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First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia: Armawir and Armazi (Problems of Early Ethnic Associations)

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First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia: Armawir and Armazi (Problems of Early Ethnic Associations) Armen Petrosyan Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Yerevan The foundation legends of the first capitals of Armenia and Georgia – Armawir and Armazi – have several common features. A specific cult of the moon god is attested in both cities in the triadic temples along with the supreme thunder god and the sun god. The names of Armawir and Armazi may be associated with the Anatolian Arma- ‘moon (god).’ The Armenian ethnonym (exonym) Armen may also be derived from the same stem. The sacred character of cultic localities is extremely enduring. The cults were changed, but the localities kept their sacred character for millennia. At the transition to a new religious system the new cults were often simply imposed on the old ones (e.g., the old temple was renamed after a new deity, or the new temple was built on the site or near the ruins of the old one). The new deities inherited the characteristics of the old ones, or, one may say, the old cults were simply renamed, which could have been accompanied by some changes of the cult practices. Evidently, in the new system more or less comparable images were chosen to replace the old ones: similarity of functions, rituals, names, concurrence of days of cult, etc (Petrosyan 2006: 4 f.; Petrosyan 2007a: 175).1 On the other hand, in the course of religious changes, old gods often descend to the lower level of epic heroes. Thus, the heroes of the Armenian ethnogonic legends and the epic “Daredevils of Sasun” are derived from ancient local gods: e.g., Sanasar, who obtains the 1For numerous examples of preservation of pre-Urartian and Urartian holy places in medieval Armenia, see, e.g., Hmayakyan and Sanamyan 2001). Volume 40, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2012 266 Armen Petrosyan “lightning sword” – from the thunder god; Mher from Mithra/Mihr, etc (Abeghian 1966: 417; Petrosyan 2002 passim; Petrosyan 2007a: 191 ff.). Aramazd and Vahagn The name of Aramazd, the supreme god of pre- Christian Armenia, is borrowed from the Parthian version of the Iranian Ahura Mazdá, attested in the first century BC in Greek as Aramasdés (Meillet 1916: 25). He, like the Iranian Ahura Mazdá, was regarded as the creator of heaven and earth. Aside from that, Aramazd, like the other Armenian gods whose names are derived from the Iranian prototypes, had little in common with his Iranian namesake (Petrosyan 2007a: 178). Aramazd was identified with Zeus and, like Zeus, had a thunderous nature: according to Khorenatsi (II.86), St. Nuné “destroyed the image of the thunderous (ampropayin) Aramazd” in Mcxheta, capital of Georgia. From this evidence one can conclude that the Armenian Aramazd was identified with the Georgian god Armazi and they both were considered thunder gods. The cult center of Aramazd was the fortress Ani in the Daranali district of the province of Higher Armenia, or Ani- Kamax (modern Turk. Kemah in Erzincan Province), which is attested as Kummaha from the mid-second millennium BC in Hittite sources. It was a significant cult center of the local thunder god, represented by the ideogram DU (KUB XXXVIII.12), who was included in the list of cults of the official Hittite pantheon (Kosyan 2002: 225 f., 235, 239, with bibliography). The name of Kummaha is, obviously, inseparable from those of the cities Kumme and Kummanna, the cult centers of the Hurro-Urartian and late Hittite thunder god Tessub (Urart. Teiseba) (Kapantsian 1956: 50; -ni and -ha are typical suffixes in the ancient toponyms of the region).2 The first one was in the Kashiari mountains, near the Mountain of Corduene (Arm. Ararat of Korduk’, Turk. Cudi), and the second one in Cappadocia, west of Malatia. Thus, the thunder god of Kummaha should have been a local variety of Tessub, who 2For the aspects of the cults of those cities, their legends, and etymology of the element kum- /kom-/, see Petrosyan 2006: 11 ff., 59 ff.; 2012. The Journal of Indo-European Studies First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia 267 could be regarded as the oldest local predecessor of the “thunderous” Aramazd (Petrosyan 2006: 11ff.; 2007a: 177 ff.). Aramazd was also called “father of all the gods.” The burial site of the Armenian Arsacid kings of the first centuries AD was in the fortress of Ani (Agathangelos 785; Pawstos III.11; IV.24; Khorenatsi III.10; III.45).3 Consequently, Aramazd, the patriarch of gods and maybe also their king, was related to the royal ancestors, who would join him in the other world. The name of Vahagn, the valiant warrior god of the Armenian pantheon, is derived from the Parthian *Varhragna (Avest. Vereyragna, the