Tsovinar (goddess)
Tzovinar (Ծովինար) or Nar (Նար) was the Armenian goddess of water, sea, and rain.[1] She was a fierce goddess, who forced the rain to fall from the heavens with her fury.
Her name, Tzovinar, means "daughter of the seas" and she is identified as the mother of Sanasar and Baghdasar in Armenian epic tradition.[2]
Name and etymology
Her name can be decomposed into two parts:
Scholar James R. Russell translates her name as 'Lady of the Lake',[9] from cov ('sea') and Iranian nār ('woman').[10] Larisa Yeganyan translates the name as 'Marine' or 'Nymph of the Sea'.[11] Tsovinar Harutyunyan interprets her name as "the sea", "the spirit of the sea" and "the light of the sea".[12]
According to Armen Petrosyan, Covinar, a character in Armenian epic, is also called Covean or Coveal ('Marine'), both deriving from cov 'sea'.[13][14] However, Hrach Martirosyan interprets *Covean as 'lightning/thunder goddess of the celestial Purple Sea'.[15]
According to Artin K. Shalian, Dzovinar either means 'a cloudless lightning shaft' or 'sea-born'.[16]
Role
As a goddess
Yeganyan associates Tzovinar with the
On the other hand, Armenian folklorist
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:[20][21] by drinking of the spring or Kat'nov haxpür ('Milky Fountain'), she becomes pregnant with heroes Sanasar and Baghdasar.[22][23][24] In another account, Covinar drinks a "milky liquid" that sprouts from a rock in the middle of Lake Van.[25]
Parallels
Russell sees a parallel between Covinar's impregnation episode with a similar event involving Ossetian character described as a mother goddess tied to water.
See also
References
- ^ Shalian, Artin K. David of Sassoun : the Armenian folk epic in four cycles. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1964. p. xxvi.
- ISBN 978-1-908376-51-0.
- ISBN 978-0-941694-81-0.
- ^ 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
- S2CID 163807245.. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
- JSTOR 603403. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
- ^ Russell, James R. Armenian and Iranian Studies. Belmont, MA: Armenian Heritage Press, 2004. p. 1122.
- ^ 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
- ^ RUSSELL, 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
- ^ Russell, James R. Armenian and Iranian Studies. Belmont, MA: Armenian Heritage Press, 2004. pp. 768 (footnote nr. 36), 1122.
- ^ 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
- ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
- ^ Petrosyan, Armen. "Collegiality and Interchange in Armenian Studies". In: Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 2011, Volume 20: 151.
- ^ Петросян, Армен Егишевич. "СОССЮРОВСКИЕ АНАГРАММЫ "ПЕСНИ ВАХАГНА"". In: Индоевропейское языкознание и классическая филология, no. 24-1, 2020, p. 184. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/sossyurovskie-anagrammy-pesni-vahagna (дата обращения: 17.02.2023).
- ^ Martirosyan, Hrach (2019). "Traces of Indo-European 'Father Sky, God' in Armenian". In: U. Bläsing, J. Dum-Tragut, T.M. van Lint, (editors). Armenian, Hittite, and Indo-European Studies: A Commemoration Volume for Jos J.S. Weitenberg. Hebrew University Armenian Studies 15. Leuven: Peeters. p. 202.
- ^ Shalian, Artin K. David of Sassoun : the Armenian folk epic in four cycles. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1964. p. 5 (footnote nr. 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
- ^ Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 1-2 (1984): 108.
- ^ Petrosyan, Armen. "Armeno-Indian Epic Parallels". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES). Volume 45, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2017. p. 172.
- ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
- ISBN 978-0-941694-81-0.
- ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
- ISBN 9780882060996.
- ^ Sargis Haroutyunian. "Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore". In: Iran & the Caucasus 1 (1997): 87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030741.
- ^ 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
- ^ 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.
- ISBN 9781568591308.