Armenian Legends and Festivals Part 9

[1] Detailed descriptions of geography and geology may be found in Lynch, Armenia; St. Martin, Memoire sur l'Armenie, 2. Summary descriptions may be found in the New Schaff Herzog and Britannica encyclopedias.

[2] Robert Curzon, Armenia.

[3] Dubois de Montpereux, Voyages 3:400.

[4] There is a belief that the toneer is sacred. "Nur der alte T'onir, der offen Backofen, der von den Iraniern entlehnt ist und am funften Jahrhundert schon gebraucht wird, gilt uberall in Armenien als heilig." Abeghian, Der armenische Volksglaube p. 3.

[5] Surrounded as Armenia was with almost all of the ancient civilizations, including the Parthians, Scythians, Medes, a.s.syrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, she was inevitably involved in continual warfare, while the central situation of the territory made it a common stamping ground for hostile armies. Langlois 1:ix.

[6] Ormanian, The Church of Armenia pp. 151-54.

[7] Mar Apas Catina. Langlois' Collection des Histoires de l'Armenie 1:16.

[8] St. Martin, Memoire sur l'Armenie 1:281.

[9] Mar Apas Catina. Langlois 1:15-18.

Moses of Kh.o.r.ene. Langlois 3:63-64.

[10] St. Martin 1:306.

[11] Ibid. 1:282-3. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:67-69.

Mar Apas Catina 1:26-27.

The first Arsacidae king of Armenia, Valarsace, whose reign began in 149 B.C. found the kingdom in general disorder and was the first to organize the country along national lines. As a Parthian he was unacquainted with the history and inst.i.tutions of the people, and desiring to build upon the established foundation, such as it was, he sent a Syrian scholar, Mar Apas Catina by name, with a letter to his brother, Arsace, king of Persia, requesting the latter to allow the Syrian access to the royal archives with the view of finding a history of Armenia. Mar Apas Catina found an old MS containing a history of ancient Armenia which bore the name of no author, and which was translated from Chaldean to Greek by order of Alexander the Great. It was translated into Syriac by the Syrian scholar for the benefit of Valarsace, but the MS has been lost, and there is not the slightest trace of it anywhere. It must have been in existence however, during the fifth century after Christ for Moses of Kh.o.r.ene used it as his only source for Armenia's ancient history, in writing his general history of Armenia. The old MS being lost, the translation by Mar Apas Catina and the first part of the history of Moses are given as identical to each other in Langlois' collection of Armenian historians. The ancient history contains the legends of Haic, of Ara and Semiramis, and of Vahakn, some of the songs of heroes, still sung, and other matter which is strictly speaking not historical. As a history, therefore, it is unreliable and unauthentic, but from the standpoint of the social historian it is invaluable, for a belief is as important a fact to sociology as the dethronement of a king is to history.

[12] Boyadjian, Armenian Legends and Poetry p. 33.

[13] St. Martin 1:409.

[14] Lynch 2:65.

[15] Lynch, Armenia, chapter ent.i.tled "Van."

[16] Raffi, article in Boyadjian's Armenian Legends and Poetry, p. 125.

[17] Lynch, chapter on Van.

[18] Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:69.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Lynch 2:65.

[21] Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:68, 69.

[22] St. Martin 1:285.

[23] Raffi p. 129. Abeghian pp. 49, 50.

[24] Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:76. Translation from Moses, Boyadjian p. 10.

Mar Apas Catina 1:40.

[25] Mar Apas Catina 1:41. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene p. 76.

Moses of Kh.o.r.ene, called the Herodotus of Armenia, has written the best known history of the Armenian people. The work has been translated into Latin, Italian, French, German, and Russian. Moses lived in the fifth century, two centuries after the conversion of the nation to Christianity. He belonged to the second order of translators in the school of St. Sahag and St. Mesrob, and was sent to Syria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome in order to complete his studies. Upon returning to his country he found everything in disorder. St. Sahag and St. Mesrob were dead, the king had been overthrown, and he chose the life of solitude. Sometime later he was chosen bishop and requested by an Armenian prince, Sahag Bagratide, to write a history of his country, which task he took up with great enthusiasm. The translation of Mar Apas Catina was his only source for Armenian ancient history. He carefully differentiates hearsay from fact, never fails to stamp a fable or legend as such, and generally quotes his authorities where he has them. Considering the limitation of his materials, and the time in which he wrote, Moses wrote a really remarkable book, although the verdicts of a few critics have been unfavorable.

