Greek mythology next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship "Argo" to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included Theseus, who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta, the female heroine, and Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the "Iliad" and "Odyssey". Pindar, Apollonius and the "Bibliotheca" endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts. Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than "Odyssey", which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of
Colchis the Golden fleece. It was also described as a land rich with gold, iron, timber and honey that would export its resources mostly to ancient Greece. Colchis was populated by Colchians, an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe, ancestral to the contemporary Western Georgians, namely Svans and Mingrelians, as well as the related Lazs. Its geography is mostly assigned to what is now the western part of Georgia and encompasses the present-day Georgian provinces of Samegrelo, Imereti, Guria, Adjara, Abkhazeti, Svaneti, Racha; modern Russia’s Sochi and Tuapse districts; and present-day Turkey’s Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces. The kingdom of Colchís, Kolkhís or "Qulḫa"