Papers by Armen Petrosyan
Լրաբեր հասարակական գիտությունների, 2024
THE ARMENIAN ORIGIN OF THE HURRO-URARTIAN TEŠŠUB/TEIŠEBA
AND GREEK THESEUS
The most outstanding... more THE ARMENIAN ORIGIN OF THE HURRO-URARTIAN TEŠŠUB/TEIŠEBA
AND GREEK THESEUS
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps ("dragons"), the first samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (XXIV century BC). A detailed analysis shows that they were attributes of cult of the Indo-European thunder god myth, and before borrowing the Iranian word višap, they were called by the Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ< *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia.The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and embodies the image of the archaic warrior. His weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /Theišewa) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for this theonym from the IndoEuropean *tek’s- + *h1ep- "axe holder". His image, grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans at the end of the second millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words – Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Thunder god, Hurrian mythology, Tešub, Teišeba, Theseus
Y. Grekyan (ed.), By god’s grace: Ancient Anatolian studies presented to Aram Kosyan on the occasion of his 65th birthday, Leuven-Paris-Bristol: Peeters , 2024
The name of the third great god of Urartu Šiuini (to read: Siwini) could have been borrowed from ... more The name of the third great god of Urartu Šiuini (to read: Siwini) could have been borrowed from a Hittite dialect, cf. Hitt. šiu- (šiuni, šiuanni, šiuna-) “god”, earlier: “sun god”, cf. šiuatt- “daytime” < *dyeu-, from the Indo-European name of the god of daylight sky. The capital of Urartu Tušpa was the worship centre of this god. It may be thought that in earliest times this region was inhabited by a Hittite speaking people. Šiuini is comparable to the name of the Armenian province of Siwnik‘, where traces of ancient cult of the sun god have survived. Probably, the people of the region of Tušpa moved to Siwnik‘ at around in the beginning of the first millennium BC, under pressure of the Urartians.
Հայկազեան հայագիտական հանդէս Haykazean Armenological Journal, 2023
Վերջին տարիներին գիտութեան զարգացումը հնարաւոր դարձրեց հնագոյն մարդկանց կմախքի քունքոսկրի՝ ականջի... more Վերջին տարիներին գիտութեան զարգացումը հնարաւոր դարձրեց հնագոյն մարդկանց կմախքի քունքոսկրի՝ ականջի ետեւի վիմային մասից (լատին. pars petrosa) առանձնացնել եւ ուսումնասիրել հազարամեակներ պահպանուած ծինային նիւթը, ինչը նոր լիցք տուեց հնագենետիկական (paleogenetic, archaeogenetic) ուսումնասիրութիւններին: Եւ, ներկայումս հնդեւրոպաբանութեան մէջ, լեզուաբանութեանը եւ հնագիտութեանը հաւասար, սկսել են էական դեր կատարել նաեւ այդ ուսումնասիրութիւնները, որոնք, կարելի է ասել, նոր էջ են բացում հին ժողովուրդների, նրանց նախահայրենիքի, գաղթերի եւ տարաբնակութեան հարցերում: Այդ ուսումնասիրութիւնները էական նիւթ են տալիս նաեւ հնագոյն հայերի նոյնացման եւ այսպիսով՝ հայոց ազգածագման առաւել դժուար խնդրի լուծման գործում ճշտում եւ լրացնում են որոշ տեսակէտեր եւ բացառում միւսները: Ստորեւ, առավելապես կենտրոնանալով խնդրի բանասիրական և պատմական տեսանկյուններին, սփիւռքահայ լսարանի համար համառօտակի կը ներկայացուեն արդյունքներն եւ եզրակացութիւնները:
Միգրացիոն գործընթացները Հայկական լեռնաշխարհում հնագույն շրջանից մինչև 20-րդ դարասկիզբ (գիտաժողովի նյութեր), Երևան, 2023
Վերջին տարիներին հնդեվրոպաբանության մեջ, լեզվաբանությանը և հնագիտությանը հավասար, սկսում են էակա... more Վերջին տարիներին հնդեվրոպաբանության մեջ, լեզվաբանությանը և հնագիտությանը հավասար, սկսում են էական դեր կատարել հնագենետիկական ուսումնասիրությունները, որոնք, կարելի է ասել, նոր էջ են բացում հնդեվրոպական հին ժողովուրդների, նրանց նախահայրենիքի, միգրացիաների և տարաբնակման հարցերում: Այդ ուսումնասիրությունները էական նյութ են տալիս նաև վաղնջահայերենի կրողների նույնացման և այսպիսով՝ հայոց ազգածագման առավել դժվար խնդրի լուծման գործում՝ ճշտում և լրացնում են որոշ տեսակետներ և բացառում մյուսները: Ստորև ներկայացվում են գիտության նորագույն տվյալներ, որոնց հիման վրա քննարկվում է մեր երկրի նախապատմության և վաղ պատմության կարևորագույն խնդիրը՝ հայ ժողովրդի ծագման և ձևավորման ընթացքը:
Միգրացիոն գործընթացները Հայկական լեռնաշխարհում հնագույն շրջանից մինչև 20-րդ դարասկիզբ (գիտաժողովի նյութեր), Երևան, ՀԱԻ հրատ., 2023, 7-24:, 2023
THE PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN ORIGINS IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT ARCHAEOGENETIC DATA
Armen Petrosyan, Aram... more THE PROBLEM OF ARMENIAN ORIGINS IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT ARCHAEOGENETIC DATA
Armen Petrosyan, Aram Palyan
The article presents the latest archaeօgenetic data, by comparing linguistic and archaeological evidences, on the basis of which one of the most important problems of the prehistory and early history of Armenia – the origin and formation of the Armenian people – Is examined. According to those data, the Urheimat of the Indo-Hittite or Indo-Anatolian community was localized in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories. From here, some of them crossed the Caucasus to the north and settled in the Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe regions, from the Volga to the Dniester. Since the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C., Eastern European Steppe populations had an increasing genetic contribution from the territories south of the Caucasus. And the people of the subsequent Yamnaya culture there had half of their gene pool of southern origin.
