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Vahagn – the God of Fires: March 21
The Vishap stones (Vishapakar), also known as Serpent-stones and Dragon stones
Ara the Beautiful
Religion in ancient Armenia was historically associated with the worship of many cults, mainly the cult of ancestors, the worship of heavenly bodies (the cult of the Sun, the Moon cult, the cult of Heaven) and the worship of certain creatures (lions, eagles, bulls). The country used the solar Hayk Armenian calendar, which consisted of 12 months.
The pantheon of Armenian gods (ditsov) formed during the nucleation of the Proto-Armenian tribes that, at the initial stage of their existence, inherited the essential elements of paganism from the Proto-Indo-European tribes that inhabited the Armenian Plateau. Beliefs of the ancient Armenians were related to a set of beliefs which in Persia led to the emergence of Zoroastrianism.
Historians distinguish a significant body of Indo-European language used by Armenian pagans as sacred. Among the most ancient types of worship of Indo-European roots are the cults of eagles and lions, and the worship of heaven.
In addition to the main worship of the eagle and the lion, there were other sacred animals: the bull (Ervand and Ervaz were born to a relationship of a woman and a bull), deer (from the Bronze Age, there are numerous pictures, statues and bas-reliefs associated with the cult of the mother goddess and, later, with the Christian Mother of God), bear, cat and dog (e.g. Aralez).
According to De Morgan there are signs which indicate that the Armenians were initially nature worshipers and that this faith in time was transformed to the worship of national gods, of which many were the equivalents of the gods in the Roman, Greek and Persian cultures.
Sun worship – Ara the Beautiful
Since ancient times the cult of sun worship occupied a special place in Armenian mythology. The original cult worship in Armenia was a kind of unfathomable higher power or intelligence called Ara, called the physical embodiment of the sun (Arev) worshiped by the ancient Armenians, who called themselves “the children of the sun”.
Ara the Beautiful (also Ara the Handsome or Ara the Fair) was a legendary Armenian hero. He is notable in Armenian literature for the popular legend in which he was so handsome that the Assyrian queen Semiramis waged war against Armenia just to get him. He is the god of spring, flora, agriculture, sowing and water. He is associated with Osiris, Vishnu and Dionysus, as the symbol of new life.
Aragil or Stork – Aralez, the spirit-dogs
Aragil or Stork – considered as the messenger of Ara the Beautiful, as well as the defender of fields. According to ancient mythological conceptions, two stork symbolize the sun. Aralez, spirit-dogs that were licking the bounds of fallen or such an injured warriors of armenian troops, was an Armenian mythology creature-kinocefal (dog-heads).
A new phantom
Over time, the Armenian pantheon was updated, and new deities of Armenian and not Aryan origins appeared. During the fifth century BC. the Armenians adopted the Iranian forms of the Indo-European divinities and domesticated them. It particularly focused on the worship of Mihr (Avestan Mithra) and also included a pantheon of native Aryan gods, such as Aramazd, Vahagn, Anahit, and Astghik. The Armenian “triad” included Aramazd, Anahit and Vahagn.
The supreme god of the Armenian pantheon, Vanatur, was later replaced by Aramazd. Ahura-Mazda, who assumed the status of the father of the gods, was worshiped as Aramazd. The latter, though, has appeared under the influence of Zoroastrianism, but with partially preserved traditional Armenian features.
Similarly, Anahita became Anahit. The traditional Armenian goddess of fertility, Nar, or Tsovinar, the goddess of rain, sea and water, though she was actually a fiery being who forced rain to fall, was replaced by Anahit, goddess of fertility and mother of all wisdom and the favorite goddess of the Armenians.
Mithra, god of light and justice, was known as Mihr. Verethrangna, the god of war, was worshiped as Vahagn. Astghik was the goddess of love. Tir, the scribe of Aramazd, was the god of science and the recorder of human deeds of good and evil. Barshamin and Nane, probably of Syrian origin, also took their places in the Armenian pantheon.
