The saga of the Argonauts reached its most harrowing chapter as the ship Argo docked at the mouth of the Rioni river, known to the ancient Greeks as the Phasis, in the fabled land of Colchis. This realm, located on the eastern edge of the Black Sea in what is now modern-day Georgia, was ruled by King Aeëtes, a son of the sun-god Helios. Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, had traveled from Iolcos to reclaim the Golden Fleece, a symbol of kingship and divine favor. However, Aeëtes had no intention of surrendering the Fleece easily. He devised a series of trials that he believed no mortal man could survive, beginning with the yoking of the Khalkotauroi.
The Khalkotauroi were two monstrous bulls forged by the divine smith Hephaestus. They were masterworks of celestial metallurgy, with bodies of impenetrable bronze and hooves of solid brass that shook the earth with every step. More terrifying than their physical strength was their breath; they exhaled billowing clouds of searing flame that incinerated anything in their path. To obtain the Fleece, Jason was commanded to enter the Field of Ares, catch and yoke these beasts, and then use them to plow a vast four-acre field. Furthermore, he was to sow the field with the teeth of a dragon—the same dragon slain by Cadmus in Thebes—and defeat the warriors who would sprout from the earth.
As Jason contemplated his certain doom, the goddess Hera and Aphrodite intervened by influencing the heart of the king’s daughter, Medea. Medea was a high priestess of Hecate and a potent sorceress, well-versed in the hidden properties of herbs and the dark arts of magic. Struck by a divine-induced love for the foreign hero, she sought a secret meeting with Jason. In the shadows of the temple of Hecate, Medea provided Jason with a magical salve known as the 'Promethean ointment.' This substance was distilled from the blood-red sap of a flower that grew where the ichor of the titan Prometheus had dripped onto the Caucasian peaks. Medea instructed Jason to bathe in the river Phasis and then smear the ointment over his body, his shield, and his sword. This charm would grant him invulnerability to fire and the strength of the gods for a single day.
On the morning of the trial, the banks of the Phasis were crowded with Colchians and Argonauts alike, all gathered to witness the spectacle at the Field of Ares. King Aeëtes sat upon a high throne, clad in his solar regalia, confident that he would soon be rid of the Greek interloper. Jason, having performed the rituals prescribed by Medea, felt the magical ointment coursing through his veins, making his muscles feel like iron and his skin cool despite the rising sun. When the gates of the bulls' subterranean stable were thrown open, the Khalkotauroi charged forth with a roar that sounded like clashing metal. The ground beneath them scorched to black, and the air shimmered with the intensity of their heat.
The bulls lunged at Jason, attempting to gore him with their bronze horns and blast him with their furnace-breath. To the shock of the onlookers, Jason did not recoil. He stood his ground as the flames washed over him, the Promethean magic acting as an invisible barrier. With a burst of superhuman strength, Jason seized the first bull by its horns and forced its head down toward the heavy stone yoke. The beast struggled, its bronze hooves striking sparks against the stones, but Jason’s grip was unrelenting. One by one, he forced the titans of metal into the harness, his hands unburned by their glowing hides. Once the yoke was secured, he drove them forward with a spear, compelling the fire-breathing animals to drag the heavy plow through the stubborn soil of the Field of Ares.
By midday, the field was fully furrowed. Jason released the exhausted bulls, who retreated back into the darkness. But the task was only half complete. Aeëtes handed Jason a helmet filled with the dragon's teeth. As Jason walked across the freshly plowed earth, dropping the teeth into the furrows, a strange and terrible transformation began. From the soil emerged the tips of spears, then plumed helmets, and finally the enraged faces of fully armed warriors known as the Spartoi, or 'Sown Men.' These warriors were born with a singular instinct: to kill. They turned their weapons toward Jason, who stood alone in the center of the field.
Remembering Medea’s advice for this stage of the trial, Jason picked up a massive boulder and hurled it into the midst of the advancing army. The Sown Men, confused as to who had struck them, turned their fury upon one another. A chaotic and bloody civil war erupted in the Field of Ares. Jason watched from the perimeter as the warriors hacked each other down until only a few remained, wounded and weary. Jason then stepped forward and finished the task, slaying the remaining Spartoi with his sword. As the sun set over the Phasis, the field was littered with the broken bronze of the warriors and the silence of the dying day. Jason had completed the impossible, though the treacherous Aeëtes still plotted to withhold the Fleece, leading to Jason’s eventual heist of the prize with Medea’s continued help.
The legend of the yoking of the bulls remains a cornerstone of the Colchian mythos, representing the intersection of Greek heroism and the deep, magical traditions of the Caucasian frontier. It highlights the transition from the untamed power of the sun and metal to the controlled agriculture of the civilized world, achieved through a blend of physical courage and the hidden knowledge of the earth’s secrets. The site of ancient Phasis, near the modern port of Poti, serves as the geographical anchor for this tale, where the river meets the sea and the old world of myth meets the historical reality of the Milesian colonies.