 | In ancient Greek myth, Aeëtes ruled the kingdom of Kolkhis. To the ancient Greeks, Kolkhis represented the easternmost edge of the world, where the sun god Helios emerged to drive his glorious golden chariot into the sky. In most versions of his myth, Aeëtes was the son of Helios. Aeëtes founded a Greek colony near the mouth of the river Phasis (modern-day Rioni River in western Georgia), called Aea. According to Martin L. West, Aea (or Aia) meant “Dawnland,” and Phasis “was the River of Radiance from which the sun rose.” |
Originally, the 1,000+/- independent city-states of what is now Greece had an oral storytelling tradition. Storytellers told and retold myths and legends, varying their content and form over time and by location. What we think of as Greek myth today is based on a relatively small written record of these earlier oral traditions, much of which came from one city-state (Athens) transcribed by Roman and Byzantine scholars. Multiple versions of any given myth are common, creating openings for authors to weave stories from a wealth of narrative threads.
 | In many myths, Helios originally gifted Aeëtes the city-state Korinthos (Corinth). At some point, Aeëtes “gave” his kingdom to another divinely sired Korinthian, Bounos, charging him to “keep it until he or his children returned.” This sets up an interesting dynamic when Aeëtes’s famous daughter, Medea, returns to Korinthos with Jason and the Argonauts. In Euripides’s classic play, Medea kills her children and Jason’s betrothed in a horrific jealous rage. In modern terms, the play demonizes a foreign woman, labeling her a madwoman and sorceress. I hope to explore this story from Medea’s rational point of view in a novel-yet-to-be, Fire God’s Daughter. |
Aeëtes emigrating from Korinthos to Aea may have paralleled the expansion of Greek colonies into the Black Sea beginning in the eighth century BCE.
 | Prior to widespread colonization, Helios would have risen from the watery depths of the Aegean Sea east of the peninsula and plunged into the western Ionian Sea at sunset. When Greeks ventured as far east as the western shore of what was then Kolkha (or Qulḫa in Urartian inscriptions), Helios shifted east with them. “Kolkhis” became the origin of the sun’s golden chariot ride across the sky, and Aeëtes became the land’s king. In actuality, Kolkha existed long before Greek seafarers “discovered” it. Diaokhi or Diauehi was mentioned in Mesopotamian inscriptions around 2000 BCE. Both Diaokhi and its successor, Kolkha, were described as “tribal unions” rather than kingdoms. |
Whatever their political structure, they were “a vast and flourishing culture on lucrative trade routes linking Mesopotamia and the far east.” Iron smelting during the second millennium BCE, would’ve given Kolkhan warriors superior weaponry. It’s highly unlikely that a foreign Greek armored in bronze, however divinely sired, could’ve become king—at least not without inside help.
 | In my novel-in-progress, Sky God’s Warrior, Aeëtes carries the original root of his name, Aietós, the ancient Greek word for “eagle.” The Greek hero Aietós arrives to conquer Kolkha, but the natives are far more formidable than he anticipated. One of the delights of writing this story is viewing the ancient Greek myths as chauvinistic propaganda meant to elevate the importance of the Greek city-states, which were actually bit players on the world stage at that time. |
Storytellers named several different women as the queen-consort of King Aeëtes, all of which were ocean or river nymphs. The four most common names given were Eidyia, Asterodeia, Neaera, and Clytia.
 | Clytia (Klutíē in ancient Greek) was an Oceanid (Ōkeanís in the original Greek), an ocean nymph. She was a daughter of the Titans Oceanuus (Ōkeanós) and Tethys (Tēthýs). She is often conflated with the Oceanid Clytie, who pined for the sun god Helios. When Clytie discovered him with a mortal princess, her jealous actions resulted in the princess being buried alive. Though this jealousy could’ve provided interesting foreshadowing for Medea’s tragic story, I rejected Clytia as a character for Sky God’s Warrior based on her unattractive name. |
 | Neaera was either another Ocean-nymph daughter of Oceanus and Thethys, or she was a Nereid, a sea nymph. All nymphs were personifications of nature and “typically tied to a specific place, landform, or tree,” an example of Animism. In Neaera’s case, she might’ve personified the Black Sea, originally called the “Inhospitable Sea” by the ancient Greeks for its unpredictable storms. Like Clytie, Neaera was a consort of Helios in some myths. Though her stormy nature and the potential love triangle between Neaera, Aeëtes, and Helios would’ve provided drama in my story, I found her name too difficult to say or spell! |
 | Asterodeia was a river nymph or naiad. She’s described as a gold-bearing mountain stream in the Caucasus Mountains, which links her to the Golden Fleece. The myth of the Golden Fleece (part of the adventures of Jason and the Argonauts) echoed the historical practice of using sheep fleece to strain for gold in the mountain streams of Kolkha. Her name is composed of the Greek words astêr “star” and rhodos “rose.” She is listed as the mother of Apsyrtos. The end of his name may come from the Greek syrtos, meaning “washed down from a river.” The beginning of his name may originate in Apsny, meaning “mortal” in native Abkhaz. Apsny is the self-name of the Republic of Abkhazia, in the western Caucasus Mountains—perhaps the location of his river mother? Asterodeia is a pretty name, but not my choice for Sky God’s Warrior. |
Eidyia (Eiduîa in ancient Greek) was another Oceanid and youngest daughter of Ocenaus and Tethys. Her name meant “the knowing one” from eídō, meaning “to see” or “to know.” It’s possible she represented native sovereignty, and Aeëtes assumed kingship through a type of sacred marriage with her.
 | I chose Eidyia as the main character in Sky God’s Warrior, because of her name’s meaning and phonetics. It sounded closest to proto-Iranian, the language of the Eurasian steppe north of Kolkha, where my character fostered from ages eleven through twenty-five. The proto-Iranian name I chose for her is Ayda’ia → Ayda (“wandering”) + ia (woman). In the novel-in-progress, she yearns for a permanent place to belong—and secretly fears she will forever “wander” between Kolkha and the northern steppe, a perpetual outsider. |
Part of the humor in my book is the Greek hero Aietós consistently mispronouncing her name as Eiduîa, much to Ayda’s annoyance.
Sifting through ancient lore and selecting the elements that will best illuminate the story I want to tell is one of the thrills of writing mythic fantasy—whether that’s choosing specific characters or shaping other story elements such as setting and plot events.
I grew up with Classical Greek myths, but always despised the roles of women characters: bitter Hera, conniving sorceress Circe, murderous Medea. Reframing these myths from a feminist and non-Greek perspective heals old hurts from internalized misogyny.
Thank you for sharing my writing journey~
I grew up with Classical Greek myths, but always despised the roles of women characters: bitter Hera, conniving sorceress Circe, murderous Medea. Reframing these myths from a feminist and non-Greek perspective heals old hurts from internalized misogyny.
Thank you for sharing my writing journey~
Read more about Greek myth: The Song of Achilles, Ithaca, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Medusa,
Sirens Empowered, #MeTooMedusa, The Spring Maiden, Water Gods, Animism
Sirens Empowered, #MeTooMedusa, The Spring Maiden, Water Gods, Animism
RSS Feed