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The Urartian/Araratian pantheon was headed by Haldi, Teiseba, and Siwini, who formed the most powerful triad in Urartian/Araratian mythology.

Haldi was a deity of fire and volcano; he symbolized the volcanic eruptions that occurred in the Armenian Highland, particularly in the Lake Van region, the times of Urartu/Ararat. In later years, as Urartu/Ararat became more powerful, he also acquired, as a mighty fire-god, the characteristics of the ruler of the heavens.

Haldi’s symbol, as a god of fire and volcano, was the lion in the animal world. In the wall paintings of Erebuni Haldi is personified on a lion. Movses Khorenatsi, quoting from Mar Aba’s ancient book, characterizes Hayk as “the Yapetostean Hayk—having the nature of Yapetos-Hephaestus—an appellation which have been given to Hayk during the Artashessian period of Armenia when it was still remembered that he was the god of fire. This another indication that Haldi, like Hayk, was a god of fire.

Haldi’s consort was called Warubane/Uarubani. The Armenian word parav ( ‘old woman’) is linked with the name Waruba(-ne)and preserves the memory of this goddess.

Haldi had a variant in the form bardi. The Hal component of Hal-di has the synonym bar in Sumerian, which means ‘fire, to burn’, var( var-el) in Armenian. The name Haldi in the word bardi/barti in Armenian which is the name given to the poplar tree (populus pyramidalis) and which was an object of worship among Armenians in ancient times and continued to be venerated as a sacred tree even centuries after Christianity by the followers of an Armenian sect who called themselves “sons of the Sun” (Arevordiner).

The form bardi of the name Haldi is also found in the name of Haldi’s wife, Bag-bartu, as recorded by Sargon II at Musasir. In ancient times women were often called by their husband’s names, implying “the wife of so-and-so,” an example of which is the name of Ara’s wife, Nu-ard, where her husband’s name Ardi (= Ara) is evident.

Another indication for the Haldi=Bardi equation is the presence of a poplar tree in Sargon’s sculpture of the façade of the Haldean temple of Musasir-Ardini.

The susi temples attributed specifically to Haldi provide further evidence. According to information supplied by Khorenatsi, there were sacred plane tree (sosi in Armenian) at Armavir whereby predictions were made or the will of god was revealed by their rustling sounds. The word sosi, which represents another kind of poplar tree, retains the name susi given to Haldi’s sacred temple, and that these susi temples were holy places, where apparently, by the plane trees (sosi) planted around them, the oracles of Haldi revealed his will. The plane trees (sosi) at Armavir-Argishtikhinili represented Haldi and the predictions made by means of these trees were his oracles.

In ancient pagan times it was believed that fire was born of plants, since trees or wood produced fire when burning. In the name Bar-di the component bar means in Sumerian ‘light, burning, fire’ (hence the assumed composition of the Sumerian word (ba(r)bar, ‘sun’) and the suffix -di have meant ‘born of’ or ‘begetter’, so that Bar-di (or Hal-di) means ‘born of fire’ or ‘fire begetter’, a meaning which may help to interpret the term Bardi as ‘he who beget fire’ and Haldi as ‘he who begets fire-volcano’. We see in the Hal component of Haldi the name Hay, that is, the fire-god Hayk.

In Urartian/Araratian inscriptions the name Haldi si very often recorded as Aldi, without the initial intensifying sound h . On the other hand the term Aldi is variant of the name Ardi, evidenced by the fact that Musasir, which was the site of Haldi’s main temple ( ‘the house of Haldi’, according to Sargon), was called Ardi-ni instead of Aldi-ni or Haldi-ni. Ardi is the name as Ara, the god of vegetation ( > of fire) and the sun, by whose name are called the Armen people and their land and with whom are connected the names Ar>Har (or har in Armenian, from which Haruyk, ‘fire’) and Hark’ (> Hayk).

The Bardi variant of the name Haldi, as the tree of life, represents also the deity of fire. …the poplar tree (bardi) has been an object of worship among Armenians for a long period of time. Its cult was so deeply rooted that it persisted in certain regions of Armenia until as late as the 12th century of our era.

In Urartian/Araratian times we find the poplar tree (bardi) depicted on king’s helmets, bronze belts and on sculptures representing devotional scenes.

As the embodiment of the power of fire and symbolizing the volcanic nature of the land, Haldi represents the most powerful and supreme national war-god of the Urartian/Araratian pantheon.

Source:”Armenia,Summer and Subartu” by Prof.,Dr.Martiros Kavukjian

Sumbitted by Eduard Aratta who typed the text out from the book.