etymological parallel of the epithet of the Indian thunder god Indra V®trahan ‘slayer of the dragon V®tra’). He fought and overcame dragons and was called visapak’al ‘dragon-reaper,’ i.e., ‘dragon-slayer’ (Khorenatsi I.31; Agathangelos 809). Vahagn, who was identified with Herakles, was worshipped in the province of Tarawn, at a temple complex situated in the village Astisat on Mt. K’ark’é in the Mus district (Turk. MuU), which probably was an important cult center in the cuneiform stage as well. Vahagn is considered to be a thunder god, successor of the local Tessub of Šubria (the oldest kingdom of this region, situated in the Sasun highlands and Mus valley, to the west and south-west of Lake Van). Thus, he may be regarded as the second, “junior” thunder god of the Armenian pantheon.4 Legends of Armawir According to the ethnogonic legends (Khorenatsi I.10 ff.; Sebeos I), the first eponymous patriarch of the Armenians was Hayk, son of Togarmah, descendant of Noah’s son Japheth (cf. the Armenian autonym hay). After the construction of the tower of Babel Hayk refused to obey the Babylonian tyrant Bel the Titanid (identified with the Biblical Nimrod), and with his large patriarchal 3For the English translations of the referred medieval Armenian authors, see Thomson 1976; 1978; Garsoïan 1989; Avdoyan 1993. 4For Vahagn, as the thunder god, see Abeghian 1966: 72 ff.; Harutyunyan 2000: 83 ff.; as the heir of the local Tessub: Russell 1987: 33, 213, 362; Diakonoff 1990: 211, n. 48, 224, n. 78; Hmayakyan 1990: 117 f., n. 183; as a complex figure: Petrosyan 2002: 34 ff.; 2007a: 181 f. Volume 40, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2012 268 Armen Petrosyan family moved to the north and settled in Armenia, to the north of Lake Van. Hayk’s elder son Aramaneak (var. Aramenak, Armenak) moved to the Ararat plain and settled down at the base of Mt. Aragac. The latter’s son Aramayis (var. Armayis) established there on a hill the first capital of Armenia and called it after his own name Armawir. Later on, Aramayis’ great-great-grandson Aram extended the borders of Armenia on every side and became the second eponym of Armenia (cf. the Armenian exonym Armen). Many generations after Hayk, the legendary (non- existent) King Valarsak, who is presented as the founder of the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, built a temple at Armawir and erected there the statues of the sun and moon (gods) and his ancestors. During the reign of Valarsak’s descendant Artases, the statues of sun and moon gods were replaced by the Hellenistic statues of Apollo and Artemis (twins, sun god and moon goddess, respectively) brought from Asia Minor, while the statue of Herakles, which was to be erected along with them, was set up in Astisat, at the cult center of Vahagn/Herakles, by the priests of the Vahuni family, who regarded themselves as the descendants of Vahagn (Khorenatsi II.8, 12). In traditional historiography, the mythological figures of Hayk and his descendants feature as historical characters and the Artaxiad kings are represented as Arsacids; moreover, the stories of the early historical kings are of epic nature. However, it is possible to date them as follows. In historical context, the legendary patriarch Aram is to be identified with the first king of Urartu, Aramu (mid-9th century BC). Aram’s son Ara the Handsome was a contemporary of the Assyrian queen Semiramis (end of the 9th century BC). The forefather Hayk is dated seven generations earlier, which would mean a whole epoch of pre-Urartian times (Petrosyan 2007b: 51 f.). Artases was a historical king (189-160 BC), the founder of the Artaxiad dynasty, while the legendary Valarsak is presented as the grandfather of Artases. Thus, the story of the temple of Armawir and its Hellenistic statues is to be dated from the third-second centuries BC. The legends about Hayk and his seven generations represent the Armenian historicized version of the myth of Creation, which combines theogony, cosmogony, and The Journal of Indo-European Studies First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia 269 ethnogony (Petrosyan 2002: 159 ff.; 2007, 192; 2009: 155 ff.). Hayk, the creator of Armenia (Armenian universe), father and ancestor of the first divine patriarchs, corresponds to the creator god, the father of the family of gods. The second eponym of the Armenians, Aram, is considered to be the second incarnation of Hayk or the “second Hayk” (Abeghian 1966: 55; Petrosyan 2002: 56, 62, 83; 2007c: 299 f.). A detailed analysis reveals that both Hayk and Aram were the oldest Armenian thunder gods, counterparts of Tessub (Petrosyan 2002: 46 ff., 57; 2009: 160 f.). The sameness of the name Aram and the first part of Aramazd is suggestive. Moreover, Aram is the predecessor of Sanasar, the later epic incarnation of Tessub, the predecessor of the image of Aramazd (Petrosyan 2002: 20 f., 50 f., 64 f.; 2007a, 193).
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