The Semitic Lord of Heaven and the Buddhist Guardian of the North: Another Contamination in Iranian Syncretism?

chapter 19 The Semitic Lord of Heaven and the Buddhist Guardian of the North: Another Contamination in Iranian Syncretism?

Pavel B. Lurje

It is well known that Iranian religion before Islam was very open to various foreign influences. Although the core of Zoroaster’s teaching was preserved in larger or smaller amounts, many customs, concepts and deities originated from various neighboring lands: Mesopotamia, the Mediterranean lands and India. The pre-Christian religion of Armenia is very close to the Iranian. “Until the late third century A.D., Armenia and Iran shared also a common religion”, as James Russell coined in his book “Zoroastrianism in Armenia”;1 this statement is apparently also valid for the assimilation and domestication of elements of beliefs alien to Zoroastrian core and to Armenian ancestral beliefs. Michael Shenkar in his recent book made a useful summary of pre-Christian Armenian temples,2 and the idea of writing this paper came from reading afresh this data. The list of these temples follows: three in the name of goddess Anahit, one in the name of god Tir, one of the god Aramazd, one of the god Vahagn, one of the god Mihr, one of the goddess Nanē, one of the goddess Astłik and one of the god Baršamin. The first five gods have clear Zoroas- trian counterparts, Anahitā, Tīrī,̆ Ahura Mazdā, Vr̥θragna and Miθra, respec- tively; Nanē, of ancient Mesopotamian provenance, is widely attested in the Iranian world (especially its eastern part). Astłik here is the only genuine Arme- nian theonym, from astł = Indo-European *stér- “star” with diminutive suffix -ik. Of our central interest here is the god Baršamin. He is attested several times in Armenian sources.

1 J.R. Russell, Zoroastrianism in Armenia (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1987), p. 4. 2 M. Shenkar, Intangible Spirits and Graven Images:The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World (Leiden—Boston: Brill, 2014), p. 19. Meanwhile, a useful book on the iconography of pre-Christian deities of Armenia appeared: M. Compareti, Le raffigurazioni di divinità pre-cristiane nella produzione fittile dell’Armenia ellenistica (Venezia: Cafoscarina, 2016).

Baršam is the giant and tyrant in Assyria, and Aram, the progenitor of Arme- nians, defeats him; Baršam’s image is still venerated by Syrians.3 Baršam is the person from whom Vahagn, the leader of Armenians, stole straw in the legend of the formation of the Milky Way;4 the precious statue of Baršamin was taken by Tigranes the Great from Assyria, and later it was adorned and installed in T’ordan on the Euphrates;5 the same (?) statue and the temple of Baršimnia at T’ordan were destroyed by Gregory the Illuminator.6 James Russell proposes serious arguments that Armenian Baršamin was associated with Aramazd.7 Armenian Baršamin has been explained already by 19th-century scholars as borrowing from the Aramaic theonym Baʿal Šamin, lit. “Lord of Heaven”.8 This god probably appeared in the Akkadian form baʿalu ina šamê as early as in 14th century BCE in Amarna documents; later he (Baʿal Šamem) became chief god of Phoenicians (especially in Byblos). Baʿal Šamin is widely attested among Arameans in Egypt, Palmyra, Dura Europos, in Petra, Hatra, among Northern and Southern Arabs (Ḏū Samāwī) and even among Mandaeans. His main func- tions are heaven and weather, thunder; he too is a patron of certain ruling

3 Մովսէս Խորենացի, Պատմութիւն հայոց, Քննական բնագիրը եւ ներած.՝Մ. Աբեղ- յան, Ս. Յարութիւնեան; Լրացումն.՝Ա.Բ. Սարգսեան (Երեւան: ՀՍՍՀ ԳԱ հրատ., 1991) [Moses of Khorene, History of Armenia, eds. M. Abeghyan, S. Yarutyunyan, A. Sargsyan (Yerevan: Publishing House of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, 1991)], p. 45; tr. Исторія Арменіи Моисея Хоренскаго, пер. Н. Эминъ (Москва: Въ типографіи Каткова и Ко, 1858) [Moses of Khorene’s History of Armenia, tr. N. Émin (Moscow: Publishing house “Katkov and Co”, 1858)], I, 14, 50. 4 Անանիա Շիրակացի, Տիեզերագիտություն եւ տոմար, աշխատ. Ա. Աբրահամ- յանի, խմբ. Հ. Աճառյան (Երեւան: Հայպետհրատ, 1940) [Ananias of Shirak, Cosmog- raphy and theory of calendar, eds. A. Abrahamyan, H. Ajaryan (Yerevan: Haypethrat, 1940)], p. 30; tr. Анания Ширакаци, Космография, пер. К.С. Тер-Давтян и С.С. Аревшатян (Ере- ван: Изд-во АН АрмССР, 1962) [Ananias of Shirak, Cosmography, trs. K.S. Ter-Davtyan and S.S. Arevshatyan (Erevan: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of ArmSSR, 1962)], pp. 68–69. 5 Մովսէս Խորենացի, p. 128; tr. История Армении, p. 92. 6 Ագաթանգեղայ պատմութիւն հայոց (Թիֆլիս: տպ. Ն. Աղանեանի, 1914) [Agath- angelos, History of Armenia (Tiflis: N. Aghanyan, 1914)], p. 398; tr. Агатангелос, История Армении. Пер. К.С. Тер-Давтян и С.С. Аревшатян (Ереван: Наири, 2004) [Agathange- los, History of Armenia, trs. K.S. Ter-Davtyan and S.S. Arevshatyan (Erevan: Nairi, 2004)], p. 784, CIX; the translators propose to see here not god, but goddess, apparently following the Greek text of Agathangelos, where Βαρσαμήνη; all other sources leave no doubt that he was male god (already H. Gelzer, “Zur armenischen Götterlehre,”Berichte über die Verhandlungen der königlich sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig (Philologisch-historische Classe 48; 1896): pp. 99–148, here pp. 119–120). 7 Russell, Zoroastrianism, pp. 153, 169–174. 8 Probably, first N. Émin (История Армении, p. 291, n. 209); P. de Lagarde, G. Hoffman apud Gelzer, “Zur armenischen Götterlehre”, esp. pp. 119–122 et passim.