I need a symbol

[Harut]

I'm a Armenian club member at one high school in southern CA. we're going to have our t-shirt for the club and we can't decide what symbol or picture to have on it. can anyone give me a suggestion or a picture(or something like that) that we can use?

thank you

[Pilafhead]

I'd go for Gomidas. Intelligent, religious, and creative--three things Armenians should be known for.

[Nané]

Hmmm ... I think all ideas have been used and abused but again ... You need a symbol. I would suggest going with a strong Armenian figure - like "Sasuntsi Davit" or "Tigran Mets"

[koko]

If you search for armenian carpet-pages on the internet you´ll find a lot of intresting symbols in the ancient armenian carpets.- A popular symbol is the "S" and "E" shapes- They have been copyied everywhere!

The S- shaped symbol is the first letter of the armenian world der, wich means God the Almighty. The E-shape is both the Old armenian short for HE,meaning the Almighty and at the same time the first letter of the world Hisos, (Jesus).

-Quotes from THE CHRISTIAN ORIENTAL CARPET
by Volkmar Gatzhorn:

"These symbols are almost always used apotropaically, in keeping with pre-christian traditions. Since their interpretation and meaning are closely tied to an awarness of the Armenian alphabet, and furthermore, since, in the addition to carpets. they appear in all branches of the visual arts , we can assume they were used only by armenians copyied notwithstanding.

These two armenian letter-symbols , to wich apotropaic powers are ascribed , have meaning at diffrent levels. Presumably it was precisly on account of these inner meanings , derived from pre-christian traditions of the 4th century, that they became connected with the most important wods in the Christian cult at the time the Armenain alphabet was created. In this way

it was possible for the new cult to preserve the form and context of symbols handeddown trough time without a break in continuity.

In representations of the ´S´ , armenians see not only the sign of God, but also the represantation of the dragon.
To our western way of thinking this is contradictory and difficult to relate to.

Whereas in almost all European , Oriental and even late Armenian myths, the dragon is an evil creature of darkness and water, only to be defeated with God help in Armenia there is a second , older dragon, whose attributes are the complete opposite.
it symbolizes goodness and wisdom and guardian of the water, personifies power and affords protection agains injustice and evil"

I hope this brought you some inspiration of symbols you can use.

Looks just like the S -letter. Colours wich are often used, if you look at the carpets, is red or warm colours for background (the red stands for the colour of christ)
natural colours like yellow red, brown, blue

Go to www.armsite.com/rugs/index.html


S


Sincerly,

Karine

[Harut]

Thanks to all of you for giving some ideas.

but do you really think a picture of a person would work for Armenian club at high school?

please, post more ideas!

[Pilafhead]

Yeah, you're right that may not work. There's always the famous statute, David Of Sasoon or a good Khachkar.


Page of Great Ancient Armenian Symbols: http://www.angelfire.com/hi/Azgaser/symbols.html

Another Page: http://www.stanford.edu/~baronian/hay.html

[Harut]

thanx Aghmug

i think i can find something from those sites

[Taguhi]

Maybe it can be Vartan Mamikonian or Tigran Mets.