It was there that the Indo-European homeland formed, from where all the currently spoken Indo-European languages originated (while the Anatolian languages of Asia Minor disappeared more than two thousand years ago). Archaeogenetic data convincingly prove the reverse migration of people across the Caucasus from the Eastern European steppes to Transcaucasia and the Armenian Highland since the middle of 3th millennium B.C. They and their descendants created the Early Kurgans, Trialeti-Vanadzor, Sevan-Artsakh, Karmirvank, Karmirberd and Lchashen-Metsamor cultures of the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Even at the end of Urartu the local population in Republic of Armenia territory still had a significant Steppe
patrilineal DNA (75%). The Armenian had to be the language of the creators of these cultures, and genetic data makes the Etiuni hypothesis of Armenian origins more likely. Modern Armenians gene pool is similar to Neolithic farmers of the region, but it has also a significant patrilineal ancestry inherited from the Steppe homeland (c. 30%).
Voprosy onomastiki, 2023
THE EARLIEST ARMENIAN THUNDER GOD, HURRO-URARTIAN TEŠŠUB/TEIŠEBA AND THE GREEK THESEUS:
IMAGE AN... more THE EARLIEST ARMENIAN THUNDER GOD, HURRO-URARTIAN TEŠŠUB/TEIŠEBA AND THE GREEK THESEUS:
IMAGE AND NAME
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps (“dragons”), the fi rst samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (24th c. BC). A detailed analysis shows that the vishaps were attributes of the cult of the Indo-European thunder god, and before the Iranian word višap was borrowed, they were called
by an Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ < *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia. The most interesting of them, the so-called axe-bull, a bronze object with something resembling both a bull’s head and an axe in the center, surrounded by two or three
open or closed concentric circles. According to L. Abrahamyan, this composition can be best explained by the Greek mythologeme “Minotaur in the Labyrinth.” The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and thus embodied the image of an archaic warrior. His
weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurro-Urartian (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /= Theišewa/) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol, and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for
this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- ‘axe holder.’ His image, Grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans of the end of the 2nd millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
K e y w o r d s: Indo-European linguistics; Indo-European mythology; thunder god; Hurrian mythology; Teššub/Teišeba; Theseus.
Բանբեր հայագիտության, Review of Armenian studies, 2022
Aragats is one of the mountains surrounding Ararat Valley, the center of
historical Greater Ar... more Aragats is one of the mountains surrounding Ararat Valley, the center of
historical Greater Armenia. The nearby mountain and the valley itself were named after Ara the Handsome, the "dying and resurrecting" god of Armenian mythology, who in ethnogonic tradition figures as one of the ethnarchs of Armenia. In Christian tradition his heir was St. Gregory the Illuminator, the propagator of Christianity in Armenia. In this paper a new etymology for Aragats is proposed – the name of the god Ara + gac (from the Indo-European *weh2g̑- "smash"). This root used to name vajra, the lightning weapon of the ancient Indian god Indra, and vazra, the mace of the Iranian god Mithra. Our analysis of the myths and legends of Ara the Handsome, St. Gregory, the mountains comes to confirm the proposed etymology.
Key words: Aragats, Ara the Handsome, Mountain of Ara, Field of Ara, Gregory the Illuminator, Indo-European linguistics, comparative mythology.
Լրաբեր հասարակական գիտությունների. Herald of Social sciences, 2022
In the Greek myth on Argonauts the images of King Aeetes and his daughter Medea are comparable wi... more In the Greek myth on Argonauts the images of King Aeetes and his daughter Medea are comparable with the images of Yayati and his daughter Madhavi of Indian and Eochaid and his daughter Medb of Irish mythologies, studied in details in the context of IndoEuropean mythology by Georges Dumézil. Aia, the country where the Argonauts sail, is obviously a mythological magical kingdom, a blissful otherworld, later identified with Colchis. Ancient Colchis was located in the south-west of the later Colchis, in the territories, where in the 14th-13th centuries BC the kingdom of Hayasa of Hittite sources was located. This gives reason to believe that the mythical Aia was identified with the historical Hayasa.
Key words – Indo-European mythology, prehistory of Armenia, the Argonaut myth, Aia, Kolchis, Ayetes, Medea.
ԾՈՎԱՅԻՆ ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆ ՈՒԴՈՒՐԻ-ԷԹԻՈՒՆԻ ԵՐԿՐԻ ՀՆԱԳԻՏԱԿԱՆ ԺԱՌԱՆԳՈՒԹՅՈՒՆԸ, 2022
The land of U(e)duri Etiuni, mentioned in the Urartian sources, is localized on the southern shor... more The land of U(e)duri Etiuni, mentioned in the Urartian sources, is localized on the southern shore of Lake Sevan, mainly on the territory of Sot’k district of Syunik province of Greater Armenia. The hypothesis of S.Yeremyan according to which the first component of this toponym is associated with the Thracian word βέδυ “water” is not confirmed. In fact, this word is not Thracian, but Phrygian, while “Uduri” more resembles the Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, “water”. This country was an integral part of the large and powerful Etiuni confederation, occupying the central and northern regions of the Armenian Highland. According to our hypothesis, it was the cradle of Armenians, “Primary Armenia”. The most characteristic monuments of the ancient Etiuni culture were the stone vishap “dragon” stelae, which are found in the highest density in the area of Lake Sevan. These stelae, before borrowing the Iranian word vishap, were called *geł, after the mythological serpent of Indo-European mythology *wel. To the southwest of Lake Sevan, in the territory of the former U(e)duri Etiuni there was a swampy lake Gilly, in which, according to a legend, a dragon lived. This toponym probably derives from the ancient *Gełi, which turned into Gilly within a Turkish environment.
Keywords: Urartian onomastics, Etiuni, Uduri Etiuni, IndoEuropean mythology, mythological serpent, vishap stelae.
