Tsovinar (goddess)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tsovinar (Ովինար) or Nar (Նար) was the Armenian goddess of water, sea, and rain. She was a fierce goddess, who forced the rain to fall from the heavens with her fury.

Her name, Tsovinar, means "daughter of the seas" and she is identified as the mother of Sanasar and Baghdasar in Armenian epic tradition.[1]

Name and etymology[]

Her name can be decomposed into two parts: Armenian/Old Armenian cov 'sea, large body of water', and nar or Nar.[2][3] The second part is speculated to be related to Nara, a Hittite or Hurrian deity.[4]

Scholar James R. Russell translates her name as 'Lady of the Lake'.[5] Larisa Yeganyan translates the name as 'Marine' or 'Nymph of the Sea'.[6]

Role[]

As a goddess[]

Yeganyan associates Tsovinar with the celestial waters or a primordial ocean, where the rain waters gather.[7]

On the other hand, Armenian folklorist Manuk Abeghian interpreted her as "an angry storm goddess",[8] who has "fiery eyes" and dances in the clouds riding on her horse, creating thunderstorms.[9]

In epic[]

In the Armenian epic Sasna Cŕer (or Daredevils of Sassoun), a female character named Dzovinar or Covinar (dialectal 'lightning', according to Armen Petrosyan) functions as ancestress of a line of heroes that appear in later portions of the epic:[10] by drinking of the spring or Kat'nov haxpür ('Milky Fountain'), she becomes pregnant with heroes Sanasar and Baghdasar.[11][12] In another account, Covinar drinks a "milky liquid" that sprouts from a rock in the middle of Lake Van.[13]

Parallels[]

Russell sees a parallel between Covinar's impregnation episode with a similar event involving Ossetian character Satanaya, in the Nart sagas.[14] It is also been suggested that both characters are remnants of Scythian goddess Api,[15] described as a mother goddess tied to water.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Hrachya Sarukhan, Violet Grigorian, Khachik Manoukyan, Azniv Sahakyan, Anatoli Hovhannisyan, Hasmik Simonian (2013). Six Armenian Poets. United Kingdom: Arc Publications. p. 1. ISBN 978-1908376510.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  2. ^ Petrosyan, Armen (2002). The Indo‑european and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic. Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man. p. 9. ISBN 9780941694810.
  3. ^ YEGANYAN, Larisa. "Du foyer domestique à la naissance du monde: Un pot à sel du XIIIe siècle découvert près d'Ani". In: Revue des Études Arméniennes 32 (2010): 222-223. DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050521
  4. ^ YEGANYAN, Larisa. "Du foyer domestique à la naissance du monde: Un pot à sel du XIIIe siècle découvert près d'Ani". In: Revue des Études Arméniennes 32 (2010): 223. DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050521
  5. ^ RUSSEL, J.R. "Scythians and Avesta in an Armenian Vernacular Paternoster and a Zok Paternoster". In: Le Muséon Vol. 110, 1-2 (1997): 102. DOI: 10.2143/MUS.110.1.525802
  6. ^ YEGANYAN, Larisa. "Du foyer domestique à la naissance du monde: Un pot à sel du XIIIe siècle découvert près d'Ani". In: Revue des Études Arméniennes 32 (2010): 223. DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050521
  7. ^ YEGANYAN, Larisa. "Du foyer domestique à la naissance du monde: Un pot à sel du XIIIe siècle découvert près d'Ani". In: Revue des Études Arméniennes 32 (2010): 222-223. DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050521
  8. ^ Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 1-2 (1984): 108.
  9. ^ Petrosyan, Armen. "Armeno-Indian Epic Parallels". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES). Volume 45, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2017. p. 172.
  10. ^ Petrosyan, Armen (2002). The Indo‑european and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic. Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man. ISBN 9780941694810.
  11. ^ Sital, Karapet. Kašti Kaǰer. Caravan Books, 2000. p. 5. ISBN 9780882060996.
  12. ^ Sargis Haroutyunian. “Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore”. In: Iran & the Caucasus 1 (1997): 87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030741.
  13. ^ RUSSEL, J.R. "Scythians and Avesta in an Armenian Vernacular Paternoster and a Zok Paternoster". In: Le Muséon Vol. 110, 1-2 (1997): 102. DOI: 10.2143/MUS.110.1.525802
  14. ^ RUSSELL, JAMES R. “Magic Mountains, Milky Seas, Dragon Slayers, and Other Zoroastrian Archetypes”. In: Bulletin of the Asia Institute 22 (2008): 59. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24049235.
  15. ^ Hovannisian, Richard G. Armenian Van/Vaspurakan. Mazda Publishers, 2000. p. 55. ISBN 9781568591308.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""