Aramazd
Aramazd (Zeus), the Master of all Armenian gods, the father of all gods and goddess, the creator of heaven and earth, was the principal deity in Armenia’s pre-Christian pantheon. He was the source of earth’s fertility, making it fruitful and bountiful. The celebration in his honor was called Am’nor, or New Year, which was celebrated on March 21 in the old Armenian calendar (also the Spring equinox). He was called “the great and couragous Aramazd”.
Aramazd was a syncretic deity, a combination of the autochthonous Armenian legendary figure Ara and the Iranian Ahura Mazda, the Avestan name for a higher divinity of the Old Iranian religion who was proclaimed as the uncreated God by Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism. In the Hellinistic period Aramazd in Armenia was compared with Greek Zeus.
Aramazd displaced Vanatur at the top of the pantheon after interaction with the Persians led to the Armenians’ identifying the Zoroastrians’ Ahura Mazda as their prime deity. Amanor and Vanatur (probably it was the same god with various names) was the god of Armenians new year and lord of the new yield. The celebration in his honor occurred in the end of Junly and was called Navasard (new year). His main worship was located in Bagavan city. If Amanor was the god of new year and new yield, Vanatur was the god of hospitality and bountiful hosts.
The principal temple of Aramazd was in Ani (Kamakh in modern Turkey), a cultural and administrative center of ancient Armenia. The temple had been ruined at the end of the 3rd century AD, after the adoption of Christianity in Armenia as the state religion. The treasures and tribal mausoleums of Armenian Arshaguni (Arshakuni) kings were there, too.
Aramazd, considered the father of all gods and goddesses, the creator of heaven and earth, is the principal deity in Armenia’s pre-Christian pantheon. He displaced Vanatur at the top of the pantheon after interaction with the Persians led to the Armenians’ identifying the Zoroastrians’ Ahura Mazda as their prime deity.
Aramazd was the source of earth’s fertility, making it fruitful and bountiful. The first two letters in his name – AR – are the Indo-European root for sun, light, and life. The celebration in his honor was called Amanor, or New Year, which was celebrated on March 21 in the old Armenian calendar (also the Spring equinox).
Aramazd was a syncretic deity, a combination of the autochthonous Armenian legendary figure Ara and the Iranian Ahura Mazda. In the Hellinistic period Aramazd in Armenia was compared with Greek Zeus.
Anahit
Anahit (Artemis), the mother-goddess and the most loved and honored Armenian goddess, was the goddess of fertility and healing, wisdom and water in Armenian mythology. In early periods she was the goddess of war. By the 5th century BC she was the main deity in Armenia along with Aramazd. She was the daughter or wife of Aramazd.
Anahit was sculptured with the child on her hands` with specific hair style of Armenians mothers or women and was called “Great Lady Anahit”. Ancient Armenians believed that Armenian world was existing by Anahit’s will. Anahit was the cult of maternity and fertility.
Anahit-worships were established in Eriza avan (region) and in Armavir, Artashat and Ashtishat cities. A mountain in Sophene district was known as Anahit’s throne (Athor Anahta).
Vahagn
Vahagn or Vahagn Vishapakagh (Vahagn the Dragon Reaper). Vahagn was the god of thunder and lightning, and a herculean hero noted for slaying dragons. Vahagn fought and conquered dragons, hence his title Vishabakagh, “dragon reaper”, where dragons in Armenian lore are identified as “Vishaps”.
Vahagn was also a god of fire and war to whom Armenian kings and warlords would pray before engaging in battle. He was linked to Verethragna, whose name in Avestan means “smiting of resistance”, the hypostasis of victory in the texts of the Avesta; the name turned into Vahagn (the Avestan “th” becoming “h” in Arsacid Middle Persian), later on to take the form of Vahagn.
He was also worshiped as a sun-god, a sun-god, rival of Baal-shamin and Mihr, and a god of courage, later identified with the Greek Herakles. Vahagn’s main sanctuary was located in the Ashtishat city of Taron “world” (a region in ancient Armenia). The priests of Vahévahian temple, who claimed Vahagn as their own ancestor, placed a statue of the Greek hero in their sanctuary. In the Armenian translation of the Bible, “Heracles, worshipped at Tyr” is renamed “Vahagn”.