[26] Raffi p. 129.

[27] Lidgett, An Ancient People. St. Martin 1:409. Mar Apas Catina p. 41.

[28] The influence of Greek culture is chiefly indicated by the fact that the pagan divinities were Greek and that many temples were erected to these G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses all over the country. (Agathange, Histoire du Regne de Tiridate. Langlois 1:164-70.) Secondly, there were formed by St. Sahag and St. Mesrob in the fifth century after the conversion of the nation to Christianity, schools of translators, who studied in Greece, Egypt, and Rome and whose chief works were translations from the Greek. With the conversion (301) came the necessity for a written language, the characters of which were invented by St. Mesrob in 404. Thereupon were organized the schools of translators whose chief study of necessity was Greek, and whose translations and original works have given to the fifth century the t.i.tle of "Golden Age of Armenian Literature." (Langlois 1:xxi-xxvi, 2:vii.)

[29] St. Martin 1:288, 289. Mar Apas Catina 1:41.

Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:81.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 3:393.

Moses of Kh.o.r.ene 2:155.

[32] Ibid. pp. 88, 89.

[33] St. Martin 1:291. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene p. 88.

[34] Raffi p. 126.

[35] Langlois 1:ix, x. These songs of which Moses of Kh.o.r.ene very frequently speaks are cla.s.sified by Langlois into songs of the first order, the second order, and the third order. The first are relative to the prowess of Armenian kings and G.o.ds; the second concern a long series of military exploits accomplished against the a.s.syrians, Medes, and Persians; the third refer especially to traditions in connection with the a.s.syrians. The birth-song of Vahakn is an ill.u.s.tration of the songs of the first order (p. x, xi). Flint in his History of the Philosophy of History, p. 42, speaks of this period of minstrelsy as necessarily preceding the use of letters everywhere. "The myth and legend interest primitive man more than real fact. His vision is more largely of the imagination than of the sense of judgment. It is an error to regard the rude minstrelsy which generally preceded the use of letters as essentially historical."

[36] Countess Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco, Essays in the Study of Folk-Songs, chapter on Armenia.

[37] The battle of Avarair under the leadership of the celebrated Vartan, where Armenia defended her national ideals against the intrusion of Persia, is proof of this.

[38] Ormanian p. 22. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene p. 158.

[39] There are further proofs that may be cited. The history of English and French literature shows that the golden age of their literature followed a period of social integration along national lines. And it is true that the golden age of Armenian literature dawned with the closing decades of the Arsacidae dynasty, and continued several decades beyond. And finally, when Valarsace, the first Arsacidae, ascended the throne of Armenia, finding everything in a state of disorder, he organized the country along national lines. Dividing the kingdom into provinces he placed his governors at the heads of them; he organized a standing army, appointed guardians of the granaries, established courts of justice, a royal guard, and minutely regulated court life. What is most interesting is that he appointed two reporters, one to remind him in his anger, "le bien a faire," the other to remind him of the necessity for doing justice. Ibid. pp. 82-85.

[40] St. Martin 1:300. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene pp. 105-6.

[41] Ibid. p. 106.

[42] Boyadjian p. 49. Moses of Kh.o.r.ene p. 106. Moses as translated by Langlois, relates the story as legend, for after telling the tale, and quoting the songs he writes, "Voici maintenant le fait dans toute sa verite comme le cuir rouge est tres-estime chez les Alains, Artasches donne beaucoup de peaux de cette couleur, et beaucoup d'or en dot, et il obtient la jeune princesse Satenig. C'est la la laniere de cuir rouge garnie d'anneaux d'or. Ainsi dans les noces, ils chantent des legendes, en disant,