Ara, the sun-god

[koko]

It has been shown by some Orientalist-Armenologists in a number of quotations of mythological and historical datat that the native people of the Armenian Highland and the neighboring regions of Asia Minor had, in the earlier periods of paganism, a deity whom they called AR or ARA.

 

In the primitive hunting stage of the life of these natives, the god ARA possesed animal-vegetal charactheristics. Later, with the beginning of agriculture, he acquired a vegetal-solar nature and with the development of irrigation in agriculture and the consolidation of statehood, he became a great war-god and was identified with the sun.

 

This process of change from primitive to complex characteristics, as manifested in the nature of AR(or ARA), is by no means unique in the mythological history of mankind. It has had its close parallels. For example, the god Assur,in the earliest periods of the founding of the city of Assur, had a vegetal (peaceful) nature, but later on, when Assyria became a mighty empire by bloody expeditions, it turned into a fearsome deity and was identified also with sun.

 

Research has revealed that in the remote past AR (or ARA)was the principal national deity of the Armen people. H.Matikian, N.Adonts, M.Abeghian, G.Ghapantsian, and ohter Armenologists accept that ARA was the native deity of the Armenians.

 

The known Orientalist A.H.Sayce states that AR was the sun-god of the Armenians. In his words:"...it is better to suppose that ER,or ARA,was an Armenian name for the Sun-god, which in later times was confounded with Arios (Nergal)of Ktesias."

In this connection H. Matikian writes: " To study ARA the Beautiful means to make inroads into the obscure centuries of the origin of the Armenian people and to examine them."

 

 

The word Ar-ma-ni is a compound noun, where the first component Ar is none other than the name of the natioanal sun-god of the Armens,-AR- and the second component -ma-(me a varient) signifies 'build, make, beget, offspring, son'. Ma- with this meaning, was known to many peoples of the Ner East in antiquity.

 

 

The goddess of birth and fertility, so well known in Asia Minor, was called by this very same name-Ma.(Ma also occurs in its reduplicated from -Mama or Mami in Assyro-Babylonian inscriptions). This root-word (and also its variant -me) is found also in Sumerian language with the same meaning. It results that Ar-ma (and its variant Ar-me) means 'built by Ar, born of Ar', or 'Ar's offspring', 'Ar's/Ara's son' ('the son of the sun', Arevvordi). The ending -ni (the plural-forming or toponymic suffix-ni is found in Subarian-Hurrian-Nairian place and tribal na We find the plural form ni also in Armenian.

 

It is not unlikely that those of the third millenium B.C. could have Sumerian origin derived from the plural form -e-ne reserved for persons) of Arma-ni (or Arme-ni), as has been mentioned earlier, is plural and toponymic suffix (cf. Mitanni, Supani, Alzini 'Alzinini', Daiaeni, Nihani, etc.).

Hence Armani (or Armeni) means 'sons of Ar', that is, 'sons of the sun' or 'the land of the sons of Ar', which is literally 'the land of the sons of the sun'. A similar case is seen in the Armenian words Hayk' and Virk which by virtue of the plural- forming suffix k' mean, respectively, 'Armenians' and 'Georgians' and also 'the land of Armenians (Armenia)' and 'the land of Georgians (Georgia)'.

 

Just as the name Arma-ni appears simply as Arma, without the suffix -ni, in the Alalakh inscriptions, so does it in the form Arme in the Assyrian and Urartian writtings. Since, as it was mentioned above, Ar-ma or Ar-me meant 'built by Ar' (the city or country of Ar), or 'the offspring (or the son) of Ar', and since Ar was also called Ara, it follows that the name Arme could have been pronounced also as Arame, which is, as we already know, the name of the founder of Urartian kingdom, meaning 'the son of the sun', and is preserved by Khorenantsi in the form Aram, as the name of one of the Armenian patriarchs. It must be accepted, therefore, that the name Arma or Arme (Arame>Aram) was the basic component of the name Arma-ni or Arme-ni, and hence, itrepresented the name by which Armenians are commonly called by foreigners. This proves that Khorenantsi transmits some ancient and slmost accurate information when, writting about Aram, he states that all the nations of the world call the Armenians -Armen- and their country -Armenia- after the name Aram.

 

In order to illustrate the meaning of the component -ma- in the name Ar-ma, signifying 'built, begottern, offspring' or 'the son', we cite below, for comparison, a few examples among many drawn from ancient inscriptions: Astatama-The name of one of the kings of Mitanni.

