Armazi (god)

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Armazi ( Georgian არმაზი ) was a deity in a pre-Christian pantheon in ancient Iberia . The literary tradition in Georgia ascribes the foundation of the Armazi statue of the gods, which may also have been named after him , to the first king of Kartli , Parnawas I (r. C. 302-237 BC). The first installation site is said to have been a mountain near its capital, where the Armazi fortress was also built. In the hagiography The Life of St. Nino (9th / 10th centuries) the statue of Armazi is described as “a standing man made of bronze; a gold suit made of chain armor was attached to his body , and he wore a strong helmet on his head; as eyes he had emeralds and beryl , in his hand he held a saber that shone like lightning, and it turned in his hands. ”The same report tells of the fact that Saint Nino experienced a great consecration in honor of the idol, when she then began to pray, the idol was destroyed by a lightning strike.

Outside of the medieval Georgian annals, which were written more than five centuries after Christianization , there are no reports of the pre-Christian Georgian pantheon. Today's scholars argue about the origin of the name "Armazi". The sound is reminiscent of the highest god of the Zoroastrians , Ahura Mazda ( Middle Persian : Ohrmazd , Armenian : Aramazd ) and contemporary archaeological finds indicate an advance of Zoroastrianism into ancient Georgia. On the other hand, Giorgi Melikishvili suggested an identification of Armazi with Arma , the moon deity of Hittite mythology . This fits together with the observations of Ivane Javakhishvili , who adopted a pre-Christian Georgian lunar cult, which is said to have been fused with the cult of the Christian saint George ( Tetri Giorgi ), Georgia's patron saint , since the Middle Ages .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Jordan: Encyclopedia of gods: over 2,500 deities of the world , Internet Archive, New York: Facts on File, 1993, p. 25.
  2. ↑ "a man of bronze standing; attached to his body was a golden suit of chain-armor, on his head a strong helmet; for eyes he had emeralds and beryls, in his hands he held a saber glittering like lighting, and it turned in his hands. " David Marshall Lang : Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints, selected and translated from the original texts. London : Allen & Unwin 1956: 24.
  3. ^ A b Stephen H. Rapp: Studies In Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts And Eurasian Contexts. Peeters Bvba 2003: 277-278. ISBN 90-429-1318-5

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