All the gods, according to the Euhemerist belief, had been living men; Vahagn likewise, was introduced within the ranks of the Armenian kings, as the son of Yervand (6th century BC.), together with his brothers — Bab and Tiran.
The Armenian princely house of Vahevunis believed to derive from Vahagn. The Vahevunis were ranked high in the Royal Registrar of Armenia, recorded by King Valarshak. In the pre-Christian Armenia, the Vahevunis hereditarily possessed the temple town of Ashtishat on the left bank of the Aratzani river and most likelly also held the post of the Sparapet, i.e.t he Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Armenian Army.
Vāhana (skt. that which carries, that which pulls) denotes the being, typically an animal or mythical entity, a particular deva (approximately translatable from Sanskrit as ‘deity’) is said to use as a vehicle. In this capacity, the vāhana is often called the deity’s mount. Upon the partnership between the deva and his vāhana is woven much iconography and mythology.
Often, the deva is iconographically depicted riding (or simply mounted upon) the vāhana. Other times, the vāhana is depicted at the deity’s side or symbolically represented as a divine attribute.
The vāhana may be considered an accoutrement of the deity: though the vāhana may act independently, they are still functionally emblematic or even syntagmatic of their “rider”. The deva (or devī, who will have her own, unique vāhana) may be seen sitting or on, or standing on, the vāhana. They may be sitting on a small platform called a howdah, or riding on a saddle or bareback. Vah in Sanskrit means to carry or to transport.
Historian Khorenatsi’s report of an ancient song gives a clue to his nature and origin: Ancient Armenian origin of Vahagn’s birth song. The stalk or reed, key to the situation, is an important word in Indo-European mythology, in connection with fire in its three forms.
In travail were heaven and earth,
In travail, too, the purple sea!
The travail held in the sea the small red reed.
Through the hollow of the stalk came forth smoke,
Through the hollow of the stalk came forth flame,
And out of the flame a youth ran!
Fiery hair had he,
Ay, too, he had flaming beard,
And his eyes, they were as suns!
Astghik
Astghik (Greek – Aphrodite, Mesopotamian – Ishtar), the goddess of love, beauty and water, was the wife or lover of Vahagn, the god of thunder and lightning, while Nane (Athena) was the daughter of Aramazd. The goddess of war. Her cult was closely connected with Anahit’s cult.
Mihr
Mihr was the god of sun and heaven light. He was the son of Aramazd, the brother of Anahit and Nane, while Tir (Apollo) was the god of wisdom, science and studies, also an interpreter of dreams. Tir was secretary of Aramazd. Tir’s temple was located near Artashat and was called “Aramazds grchi divan” or “Mehyan for studying sciences”.
Both Vedic Mitra and Avestan Mithra derive from an Indo-Iranian common noun *mitra-, generally reconstructed to have meant “covenant, treaty, agreement, promise.” This meaning is preserved in Avestan mithra “covenant.” In Sanskrit and modern Indo-Aryan languages, mitra means “friend,” one of the aspects of binding and alliance.
The Hellenistic age
In the Hellenistic age (3rd to 1st centuries BC), ancient Armenian deities identified with the ancient Greek deities: Aramazd with Zeus, Anahit with Artemis, Vahagn with Hercules, Astghik with Aphrodite, Nane with Athena, Mihr with Hephaestus, Tir with Apollo.
Christianity
After the formal adoption of Christianity in Armenia, new mythological images and stories were born as ancient myths and beliefs transformed. Biblical characters took over the functions of the archaic gods and spirits. For example, John the Baptist inherited certain features of Vahagn and Tyre, and the archangel Gabriel that of Vahagn.
Basic information about Armenian pagan traditions were preserved in the works of ancient Greek authors such as Plato, Herodotus, Xenophon and Strabo, Byzantine scholar Procopius of Caesarea, as well as medieval Armenian writers such as Moses of Chorene, Agathangelos, Yeznik of Kolb, Sebeos and Anania Shirakatsi, not to mention oral folk traditions.
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