Լեզու և լեզվաբանություն, 2022
1. Arm. drawš "statue of a god" is compared with Urart. diruši, apparently denoting the statue... more 1. Arm. drawš "statue of a god" is compared with Urart. diruši, apparently denoting the statue of the supreme god Haldi.
2. Arm. kot‘oɫ “monument, tower” corresponds to Urart. qudula-ni "temple,
tower", which denoted the specific tower temples of Haldi.
3. Urart. personal name Lubšuṣini is etymologized as Arm. lousacin "luminous" / "born of light"
Сравнительно-историческое языкознание XIX–XXI вв. К 200-летию со дня рождения Августа Шлейхера (1821–1868), Изд. Московского университета, М. 2022, с. 86-94., 2022
Hurro-Urartian Tešub / Teisheba and Greek Theseus
Annotation: The name of the Hurrian-Urartian t... more Hurro-Urartian Tešub / Teisheba and Greek Theseus
Annotation: The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. The origins of his mythological image (a god with the symbols of a bull and an ax) can be found in rock paintings, images on stone steles of vishaps and archaeological artifacts of Armenia starting from the second half of the third millennium BC. Based on these data, the Armenian etymology of this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- / *h1op- «axe holder» is proposed. The same name, in the form of Theseus, apparently, through Cilicia and the Levant, got into Greek mythology, becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words: Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Hurrian mythology, Teshub, Teisheba, thunder god, Theseus
Фольклор: структура, типология, семиотика, 2021
The purpose of this article is to show the downward evolution of
the epic heroes, from the gods ... more The purpose of this article is to show the downward evolution of
the epic heroes, from the gods to the heroes of joke. The great heroes
of the first Armenian epic – ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Aram and Ara,
are obviously epicised images of ancient native gods, who, after changing
the religious system of people – the introduction of Iranian pantheon,
moved to a lower level of epic heroes. The same phenomenon is observed
after the adoption of Christianity: the god Vahagn in the second ancient
epic “Vipasank” appears as the son of King Tigranes, and a variant of
the name of the god Mihr (Mher) are worn by two heroes of the third
epic “Daredevils of Sasun” (“David of Sasun”). Some gods and heroes,
especially after Christianisation, were demonised, and some passed into
a fairy tale. In the Hellenistic era, in Armenia, as in some other countries,
kings were deified: e.g., Tigranes the Great was deified as Vahagn.
Strangely enough, this phenomenon was repeated in the USSR: Lenin
and Stalin, one might say, were deified. Аt the same time, they became
the heroes of epic works and fairy tales. However, the era of Khrushchev
and the condemnation of Stalin’s “cult of personality” put an end to
the Soviet heroic epic: Stalin was demonised and then another genre of
folklore became relevant – political joke (anecdote). The new leaders
of the USSR were its main target, but Lenin and Stalin continued to stay
as important characters.
Keywords: myth, epic, fairy tale, political joke, gods, epic heroes, evolution
of folklore images
Iran and the Caucasus
Among the attested personal names in the Hayasa onomastics, there are some of the probable Aryan ... more Among the attested personal names in the Hayasa onomastics, there are some of the probable Aryan origin. Three of them are associated with the religion (Akni, Š(a)ummatar, takšanna) and one, with the ruling elite of the kingdom (Mariya). If this is correct, it can be assumed that the Aryans could constitute a considerable part of the population of Hayasa.
Գիտական աշխատություններ, Շիրակի հայագիտական հետազոտությունների կենտրոն, 2021
SOME ASTRONOMICAL NOTIONS OF ANCIENT ARMENIANS
Key words: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic tra... more SOME ASTRONOMICAL NOTIONS OF ANCIENT ARMENIANS
Key words: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Orion, Vahagn, Aram, Ara the Handsome.
The article deals with the ancient Armenian names of some celestial objects connected with the names of the main heroes of ethnogonic tradition. Thus, the name of the eponymous forefather and first Armenian eponym Hayk was given to the constellation Orion, and of the last mythological patriarch Ara the Handsome – to a star, probably, one of the planets, as it is compared with Venus. And the Milky Way, the "Straw Trace," was thought to have been formed from the straw stolen by the god Vahagn from Barsham, the ancestor of the Assyrians. Moreover, in the legend, Vahagn is represented as the ancestor of the Armenians, i.e., he replaced the patriarch Aram, second mythological eponym of Armenians, adversary of Barsham. This reveals a fragment of the mythological picture of the starry sky, named and systematized by a single mythological cycle – the ethnogonic tradition.
Patma-banasirakan handes, 2003
PROBLEMS OF ARMENIAN ETHNOGENESIS IN THE LIGHT OF
CONSIDERATION OF TRADITIONAL DATA
In the eth... more PROBLEMS OF ARMENIAN ETHNOGENESIS IN THE LIGHT OF
CONSIDERATION OF TRADITIONAL DATA
In the ethnogonic legends the two eponyms of Armenia Hayk and Aram figure as the leaders of adult men and hunting youths respectively. The troop of Aram represents the early Indo-European institution of Männerbund, the hunter-warrior society of unmarried young men. The members of the earliest Armenian Männerbund would have been called t'ux manuk 'dark (< baked/burnt) youth'. Some legends stress the association of the Armenian ethnogonic patriarchs with the fire. In this context, the name Hayk may be considered in connection with Indo-European *Hā- 'burn', which was confounded with *poti- 'lord' later. The name of Aram (cf. Indo-European *rēmo- 'dark, black') may be explained as 'burnt'. These interpretations are juxtaposed with some ancient names of the Armenian Highland and surroundings (Sumerian HA.A, Hittite Hayasa, Semitic "Mountain of darkness", etc.).
Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies , 2007
The names of gods of Armenian Pre-Christian pantheon are in majority of Iranian origin. Neverth... more The names of gods of Armenian Pre-Christian pantheon are in majority of Iranian origin. Nevertheless, the figures of the gods and their cults have ancient roots in Armenia. The supreme god Aramazd, whose cult center was located in the village of Ani-Kamax (= Hittite Kummaha), is inseparable from the ancient local thunder and storm god Tešub/ Teišeba, whose centers bore similar names – Kumme, Kummanni (= classic Komana). The goddess Anahit was identical with the goddess of Komana (in antiquity – wife of Tešub). The figure of Mher, epicized version of the god Mihr, is derived from the Urartian god Haldi (I.M. Diakonoff). The cults of the majority of gods were located in a small area to the northwest of historic Armenia and are to be traced back to ancient local tradition – the gods of Hayasa.
Վէմ․ համահայկական հանդես, 2021
Šiuini – the name of the third great god of Urartu, should have been borrowed from a Hittite dial... more Šiuini – the name of the third great god of Urartu, should have been borrowed from a Hittite dialect, cf. Hitt. šiu- (šiuni, šiuanni, šiuna-) ‘god’, earlier: ‘sun god’, šiuatt- ‘daytime’ < *dyeu-, from the Indo-European name of the god of daylight sky. The consideration of this theonym as the Urartian parallel of the Hurrian sun god Šimigi is linguistically impossible (I. M. Diakonoff, V. V. Ivanov). The capital of Urartu Tušpa was the worship center of this god. The Armenian name of this city, Van, is derived from the declension form Bia(i)na of cuneiform Biainili, the name of royal domain and central land of the kingdom, where -ni is an Urartian suffix and -li a plural formant). It may be thought that in earliest times this region was inhabited by a Hittite speaking people.
Šiuini (to read: Siwini) is comparable to the name of the Armenian province
of Siwnik‘ (< Siwini-yā, with Arm. plural formant k‘), where the largest concentration of toponyms derived from Arm. arew/areg ‘sun’ and traces of
ancient cult of the sun god have survived. The local districts Vayoc‘ jor and
Vaykunik‘ (Vay-ik-uni-k‘) are probably associated with the ethnonym of the ancient inhabitants of the East of the Lake Van, the Biai people (to read: Vyāy/Vǣy, which in Armenian reflected as Vay). This people of the Van region probably moved to Siwnik‘ in the beginning of the first millennium BC, under pressure of the Urartians.
Key words – Biainili, Van, Urartu, Etiuni, Siwnik‘, Vayoc‘
jor, Vaykunik‘, Hittite language, Šiuini.
Keywords: Indo-European mythology, Armenian mythology, “The Song of
Vahagn”, the Armenian epic, ... more Keywords: Indo-European mythology, Armenian mythology, “The Song of
Vahagn”, the Armenian epic, national legends, “Vipasank”, “Daredevils of
Sassoun”.
Multiple recurrences of the sound combination erk- in the ancient Armenian
hymn on the birth of Vahagn, the god of thunder and war, can be considered an anagram of the word erku (two) with an allusion to twins. Moreover, in the
expression cov cirani (purple sea) one can see an anagram of Covinar, the name of the mother of the epic twins Sanasar and Baghdasar, first heroes of the epic "Daredevils of Sassoun". In this context it becomes obvious that the image of Sanasar, the elder of the twins, founder of the dynasty of heroes, directly goes back to Vahagn. The same picture of the birth of mythological twins occurs in the ancient epic “Vipasank”. A detailed analysis shows that the folk epics of ancient Armenia – the ethnogonic tradition, “Vipasank” and “Daredevils of Sassoun” – have derived from one source, the myth of the thunder god and his followers, members of the young warriors’ fraternity․
Вопросы ономастики, 2021
REFLEXES OF A HURRIAN WORD IN ARMENIAN:A THEONYM, A DENDRONYM, AN ANTHROPONYM
In Old Armenian, s... more REFLEXES OF A HURRIAN WORD IN ARMENIAN:A THEONYM, A DENDRONYM, AN ANTHROPONYM
In Old Armenian, saws means ‘proud, luxurious, great,’ ‘some (bright) color,’ and saws
and sawsi mean ‘oriental plane tree’. The word has no etymology. Hurrian has the word
šauša [sausa] ‘big, great’ and the theonym Šauša / Šauška for the local version of the great goddess Ištar. The article undertakes to find a single etymon looking for the clue in comparative mythology. It is known that Anušavan, one of the ancient Armenian mythical patriarchs, was referred to as Sawsanuēr which can be interpreted as “The gift of plane trees” (with a reference to the cult of the plane trees of Armawir, the earliest capital of Armenia). According to mythology, Anushavan’s father and grandfather were related to Šamiram (Greek Semiramis), the queen of the city of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) that is seen as a historicized version of the local goddess Šauš(k)a otherwise called “Ishtar of Nineveh”. The Armenian saws ‘great, magnificent’ quite correlates with this name as a loan from the Hurrian šauša ‘great,’ with a regular apocope. The plane trees were probably symbols of the goddess. Thus, it is natural to assume that the dendronym saws / sawsi (the second form with the Indo-European suffix *-iyā, characteristicof Armenian dendronyms, cf. the genitive plural form sawseac‘) is of Hurrian origin. The first meaning of the Hurrian word ‘great, magnificent’ subsequently turned into theonym and then to the Armenian dendronym, the name of the largest and most luxurious tree in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories.
Keywords: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic legends, goddess Ishtar, Shamiram /Semiramis, Armenian language, dendronym, theonym, etymology
Армянский гуманитарный вестник, 2021
The article attempts to present the ethnic composition of the central regions of the Armenian Hi... more The article attempts to present the ethnic composition of the central regions of the Armenian Highland in the 2nd-1st millennia BC, based on the data from Armenian ethnogonic tradition and onomastic material of the ancient written sources. On the basis of those data, the presence of the following ethno-linguistic groups are revealed: Armenian, Hurro-Urartian, Hattic, Anatolian, and some details of their localization are revealed.
