Kartlos

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Kartlos from The Georgian Chronicles (King Vakhtang VI redaction), 1700s.[1]

Kartlos (

Georgian Chronicles. He was a descendant of Japheth, second son of Targamos (i.e. Togarmah), the common ancestor of the Caucasians, and Kartlos, himself becoming the patriarch of the Georgians. According to the myth, he controled a large territory in the Caucasus and participated, with his brothers, in a war to free himself from the domination of a giant and Titan king[3] Nebrot (i.e. Nimrod).[4]

While Kartlos is only a mythological figure, his story has been explained by modern historiography for many reasons, whether political, ethnological, or religious. Even though, Kartlos is not styled as

Hellenistic age, soon after the death of Alexander the Great.[7]

The

Legend

The myth of Kartlos is part of the Judeo-Christian mythology, a series of medieval legends that attempts to find a connection between the ancestors of the Georgians and biblical characters from an Old Testament.[9] The medieval text of The Georgian Chronicles, first mentions him around the 11th century, leading modern historiography to attribute the myth of Kartlos and his family to Leonti Mroveli, although, the tradition might be dated to c. 800.[10] The historian Giorgi Melikishvili dates the myth back to the early 8th century.[11]

The legend of Kartlos is unique to Georgian mythology, while that of his father, Targamos, features widely in medieval

Georgian unification.[12]

According to historian

Moses of Khorene in the 5th century and who made his character the master of all Caucasians and the lands between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, as well as the ancestor of the Armenians, and their progenitor Haos (i.e. Hayk).[13]

W.E.D. Allen theorized that the myth of Kartlos was directly linked to the ancient cult of Armazi,[14] the principal god of the pre-Christian Georgian pantheon, as well as the modern veneration of Saint George.[15]

Family

Kartlos is the second son of Targamos and one of his “several wives”.

Kartlos would unite his people to become their chieftain and founded the country of Kartli.[20] He would later have sons: Mtskhetos, Gardabos, Kakhos, Kukhos, Gachios, Uphlos, Odzrkhos, Javakhos, the respective eponymous founders of Mtskheta, Gardabani, Kakheti, Kukheti, Gachiani, Uplistsikhe, Odzrkhe, and Javakheti.[21][22]

Genealogy

References

  1. ^ Rapp, p. 180
  2. ^ Rapp, p. 196
  3. ^ Rapp, pp. 114-178
  4. ^ Rapp, p. 186
  5. ^ Rapp, p. 179
  6. ^ Rapp, p. 263
  7. ^ Rapp, p. 41
  8. ^ Rapp, pp. 178-182
  9. ^ Brosset, pp. iv-v
  10. ^ Rapp, p. 172
  11. ^ Akhvlediani, p. 15
  12. ^ Akhvlediani, p. 17
  13. ^ Akhvlediani, p. 18
  14. ^ Allen, p. 37
  15. ^ Allen, p. 38
  16. ^ Brosset, p. 16
  17. ^ Allen, pp. 23-24
  18. ^ Rapp, p. 152
  19. ^ Brosset, pp. 17-18
  20. ^ Rapp, p. 272
  21. ^ Brosset, p. 21
  22. ^ Rapp, p. 454
  23. ^ Rapp, p. 131

Bibliography

External links