Colchides

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Colchides ( Greek Κολχίδες), "the Colchians", is the title of a fragmentary tragedy by Sophocles , which is about the saga of the Argonauts . His plot is known from the Scholia (on AR III 1040c). In addition, some preserved fragments give us information about the plot.

In addition to the title Kolchides , the variant Kolchoi (Κόλχοι) has been handed down, but it is believed to be wrong.

action

The philologist August Nauck (1822–1892) paraphrases the content as follows: [egisset] de Iasone et Medeae ope arietis aurei vellus repetente ("[It is] about the effort of Jason and Medea to obtain the fleece of the golden ram " ). One scene must have contained a dialogue in which Medea gives Jason help and advice for the upcoming fight with the bulls of King Aietes (Medea's father). According to legend, Jason had to plow the Aietes' field with these bulls, then sow dragon teeth and defeat the warriors that had sprouted from them.

Another fragment tells us about King Aietes' reaction to the news of Jason's victory. A messenger reports back to him, and Aietes heatedly asks how Jason brought down the Earthborn. The messenger then tells of Medea's ruse, according to which Jason threw stones at the warriors so that they fought each other down.

Finally, a third fragment tells of the murder of Medea's brother Absyrtus , which is already taking place in the palace of Aietes. Usually this act is assigned to the return journey of the Argonauts, on which they are pursued by Absyrtus. Based on this scene, the philologist Karl Reinhardt suspects that the Colchides of Sophocles are older than the Medea of Euripides .

Tiberius Hemsterhuis , Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff and Alfred Chilton Pearson dealt with the content and the assignment of the fragments . Heinz-Günther Nesselrath sees King Aietes as the central tragic figure of the plot and compares his fate with that of King Creon in Antigone . Because like him he stands there in the end as a ruler who has lost everything: The Golden Fleece, his daughter Medea (both stolen by Jason) and his son (murdered by Jason).

Text example

Fragment No. 339 of the edition by Stefan Radt, 1999.

ΑΙΗΤΗΣ ἧ βλαστὸς οὐκ ἔβλαστεν οὑπιχώριος;
ΑΓΓΕΛΟΣ καὶ κάρτα · φρίξας γ᾽ εὐλόφῳ σφηκώματι
χαλκηλάτος ὅπλοισι μητρὸς ἐξέδυ

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