [3] Φοίνικες δὲ καὶ Σύροι οἱ ἐν τῇ Παλαιστίνῃ καὶ αὐτοὶ ὁμολογέουσι παρ᾽ Αἰγυπτίων μεμαθηκέναι, Σύριοι δὲ οἱ περὶ Θερμώδοντα καὶ Παρθένιον ποταμὸν καὶ Μάκρωνες οἱ τούτοισι ἀστυγείτονες ἐόντες ἀπὸ Κόλχων φασὶ νεωστὶ μεμαθηκέναι. οὗτοι γὰρ εἰσὶ οἱ περιταμνόμενοι ἀνθρώπων μοῦνοι, καὶ οὗτοι Αἰγυπτίοισι φαίνονται ποιεῦντες κατὰ ταὐτά. [4] αὐτῶν δὲ Αἰγυπτίων καὶ Αἰθιόπων οὐκ ἔχω εἰπεῖν ὁκότεροι παρὰ τῶν ἑτέρων ἐξέμαθον: ἀρχαῖον γὰρ δή τι φαίνεται ἐόν. ὡς δὲ ἐπιμισγόμενοι Αἰγύπτῳ ἐξέμαθον, μέγα μοι καὶ τόδε τεκμήριον γίνεται: Φοινίκων ὁκόσοι τῇ Ἑλλάδι ἐπιμίσγονται, οὐκέτι Αἰγυπτίους μιμέονται κατὰ τὰ αἰδοῖα. ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐπιγινομένων οὐ περιτάμνουσι τὰ αἰδοῖα.
[2.105] φέρε νῦν καὶ ἄλλο εἴπω περὶ τῶν Κόλχων, ὡς Αἰγυπτίοισι προσφερέες εἰσί: λίνον μοῦνοι οὗτοί τε καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι ἐργάζονται καὶ κατὰ ταὐτά, καὶ ἡ ζόη πᾶσα καὶ ἡ γλῶσσα ἐμφερής ἐστι ἀλλήλοισι. λίνον δὲ τὸ μὲν Κολχικὸν ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων Σαρδωνικὸν κέκληται, τὸ μέντοι ἀπ᾽ Αἰγύπτου ἀπικνεύμενον καλέεται Αἰγύπτιον.
Other Testimonia
This is not an exhaustive list
Apollodorus, Library, Sir James George Frazer, Ed. 1.9
Diodorus Siculus, Library, 14.29, 14.30
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.18, 1.24, 3.19, 3.24
Pindar, Pythian (ed. Diane Arnson Svarlien) P.4
Strabo, Geography 5.2, 10.3, 11.2, 11.4, 11.5
Xenophon, Anabasis 4.8, 5.2 5.7,7.8
Flavius Josephus, Against Apion (ed. William Whiston, A.M.) 1.161
Appian, Mithridatic Wars 3,9,15,17
Appian, Preface (ed. Horace White) 1
P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses (ed. Brookes More) 7.1
Vitruvius Pollio, The Ten Books on Architecture (ed. Morris Hicky Morgan) 2.1
P. Ovidius Naso, The Epistles of Ovid Poem 12
M. Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia (ed. Sir Edward Ridley)6.263
Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 3.23, 3.26, 6.7
Other Commentary
W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotos:
τὰ αἰδοῖα. H. says (with Strabo, 824, and Diodorus), probably rightly (cf.App. IX.4), that all Egyptians were circumcised, Josephus (c. Ap. ii. 13) says only the priests. H. (104. 2, 3 nn.) is certainly wrong in saying that only the Egyptians with the Ethiopians and Colchians, who had learned it from them, practised the rite ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς; it was widespread among both Semitic and non-Semitic tribes. Its primitive nature is shown by the use of ‘flint knives’ (Exod. iv. 25; Josh. v. 2, R. V.). Some scholars hold (with H.) that it was introduced on sanitary grounds (καθαρειότητος ἕνεκα); but no doubt originally it was a religious rite, by which a male was initiated as a full member of the nation or clan (cf. Encyc. Biblica, s. v.). The Egyptian evidence, which is comparatively scanty, is well sum marized in Hastings (Enc. Rel. iii. 670-6); the majority of scholars seem to interpret it as showing that the rite was general in Egypt; some, however, think it refers only to the priests. It is curious that only once do the monuments lay any stress on circumcision, i.e. in describing the repulse of the uncircumcised ‘peoples of the sea’ by Merenptah; even here the interpretation is disputed.
Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary
Colchĭs , ĭdis (ĭdŏs, Val. Fl. 2, 423; 5, 202), f., = Κολχίς,
I.a province in Asia, east of the Black Sea, celebrated on account of the golden fleece and Medea; now Mingrelia; acc. Colchida, Mel. 2, 3, 6; Plin. 2, 103, 106, § 226; Val. Fl. 5, 505 al.—
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) William Smith, LLD, Ed.
COLCHIS (ἡ Κολχίς: Eth. Κόλχος: Adj. Κολχικός), a district of western Asia bounded on the SW. by the province of Pontus, from which it was separated by the river Phasis, on the W. by the Pontus Euxinus as far as the river Corax, on the N. by the chain of the Caucasus, which lay between it and Asiatic Sarmatia, on the E. by Iberia and Mts. Moschici, and on the S. by Armenia. There is some little difference in authors as to the extent of the country westward: thus Strabo (xii. p.498) makes Colchis begin at Trapezus, while Ptolemy, on the other hand, extends Pontus to the river Phasis. It may be gathered from Strab. xi. p 497; Plin. Nat. 6.5. s. 5; Theodor. Hist. Eccl. 5.34; Procop. B. G. 4.4; Zosim. 1.32, that Pityûs was the last town to the S. in Colchis, and from Strabo, l.c., Arrian Peripl. p. 11. (ed. Huds.); Mela, 1.19; Amm. Marc. 22.15; Ptol. 5.10; that the position of Dioscurias (which, according to Arrian and some other writers, was subsequently called Sebastopolis) was in the northern part of Colchis, and distant from Pityus, according to Strabo 366, and according to Arrian 350 stadia. The order of the tribes on this eastern coast of the Euxine was according to Strabo, and commencing from the N., the Zygi, Heniochi, Cercetae, Moschi and Colchi; it would, however, appear that the whole district popularly known as Colchis occupied the greater part of the territory on which these smaller tribes or subdivisions of people were settled; and may, therefore, as stated, be considered roughly to extend from Trapezus to Dioscurias. The district comprehends the modern provinces of Mingrelia and part of Abbasia, south and west of Mt. Elburz. Aeschylus and Pindar appear to be the earliest authors who have given to this land its historical name of Colchis. The earlier writers only speak of it under the name of Aea, the residence of the mythical king Aeetes. The inhabitants, called Colchi, were according to the opinion of Herodotos (2.104, 105) and Diodorus (1.28) the remains of the army of Sesostris, and therefore of Egyptian origin. Herodotos argues that the people of Colchis were the relics of this army, because of the many customs which were similar to them and to the Egyptians, and not in use originally in other nations, as the rite of circumcision, and the working of linen (which the [p. 1.643]Greeks called Sardonic, or, as Larcher thinks, Sardian, from Sardes), and also from their language, from the natural complexion of their skin, which was of a dusky colour, like that of the ancient inhabitants of the valley of the Nile, and from their having curly hair. Strabo (l.c.) alludes to, but seems hardly to credit, this story. Yet many modern scholars have held that there is some truth in it, and have attempted variously to account for the connection, between the two people. (Comp. Heeren, Ideen, vol. i. pt. 1 p. 405; Michaelis, Laws of Moses, vol. iv. p. 185, &c.) Herodotos is so far a good authority, that he does not speak from hearsay, but from personal observation. Pindar (Pind. P. 4.378). too, calls the Colchians dark-complexioned. Ammianus (22.8) probably merely copies the words of Herodotos. Dionysius Perieg. (5.689) confirms the general tradition of the Egyptian descent of the Colchians.
Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898): Cyta,（Κύτα). A city of Colchis, in the interior of the country, near the river Phasis, and northeast of Tyndaris. It was the birthplace of Medea. The inhabitants, like the Colchians generally, were famed for their acquaintance with poisonous herbs and magic rites. Scylax calls the place Malé (Μάλη). Medea was called Cytaeis from this her native city.
David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, Aldo Corcella, A Commentary on Herodotus Books I-IV (2007). 316: ἡ γλῶσσα, ancient Colchis was afflicted with considerable linguistic diversity (Strabo XO 2.16 (C498)). We have no means of knowing what the language was which Herodotus regarded as specifically Colchian, but any similarity between that and Egyptian will have been superficial and entirely coincidental.
Bibliography
No information available at this time.