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Papers by Armen Petrosyan
AND GREEK THESEUS
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps ("dragons"), the first samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (XXIV century BC). A detailed analysis shows that they were attributes of cult of the Indo-European thunder god myth, and before borrowing the Iranian word višap, they were called by the Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ< *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia.The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and embodies the image of the archaic warrior. His weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /Theišewa) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for this theonym from the IndoEuropean *tek’s- + *h1ep- "axe holder". His image, grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans at the end of the second millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words – Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Thunder god, Hurrian mythology, Tešub, Teišeba, Theseus
Armen Petrosyan, Aram Palyan
The article presents the latest archaeօgenetic data, by comparing linguistic and archaeological evidences, on the basis of which one of the most important problems of the prehistory and early history of Armenia – the origin and formation of the Armenian people – Is examined. According to those data, the Urheimat of the Indo-Hittite or Indo-Anatolian community was localized in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories. From here, some of them crossed the Caucasus to the north and settled in the Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe regions, from the Volga to the Dniester. Since the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C., Eastern European Steppe populations had an increasing genetic contribution from the territories south of the Caucasus. And the people of the subsequent Yamnaya culture there had half of their gene pool of southern origin.
It was there that the Indo-European homeland formed, from where all the currently spoken Indo-European languages originated (while the Anatolian languages of Asia Minor disappeared more than two thousand years ago). Archaeogenetic data convincingly prove the reverse migration of people across the Caucasus from the Eastern European steppes to Transcaucasia and the Armenian Highland since the middle of 3th millennium B.C. They and their descendants created the Early Kurgans, Trialeti-Vanadzor, Sevan-Artsakh, Karmirvank, Karmirberd and Lchashen-Metsamor cultures of the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Even at the end of Urartu the local population in Republic of Armenia territory still had a significant Steppe
patrilineal DNA (75%). The Armenian had to be the language of the creators of these cultures, and genetic data makes the Etiuni hypothesis of Armenian origins more likely. Modern Armenians gene pool is similar to Neolithic farmers of the region, but it has also a significant patrilineal ancestry inherited from the Steppe homeland (c. 30%).
IMAGE AND NAME
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps (“dragons”), the fi rst samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (24th c. BC). A detailed analysis shows that the vishaps were attributes of the cult of the Indo-European thunder god, and before the Iranian word višap was borrowed, they were called
by an Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ < *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia. The most interesting of them, the so-called axe-bull, a bronze object with something resembling both a bull’s head and an axe in the center, surrounded by two or three
open or closed concentric circles. According to L. Abrahamyan, this composition can be best explained by the Greek mythologeme “Minotaur in the Labyrinth.” The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and thus embodied the image of an archaic warrior. His
weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurro-Urartian (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /= Theišewa/) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol, and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for
this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- ‘axe holder.’ His image, Grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans of the end of the 2nd millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
K e y w o r d s: Indo-European linguistics; Indo-European mythology; thunder god; Hurrian mythology; Teššub/Teišeba; Theseus.
historical Greater Armenia. The nearby mountain and the valley itself were named after Ara the Handsome, the "dying and resurrecting" god of Armenian mythology, who in ethnogonic tradition figures as one of the ethnarchs of Armenia. In Christian tradition his heir was St. Gregory the Illuminator, the propagator of Christianity in Armenia. In this paper a new etymology for Aragats is proposed – the name of the god Ara + gac (from the Indo-European *weh2g̑- "smash"). This root used to name vajra, the lightning weapon of the ancient Indian god Indra, and vazra, the mace of the Iranian god Mithra. Our analysis of the myths and legends of Ara the Handsome, St. Gregory, the mountains comes to confirm the proposed etymology.
Key words: Aragats, Ara the Handsome, Mountain of Ara, Field of Ara, Gregory the Illuminator, Indo-European linguistics, comparative mythology.
Key words – Indo-European mythology, prehistory of Armenia, the Argonaut myth, Aia, Kolchis, Ayetes, Medea.
Keywords: Urartian onomastics, Etiuni, Uduri Etiuni, IndoEuropean mythology, mythological serpent, vishap stelae.
2. Arm. kot‘oɫ “monument, tower” corresponds to Urart. qudula-ni "temple,
tower", which denoted the specific tower temples of Haldi.
3. Urart. personal name Lubšuṣini is etymologized as Arm. lousacin "luminous" / "born of light"
Annotation: The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. The origins of his mythological image (a god with the symbols of a bull and an ax) can be found in rock paintings, images on stone steles of vishaps and archaeological artifacts of Armenia starting from the second half of the third millennium BC. Based on these data, the Armenian etymology of this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- / *h1op- «axe holder» is proposed. The same name, in the form of Theseus, apparently, through Cilicia and the Levant, got into Greek mythology, becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words: Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Hurrian mythology, Teshub, Teisheba, thunder god, Theseus
the epic heroes, from the gods to the heroes of joke. The great heroes
of the first Armenian epic – ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Aram and Ara,
are obviously epicised images of ancient native gods, who, after changing
the religious system of people – the introduction of Iranian pantheon,
moved to a lower level of epic heroes. The same phenomenon is observed
after the adoption of Christianity: the god Vahagn in the second ancient
epic “Vipasank” appears as the son of King Tigranes, and a variant of
the name of the god Mihr (Mher) are worn by two heroes of the third
epic “Daredevils of Sasun” (“David of Sasun”). Some gods and heroes,
especially after Christianisation, were demonised, and some passed into
a fairy tale. In the Hellenistic era, in Armenia, as in some other countries,
kings were deified: e.g., Tigranes the Great was deified as Vahagn.
Strangely enough, this phenomenon was repeated in the USSR: Lenin
and Stalin, one might say, were deified. Аt the same time, they became
the heroes of epic works and fairy tales. However, the era of Khrushchev
and the condemnation of Stalin’s “cult of personality” put an end to
the Soviet heroic epic: Stalin was demonised and then another genre of
folklore became relevant – political joke (anecdote). The new leaders
of the USSR were its main target, but Lenin and Stalin continued to stay
as important characters.
Keywords: myth, epic, fairy tale, political joke, gods, epic heroes, evolution
of folklore images
Key words: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Orion, Vahagn, Aram, Ara the Handsome.