Dukkama-The name of one of the cities of ancient Armenia.

Tarkuma-This place-name is mentioned by the Hittite king Mursil.

Tarku-ma means "that which is built by the god Tarku (Tork-one of the sons of Hayk Nahabed). "Torkashen" in Armenian.

Automa-The daughter of Tigran the Great, who was married to Mithradates 2 of Pontus.

Artasama-The name of the daughter of King Artashes of Armenia who was married, according to Khorenantsi, to "a certain Mithradates, the great prefect of the Georgians."

Artas-a-ma means 'born of Artas (or Artashes). There are many more place-and personal names of antiquity in the Near East (including the Armenian Highland) and Asia Minor that carry the suffix -ma, but the examples given above should be sufficient to show that -ma indeed meant 'built, begotten, offspring, son', just as the endings -azn, -zun, and -sen in the Armenian language convey the same meanings in such compound nouns as Ark'ayazn (king's son), Haykazun (Hayk's offspring), and Haykashen (built by Hayk).

We shall still have opportunity to quote a series of place-names in the Armenian Highland that bear the component Ar or Ara. Suffice it here to mention just one direct testimony from a cuneiform inscription showing that the region of the land Arme was actually called the land of Ar. The monument of King Menua of Urartu, found near Mush, is covered with inscriptions on all its four sides. In one of them the King has written that he had invaded the land of Urme (=Arme) and that there, in the Ar-hi ('Ar-ian' or 'Ara-ian')land, he had left an inscription.

Here is the translation of that portion of the inscription that interests us: " City of Ataune, I came forth (to invade) against the land of Urme, I conquered the land of Urme, I erected this inscription in the Ar-hi land..." This Arhi ('Arian' or 'Araian') region was in the southeast of Mush and lay in the land of Arme belonged to Ar (or Ara) and that it meant 'born of Ar', or 'built by Ara'. In ancient cuneiform writings sometimes we find statements where a certain king or a famous personality is considered to be the son of his main national god or the son of his nation.Josephus Flavius has preserved a direct and living historical testimony according to which King Adrazar of Dzopk' was called the son of Ara, instead of being identified by his national name Armen. H. Matikian, refering to J.Flavius' same testimony writes the following: "...the Jewish chronicler, after relating how David was expanding the boundaries of his kingdom with various invasions, adds the following words which are of great importance for us: 'And while he levied yearly taxes on them, he immediately moved against King Adrazar if Dzopk', the Son of Ara, and warred with him beside the Euphrates...'' 'Dzopk' (Assyrian Isua, Hittite Isua, Urartian Supani, Latin Sophanenae) was situated in the northwestern region of Arme-Subria.

It is evident that it was an Armenian kingdom and her king Adrazar (Zariadr-es) was Armenian.We see that David, instead of specifying this king by his family name Armen, calls him "the Son of Ara", revealing thus his national identity.This is another concrete evidence supporting the fact that the name Armani (Armeni) means 'sons of Ara', or 'the land of the sons of Ara'. Even after the adoption of Christianity there were still many places in Armenia where secterians called "sons of the Sun" ('Arevordi,) continued to exist, and were strongly opposed by the Catholicos Nerses Shnorhali.

The term "Arevordi" persisted in Armenia until 12th centuary of our era. Since in the remote past Ar (or Ara) was the main deity of the native people of the Armenian Highland and since these native people were generally called by the name of this god, it would naturally be expected that certain place names would have been composed with the name of this deity or with the name of the people bearing this name. In fact, in antiquity, the entire Armenian Higland was replete with names that contained the component Ar or Ara. It is true that in later centuries the Armenian Highland, as a highway between continents, has been subjected to many foreign military, political,and cultural influences and has adopted other deities, even yielding to oblivion the identity of Ara; but still there are many place-names in the country that preserve the memory of Ar or Ara.

[Berj]

Koko, welcome to Hye Forum

Long time don't see. You're around from Aug 2000??

 

Did you write the material above yourself?

 

Regards,

 

Armen

[gamavor]

Ara, the sun-god !

 

 

Who's calling me?!?!

[koko]

Hello Berj, thank you for the welcome!

I signed in last year, thats correct.

Looking forward to see more of the forum!

I didin´t write the above material myself. I found it on a armenian homepage,the authors name was missing.

go to: www.angelfire.com/hi/Azgaser/

Greetings,

K