2024, Volume 21, Issue 3
|
Armen Yeghishevich Petrosyan ST MESROP MASHTOTS: ORIGINS OF IMAGE AND NAME
For citation Received on 18 January 2024 Abstract: The article examines the emergence and development of the image of St Mesrop Mashtots, creator of the Armenian alphabet, in the church tradition and folklore of Armenia, where his work was considered a divine miracle. The correspondence of his image with the erazac‘oyc‘ erazahan “dreamdisplaying (and) dream-interpreting” god Tir, the scribe of the supreme god Aramazd, is revealed. The juxtaposition of Christian images with ancient deities was, first of all, based on the correspondence of their functions, and there were circumstances that strengthened this idea. Thus, Mashtots served at the royal court as a scribe-secretary (as Tir was the scribe of the king of the gods); the miraculous vision of Mashtots, in which he saw a right hand writing Armenian letters on a stone, is obviously comparable to a dream. The dreams for the Armenians of the 5th century, who were not yet completely cut off from the pagan religion, had to be sent by the dream-displaying god Tir. The god passed the torch to his successor Christian saint. In light of this interpretation, it seems most likely that the name Mashtots is connected with the consonant appellative maštoc‘ ‘scraper, instrument for scraping off hair/fur of animals’ (from the root mašt- ‘scrape, rip off ’ suffixed with -oc’). In ancient languages, the writing is associated with scraping/scratching in connection with this method of writing on wax, clay and hard materials (cf. Gr. γράφω ‘scrape, write,’ γραμματεύς ‘scribe, secretary,’ Lat. scribere ‘scrape, write,’ scriba ‘scribe, secretary’). The word maštoc‘ in ancient times would mean ‘instrument for scraping/scratching/writing,’ and later, ‘scribe,’ which became the epithet of Mesrop, the heir of the scribe god. Keywords: Mesrop Mashtots; Armenian alphabet; adoption of Christianity; pre-Christian Armenian religion; god Tir; Armenian folklore References Abaev, V. I. (1972). Kak apostol Petr stal Neptunom [How the Apostle Peter Became Neptune]. In Zh. Zh. Varbot et al. (Eds.), Etimologiia 1970 [Etymology 1970] (pp. 322–332). Moscow: Nauka. Abraamyan, A. A. (1962). The Verb in Modern Armenian․ Yerevan: Izd-vo AN. (In Armenian) Abramyan, L. A. (2001). The Heavenly Temple Growing from the Body of the Victim: Gregory the Illuminator’s Vision from an Ethnological Perspective. In S. Arutyunyan, & A. Kalantaryan (Eds.), Armenian Saints and Holy Places (pp. 361–367). Yerevan: Aiastan. (In Armenian) Acharyan, R. (1968). Armenian Scripts. Yerevan: Aiastan. (In Armenian) Adonts, N. (1948). Historical Studies. Paris: Gukasyan Press. (In Armenian) Agayan, E. (1974). Lexicological and Etymological Studies. Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo AN. (In Armenian) Alishan, G. (1895). Ancient Beliefs or the Pagan Religion of Armenians. Venezia: Izdatel’stvo Mkhitaristov. (In Armenian) Amayakyan, S. (1990). The State Religion of the Kingdom of Van. Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo AN. (In Armenian) Arutyunyan, S. (2000). Armenian Mythology. Beirut: Izd. V. Setyana. (In Armenian) Boyce, M. (1987). Zoroastriitsy: verovaniia i obychai [Zoroastrians: Beliefs and Customs]. Moscow: Nauka. Dalalyan, T. (2006). The Origin of the Image and Name of Mesrop Mashtots. In V. B. Barkhudaryan et al. (Eds.), International Conference Dedicated to the 1600th Anniversary of the Armenian Script: Collected Papers (pp. 54–65). Yerevan: Gitutyun. (In Armenian) Dyakonov, I. M. (1983). K voprosu o simvole Khaldi [On the Symbol of Khaldi]. Drevnii Vostok, 3, 190–194. Dzhaukyan, G. B. (1970). Armenian and Ancient Indo-European Languages. Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo AN. (In Armenian) Dzhaukyan, G. B. (1987). History of the Armenian Language: Preliterate Period. Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo AN. (In Armenian) Dzhaukyan, G. B. (2010). Etymological Dictionary of the Armenian Language. Yerevan: Asogik. (In Armenian) Eliade, M. (1959). Cosmos and History. New York: Harper and Row. Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved from https://www.iranicaonline.org Kapantsyan, G. (1940). History of Urartu. Yerevan: State University Press. (In Armenian) Khachikyan, M. L. (1985). Khurritskii i urartskii iazyki [Hurrian and Urartian Languages]. Yerevan: Izd-vo AN. Leick, G. (1991). Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology. London; New York: Routledge. Meillet, A. (1978). Armenian Studies. Yerevan: State University Press. (In Armenian) Melik-Ogandzhanyan, K. (1964). K voprosu o fol’klornykh istochnikakh Agatangelosa [On the Folkloric Sources of Agathangelos]. Istoriko-filologicheskii zhurnal, 4, 53–82. Mnatsakanyan, A. (1979). Etimologiia imeni Mashtots [Etymology of the Name Mashtot]. Vestnik obshchestvennykh nauk AN Armianskoi SSR, 8, 82–93. Muravyev, S. N. (1984). Graficheskaia forma i poriadok bukv trekh drevnikh alfavitov Kavkaza kak istochniki o fonologii drevnearmianskogo, drevnegruzinskogo i drevneudinskogo iazykov [The Graphic Form and Order of Letters in Three Ancient Alphabets of the Caucasus as Sources on the Phonology of Ancient Armenian, Ancient Georgian, and Ancient Udi Languages]. In G. Dzhaukian et al. (Eds.), Mezhdunarodnaia konferentsiia po armianskomu iazykoznaniiu [International Conference on Armenian Linguistics] (pp. 437–455). Yerevan: Izd-vo AN. Panaino, A. (2005). Tištrya. In Encyclopaedia Iranica. Retrieved from https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/tistrya-2 Petrosyan, A. Y. (2004). Armenian Mher, Western Mithra, and Urartian Khaldi. In A. Egiazaryan et al. (Eds.), The Armenian Epic “Daredevils of Sassoun” and the World Epic Heritage (pp. 42–60). Yerevan: Limush. (In Armenian) Petrosyan, A. Y. (2006). Aramazd: Image, Cult, Prototypes. Yerevan: Van Arian. (In Armenian) Petrosyan, A. Y. (2007). State Pantheon of Greater Armenia: Earliest Sources. Aramazd: Armenian Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 2, 174–201. Petrosyan, A. Y. (2014). The Influence of Armenian Mger on European Heroes. Vestnik Matenadarana, 20, 169–174. (In Armenian) Petrosyan, A. Y. (2022). Aragats: Name and Myth. Vestnik armenovedeniia, 3, 169–185. (In Armenian) Petrosyan, An. (2006). Balu or Samosata: Traditional and Historical View on the Place of the Armenian Script’s Creation. In V. B. Barkhudaryan et al. (Eds.), International Conference Dedicated to the 1600th Anniversary of the Armenian Script: Collected Papers (pp. 112–121). Yerevan: Gitutyun. (In Armenian) Russell, J. (1987). Zoroastrianism in Armenia. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Russell, J. (1994a). On the Name of Mashtots. Annual of Armenian Linguistics, 15, 67–78. Russell, J. (1994b). On the Origin and Invention of the Armenian Script. Le Muséon, 3–4, 229–255. Simonyan, G. (1988). On the Origin of the Name of Mashtots. Vestnik obshchestvennykh nauk, 5, 62–72. (In Armenian) Srvandztyan, G. (1982). Works (Vol. 2). Yerevan: Izdatel’stvo AN. (In Armenian) Tavernier, J. (2005). Reflections on the Origin and the Early History of Tir. In W. H. Van Soldt (Ed.), Ethnicity in Ancient Mesopotamia (pp. 356–371). Leiden: Nederlands instituut voor het Nabije Oosten. Waerden van der, B. (1991). Probuzhdaiushchaiasia nauka II. Rozhdenie astronomii [Awakening Science II: The Birth of Astronomy]. Moscow: Nauka.
|
 |
