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Georgia - a little bit of history
According to the most reliable explanation to the origin of the country’s name, Georgia is derived of Gorg Persian for wolf + ia Greek suffix for place/country, which reflects the idol of wolf worshipped in pre-Christian Georgia. However, Georgians call the country Sakartvelo and its native Kartveli.
Few people are aware of some interesting historic legends around birds in Georgia, for example, the origin of the name for pheasant. In ancient times, the area that is present day Western Georgia was called the kingdom of Colchis, and its principal river (now called Rioni) was the Phasis. The scientific name for Pheasant, ‘Phasianus colchicus’ is derived from these two names. Pheasant is an Asian species but it was in Georgia where the bird was first documented and described as a species. The Argonauts who sailed to Colchis and ventured up Phasis in search of Golden Fleece over two thousand years ago are thought to have introduced this bird to Greece, and subsequently to Europe.
In the 5th century AD the Georgian King Vakhtang Gorgasali and his entourage were hunting not far from his capital city of Mtskheta when a pheasant rooster flew out of some bushes. The king sent his peregrine after the pheasant. After the peregrine caught the pheasant, both birds fell into a hot spring and died. That event and the discovery of thermal springs impressed Vakhtang so much that he founded the town of Tbilisi (translated as warm place) there, which soon became the capital city of Georgia. The hot springs still run in present-day Tbilisi providing hot water for leisure sulfur baths and apartment buildings in some parts of the city.
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