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| - Recent researches and discoveries have proven that the legend of Ara, although subjected to many transformations, until the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., has its origin in Indo-European mother-sources. The Christian Armenians of the 5th century, took Ara as a man-hero, while the Armenians of the 3rd century, still pagan, had regarded him a god-like personality, or even a god. Sammuramat is the Assyrian form of Shamiram. Erroneous statements are made by national and foreign historians, about Ara and Shamiram.
- Very little is known about pre-Christian Armenian mythology, the oldest source being the legends of Xorenatsi's History of Armenia. Armenian mythology was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism, with deities such as Aramazd, Mihr or Anahit, as well as Assyrian traditions, such as Barsamin, but there are fragmentary traces of native traditions, such as Hayk or Vahagn and Astghik.
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| abstract
| - Very little is known about pre-Christian Armenian mythology, the oldest source being the legends of Xorenatsi's History of Armenia. Armenian mythology was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism, with deities such as Aramazd, Mihr or Anahit, as well as Assyrian traditions, such as Barsamin, but there are fragmentary traces of native traditions, such as Hayk or Vahagn and Astghik. 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. Georg Brandes described the Armenian gods in his book: “When Armenia accepted Christianity, it was not only the temples which were destroyed, but also the songs and poems about the old gods and heroes that the people sang. We have only rare segments of these songs and poems, segments which bear witness of a great spiritual wealth and the power of creation of this people and these alone are sufficient reason enough for recreating the temples of the old Armenian gods. These gods were neither the Asian heavenly demons nor the precious and the delicate Greek gods, but something that reflected the characteristics of the Armenian people which they have been polishing through the ages, namely ambitious, wise and good-hearted.”
- Recent researches and discoveries have proven that the legend of Ara, although subjected to many transformations, until the 4th and 5th centuries A.D., has its origin in Indo-European mother-sources. The Christian Armenians of the 5th century, took Ara as a man-hero, while the Armenians of the 3rd century, still pagan, had regarded him a god-like personality, or even a god. Sammuramat is the Assyrian form of Shamiram. Erroneous statements are made by national and foreign historians, about Ara and Shamiram. Aramis, not Barzanes, as Diodorus says, ruled Armenia at the time of the expedition of Ninus. Aramis, the king of Urartu, had formed a powerful federation of the kinglets of Armenia. He was defeated, but his successors carried on the resistance, and assured the recovery of independence for a considerably longer time. The first mistress of Ara was an Armenian goddess: The three great ones were Nané (Sumerian-Babylonian, the Athena), Anahit, Astghik. The ideology greatly developed in the Armenian paganism has no Avestic trait, because the ideal had no place in the Mazdeism, while in the Armenian temples of Armavir statues were erected in honor of the sun and the moon. Some scholars think to have discovered the worship of Triad (trinity) in the Armenian paganism. The edict of king Trdat, invoking Aramazd, Anahit and Vahagn, as the sources of power, and the existence in Ashtishat of the three famous temples, support this theory. The Urarteans also had three great gods — Haldis, Thiespas and Artemis. The same may be said of Zoroastrianism; Artashes cites three gods: Aramazd, Anahit and Mihr. Triad was recognized also by Semitics.
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