The article deals with the ancient Armenian names of some celestial objects connected with the names of the main heroes of ethnogonic tradition. Thus, the name of the eponymous forefather and first Armenian eponym Hayk was given to the constellation Orion, and of the last mythological patriarch Ara the Handsome – to a star, probably, one of the planets, as it is compared with Venus. And the Milky Way, the "Straw Trace," was thought to have been formed from the straw stolen by the god Vahagn from Barsham, the ancestor of the Assyrians. Moreover, in the legend, Vahagn is represented as the ancestor of the Armenians, i.e., he replaced the patriarch Aram, second mythological eponym of Armenians, adversary of Barsham. This reveals a fragment of the mythological picture of the starry sky, named and systematized by a single mythological cycle – the ethnogonic tradition.
CONSIDERATION OF TRADITIONAL DATA
In the ethnogonic legends the two eponyms of Armenia Hayk and Aram figure as the leaders of adult men and hunting youths respectively. The troop of Aram represents the early Indo-European institution of Männerbund, the hunter-warrior society of unmarried young men. The members of the earliest Armenian Männerbund would have been called t'ux manuk 'dark (< baked/burnt) youth'. Some legends stress the association of the Armenian ethnogonic patriarchs with the fire. In this context, the name Hayk may be considered in connection with Indo-European *Hā- 'burn', which was confounded with *poti- 'lord' later. The name of Aram (cf. Indo-European *rēmo- 'dark, black') may be explained as 'burnt'. These interpretations are juxtaposed with some ancient names of the Armenian Highland and surroundings (Sumerian HA.A, Hittite Hayasa, Semitic "Mountain of darkness", etc.).
Šiuini (to read: Siwini) is comparable to the name of the Armenian province
of Siwnik‘ (< Siwini-yā, with Arm. plural formant k‘), where the largest concentration of toponyms derived from Arm. arew/areg ‘sun’ and traces of
ancient cult of the sun god have survived. The local districts Vayoc‘ jor and
Vaykunik‘ (Vay-ik-uni-k‘) are probably associated with the ethnonym of the ancient inhabitants of the East of the Lake Van, the Biai people (to read: Vyāy/Vǣy, which in Armenian reflected as Vay). This people of the Van region probably moved to Siwnik‘ in the beginning of the first millennium BC, under pressure of the Urartians.
Key words – Biainili, Van, Urartu, Etiuni, Siwnik‘, Vayoc‘
jor, Vaykunik‘, Hittite language, Šiuini.
Vahagn”, the Armenian epic, national legends, “Vipasank”, “Daredevils of
Sassoun”.
Multiple recurrences of the sound combination erk- in the ancient Armenian
hymn on the birth of Vahagn, the god of thunder and war, can be considered an anagram of the word erku (two) with an allusion to twins. Moreover, in the
expression cov cirani (purple sea) one can see an anagram of Covinar, the name of the mother of the epic twins Sanasar and Baghdasar, first heroes of the epic "Daredevils of Sassoun". In this context it becomes obvious that the image of Sanasar, the elder of the twins, founder of the dynasty of heroes, directly goes back to Vahagn. The same picture of the birth of mythological twins occurs in the ancient epic “Vipasank”. A detailed analysis shows that the folk epics of ancient Armenia – the ethnogonic tradition, “Vipasank” and “Daredevils of Sassoun” – have derived from one source, the myth of the thunder god and his followers, members of the young warriors’ fraternity․
In Old Armenian, saws means ‘proud, luxurious, great,’ ‘some (bright) color,’ and saws
and sawsi mean ‘oriental plane tree’. The word has no etymology. Hurrian has the word
šauša [sausa] ‘big, great’ and the theonym Šauša / Šauška for the local version of the great goddess Ištar. The article undertakes to find a single etymon looking for the clue in comparative mythology. It is known that Anušavan, one of the ancient Armenian mythical patriarchs, was referred to as Sawsanuēr which can be interpreted as “The gift of plane trees” (with a reference to the cult of the plane trees of Armawir, the earliest capital of Armenia). According to mythology, Anushavan’s father and grandfather were related to Šamiram (Greek Semiramis), the queen of the city of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) that is seen as a historicized version of the local goddess Šauš(k)a otherwise called “Ishtar of Nineveh”. The Armenian saws ‘great, magnificent’ quite correlates with this name as a loan from the Hurrian šauša ‘great,’ with a regular apocope. The plane trees were probably symbols of the goddess. Thus, it is natural to assume that the dendronym saws / sawsi (the second form with the Indo-European suffix *-iyā, characteristicof Armenian dendronyms, cf. the genitive plural form sawseac‘) is of Hurrian origin. The first meaning of the Hurrian word ‘great, magnificent’ subsequently turned into theonym and then to the Armenian dendronym, the name of the largest and most luxurious tree in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories.
Keywords: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic legends, goddess Ishtar, Shamiram /Semiramis, Armenian language, dendronym, theonym, etymology
AND GREEK THESEUS
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps ("dragons"), the first samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (XXIV century BC). A detailed analysis shows that they were attributes of cult of the Indo-European thunder god myth, and before borrowing the Iranian word višap, they were called by the Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ< *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia.The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and embodies the image of the archaic warrior. His weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /Theišewa) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for this theonym from the IndoEuropean *tek’s- + *h1ep- "axe holder". His image, grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans at the end of the second millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words – Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Thunder god, Hurrian mythology, Tešub, Teišeba, Theseus
Armen Petrosyan, Aram Palyan
The article presents the latest archaeօgenetic data, by comparing linguistic and archaeological evidences, on the basis of which one of the most important problems of the prehistory and early history of Armenia – the origin and formation of the Armenian people – Is examined. According to those data, the Urheimat of the Indo-Hittite or Indo-Anatolian community was localized in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories. From here, some of them crossed the Caucasus to the north and settled in the Eastern European steppe and forest-steppe regions, from the Volga to the Dniester. Since the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C., Eastern European Steppe populations had an increasing genetic contribution from the territories south of the Caucasus. And the people of the subsequent Yamnaya culture there had half of their gene pool of southern origin.
It was there that the Indo-European homeland formed, from where all the currently spoken Indo-European languages originated (while the Anatolian languages of Asia Minor disappeared more than two thousand years ago). Archaeogenetic data convincingly prove the reverse migration of people across the Caucasus from the Eastern European steppes to Transcaucasia and the Armenian Highland since the middle of 3th millennium B.C. They and their descendants created the Early Kurgans, Trialeti-Vanadzor, Sevan-Artsakh, Karmirvank, Karmirberd and Lchashen-Metsamor cultures of the Middle and Late Bronze Age. Even at the end of Urartu the local population in Republic of Armenia territory still had a significant Steppe
patrilineal DNA (75%). The Armenian had to be the language of the creators of these cultures, and genetic data makes the Etiuni hypothesis of Armenian origins more likely. Modern Armenians gene pool is similar to Neolithic farmers of the region, but it has also a significant patrilineal ancestry inherited from the Steppe homeland (c. 30%).
IMAGE AND NAME
The most outstanding monuments of ancient Armenia are the huge stone steles vishaps (“dragons”), the fi rst samples of which date back to the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age (24th c. BC). A detailed analysis shows that the vishaps were attributes of the cult of the Indo-European thunder god, and before the Iranian word višap was borrowed, they were called
by an Indo-European name of the mythological Serpent (geɫ < *wel-), the adversary of the god. Echoes of this Indo-European myth are also found in other archaeological artifacts of pre-Urartian Armenia. The most interesting of them, the so-called axe-bull, a bronze object with something resembling both a bull’s head and an axe in the center, surrounded by two or three
open or closed concentric circles. According to L. Abrahamyan, this composition can be best explained by the Greek mythologeme “Minotaur in the Labyrinth.” The Indo-European thunder god represented the military function and thus embodied the image of an archaic warrior. His
weapon was a hammer or an axe, and his symbol was a bull. The name of the Hurro-Urartian (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba /= Theišewa/) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. Its attributes, symbol, and myths (axe, bull, victory over a stone monster) resemble the image of the Indo-European thunderer. The article proposes an Armenian etymology for
this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- ‘axe holder.’ His image, Grecized as Theseus, was borrowed by the Greeks (apparently, through the Cilician Achaeans of the end of the 2nd millennium BC) becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
K e y w o r d s: Indo-European linguistics; Indo-European mythology; thunder god; Hurrian mythology; Teššub/Teišeba; Theseus.
historical Greater Armenia. The nearby mountain and the valley itself were named after Ara the Handsome, the "dying and resurrecting" god of Armenian mythology, who in ethnogonic tradition figures as one of the ethnarchs of Armenia. In Christian tradition his heir was St. Gregory the Illuminator, the propagator of Christianity in Armenia. In this paper a new etymology for Aragats is proposed – the name of the god Ara + gac (from the Indo-European *weh2g̑- "smash"). This root used to name vajra, the lightning weapon of the ancient Indian god Indra, and vazra, the mace of the Iranian god Mithra. Our analysis of the myths and legends of Ara the Handsome, St. Gregory, the mountains comes to confirm the proposed etymology.
Key words: Aragats, Ara the Handsome, Mountain of Ara, Field of Ara, Gregory the Illuminator, Indo-European linguistics, comparative mythology.
Key words – Indo-European mythology, prehistory of Armenia, the Argonaut myth, Aia, Kolchis, Ayetes, Medea.
Keywords: Urartian onomastics, Etiuni, Uduri Etiuni, IndoEuropean mythology, mythological serpent, vishap stelae.
2. Arm. kot‘oɫ “monument, tower” corresponds to Urart. qudula-ni "temple,
tower", which denoted the specific tower temples of Haldi.
3. Urart. personal name Lubšuṣini is etymologized as Arm. lousacin "luminous" / "born of light"
Annotation: The name of the Hurrian-Urartian thunder god (Hurr. Teššub, Urart. Teišeba) has no acceptable etymology in these languages. The origins of his mythological image (a god with the symbols of a bull and an ax) can be found in rock paintings, images on stone steles of vishaps and archaeological artifacts of Armenia starting from the second half of the third millennium BC. Based on these data, the Armenian etymology of this theonym from the Indo-European *tek’s- + *h1ep- / *h1op- «axe holder» is proposed. The same name, in the form of Theseus, apparently, through Cilicia and the Levant, got into Greek mythology, becoming one of the key figures of the Cretan cycle.
Key words: Indo-European linguistics, Indo-European mythology, Hurrian mythology, Teshub, Teisheba, thunder god, Theseus
the epic heroes, from the gods to the heroes of joke. The great heroes
of the first Armenian epic – ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Aram and Ara,
are obviously epicised images of ancient native gods, who, after changing
the religious system of people – the introduction of Iranian pantheon,
moved to a lower level of epic heroes. The same phenomenon is observed
after the adoption of Christianity: the god Vahagn in the second ancient
epic “Vipasank” appears as the son of King Tigranes, and a variant of
the name of the god Mihr (Mher) are worn by two heroes of the third
epic “Daredevils of Sasun” (“David of Sasun”). Some gods and heroes,
especially after Christianisation, were demonised, and some passed into
a fairy tale. In the Hellenistic era, in Armenia, as in some other countries,
kings were deified: e.g., Tigranes the Great was deified as Vahagn.
Strangely enough, this phenomenon was repeated in the USSR: Lenin
and Stalin, one might say, were deified. Аt the same time, they became
the heroes of epic works and fairy tales. However, the era of Khrushchev
and the condemnation of Stalin’s “cult of personality” put an end to
the Soviet heroic epic: Stalin was demonised and then another genre of
folklore became relevant – political joke (anecdote). The new leaders
of the USSR were its main target, but Lenin and Stalin continued to stay
as important characters.
Keywords: myth, epic, fairy tale, political joke, gods, epic heroes, evolution
of folklore images
Key words: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic tradition, Hayk, Orion, Vahagn, Aram, Ara the Handsome.
The article deals with the ancient Armenian names of some celestial objects connected with the names of the main heroes of ethnogonic tradition. Thus, the name of the eponymous forefather and first Armenian eponym Hayk was given to the constellation Orion, and of the last mythological patriarch Ara the Handsome – to a star, probably, one of the planets, as it is compared with Venus. And the Milky Way, the "Straw Trace," was thought to have been formed from the straw stolen by the god Vahagn from Barsham, the ancestor of the Assyrians. Moreover, in the legend, Vahagn is represented as the ancestor of the Armenians, i.e., he replaced the patriarch Aram, second mythological eponym of Armenians, adversary of Barsham. This reveals a fragment of the mythological picture of the starry sky, named and systematized by a single mythological cycle – the ethnogonic tradition.
CONSIDERATION OF TRADITIONAL DATA
In the ethnogonic legends the two eponyms of Armenia Hayk and Aram figure as the leaders of adult men and hunting youths respectively. The troop of Aram represents the early Indo-European institution of Männerbund, the hunter-warrior society of unmarried young men. The members of the earliest Armenian Männerbund would have been called t'ux manuk 'dark (< baked/burnt) youth'. Some legends stress the association of the Armenian ethnogonic patriarchs with the fire. In this context, the name Hayk may be considered in connection with Indo-European *Hā- 'burn', which was confounded with *poti- 'lord' later. The name of Aram (cf. Indo-European *rēmo- 'dark, black') may be explained as 'burnt'. These interpretations are juxtaposed with some ancient names of the Armenian Highland and surroundings (Sumerian HA.A, Hittite Hayasa, Semitic "Mountain of darkness", etc.).
Šiuini (to read: Siwini) is comparable to the name of the Armenian province
of Siwnik‘ (< Siwini-yā, with Arm. plural formant k‘), where the largest concentration of toponyms derived from Arm. arew/areg ‘sun’ and traces of
ancient cult of the sun god have survived. The local districts Vayoc‘ jor and
Vaykunik‘ (Vay-ik-uni-k‘) are probably associated with the ethnonym of the ancient inhabitants of the East of the Lake Van, the Biai people (to read: Vyāy/Vǣy, which in Armenian reflected as Vay). This people of the Van region probably moved to Siwnik‘ in the beginning of the first millennium BC, under pressure of the Urartians.
Key words – Biainili, Van, Urartu, Etiuni, Siwnik‘, Vayoc‘
jor, Vaykunik‘, Hittite language, Šiuini.
Vahagn”, the Armenian epic, national legends, “Vipasank”, “Daredevils of
Sassoun”.
Multiple recurrences of the sound combination erk- in the ancient Armenian
hymn on the birth of Vahagn, the god of thunder and war, can be considered an anagram of the word erku (two) with an allusion to twins. Moreover, in the
expression cov cirani (purple sea) one can see an anagram of Covinar, the name of the mother of the epic twins Sanasar and Baghdasar, first heroes of the epic "Daredevils of Sassoun". In this context it becomes obvious that the image of Sanasar, the elder of the twins, founder of the dynasty of heroes, directly goes back to Vahagn. The same picture of the birth of mythological twins occurs in the ancient epic “Vipasank”. A detailed analysis shows that the folk epics of ancient Armenia – the ethnogonic tradition, “Vipasank” and “Daredevils of Sassoun” – have derived from one source, the myth of the thunder god and his followers, members of the young warriors’ fraternity․
In Old Armenian, saws means ‘proud, luxurious, great,’ ‘some (bright) color,’ and saws
and sawsi mean ‘oriental plane tree’. The word has no etymology. Hurrian has the word
šauša [sausa] ‘big, great’ and the theonym Šauša / Šauška for the local version of the great goddess Ištar. The article undertakes to find a single etymon looking for the clue in comparative mythology. It is known that Anušavan, one of the ancient Armenian mythical patriarchs, was referred to as Sawsanuēr which can be interpreted as “The gift of plane trees” (with a reference to the cult of the plane trees of Armawir, the earliest capital of Armenia). According to mythology, Anushavan’s father and grandfather were related to Šamiram (Greek Semiramis), the queen of the city of Nineveh (capital of Assyria) that is seen as a historicized version of the local goddess Šauš(k)a otherwise called “Ishtar of Nineveh”. The Armenian saws ‘great, magnificent’ quite correlates with this name as a loan from the Hurrian šauša ‘great,’ with a regular apocope. The plane trees were probably symbols of the goddess. Thus, it is natural to assume that the dendronym saws / sawsi (the second form with the Indo-European suffix *-iyā, characteristicof Armenian dendronyms, cf. the genitive plural form sawseac‘) is of Hurrian origin. The first meaning of the Hurrian word ‘great, magnificent’ subsequently turned into theonym and then to the Armenian dendronym, the name of the largest and most luxurious tree in the Armenian Highland and adjacent territories.
Keywords: Armenian mythology, ethnogonic legends, goddess Ishtar, Shamiram /Semiramis, Armenian language, dendronym, theonym, etymology
culture of Armenia from the earliest times to the present. Its articles are
unified by the same theme: folklore, from Indo-European and Middle
Eastern myths to the ancient and medieval epics and contemporary
children’s counting rhymes.
The book is intended for the specialists in history and culture of
Armenia, folklorists and linguists, as well as for all those interested
in mythology, epic and history of Armenia and adjacent countries.
Книга посвящена изучению разных аспектов истории и культу-
ры Армении, от древнейших времен до современности. Ее статьи
объединяет единая тематика – фольклор, от индоевропейских и
ближневосточных мифов до древнего и средневекового эпоса и
современной детской считалки.
Книга расчитана на специалистов по истории и культуры
Армении, фольклористов и лингвистов, а также на всех, кто ин-
тересуется мифологией, эпосом и историей Армении и сопредель-
ных стран.