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: Armenian/Old Armenian tzov 'sea, large body of water', and nar or Nar.[3][4] The word cov is considered by some scholars to be a loanword from Urartian ṣûǝ, meaning '(inland) sea'.[5][6][7] The second part is speculated to be related to Nara, a Hittite or Hurrian deity.[8]

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 celestial waters or a primordial ocean, where the rain waters gather.[17]

On the other hand, Armenian folklorist Manuk Abeghian interpreted her as "an angry storm goddess".[18] According to Abeghian's studies, in the role of a storm goddess, she is described as having "fiery eyes". She also dances in the clouds riding on her horse, creating thunderstorms.[19]

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 Satanaya, in the Nart sagas.[26] It is also been suggested that both characters are remnants of Scythian goddess Api,[27] described as a mother goddess tied to water.

See also

References
  1. Shalian, Artin K. David of Sassoun : the Armenian folk epic in four cycles. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1964. p. xxvi.
  2. Hrachya Sarukhan; Violet Grigorian; Khachik Manoukyan; Azniv Sahakyan; Anatoli Hovhannisyan; Hasmik Simonian (2013). Six Armenian Poets. United Kingdom: Arc Publications. p. 1. ISBN 978-1-908376-51-0.
  3. 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 978-0-941694-81-0.
  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): 222-223. DOI: 10.2143/REA.32.0.2050521
  5. Diakonoff, I. M. (1985). "Hurro-Urartian Borrowings in Old Armenian". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 105 (4): 600. doi:10.2307/602722. JSTOR 602722. S2CID 163807245.. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
  6. Greppin, John A. C.; Diakonoff, I. M. (1991). "Some Effects of the Hurro-Urartian People and Their Languages upon the Earliest Armenians". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 111 (4): 726. doi:10.2307/603403. JSTOR 603403. Accessed 19 Feb. 2023.
  7. Russell, James R. Armenian and Iranian Studies. Belmont, MA: Armenian Heritage Press, 2004. p. 1122.
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. Russell, James R. Armenian and Iranian Studies. Belmont, MA: Armenian Heritage Press, 2004. pp. 768 (footnote nr. 36), 1122.
  11. 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
  12. Harutyunyan, Tsovinar. "The Image of the Cosmogonic Sacrifice in the Armenian Heroic Epic 'Sasna Tsrer'" In: Folk Belief Today. Edited by Mare Kõiva and Kai Vassiljeva. Tartu: Estonian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Estonian Language; Estonian Museum of Literature, 1995. p. 119. ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
  13. Petrosyan, Armen. "Collegiality and Interchange in Armenian Studies". In: Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 2011, Volume 20: 151.
  14. 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).
  15. 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.
  16. Shalian, Artin K. David of Sassoun : the Armenian folk epic in four cycles. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1964. p. 5 (footnote nr. 3).
  17. 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
  18. Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies 1-2 (1984): 108.
  19. Petrosyan, Armen. "Armeno-Indian Epic Parallels". In: Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES). Volume 45, Number 1 & 2, Spring/Summer 2017. p. 172.
  20. Harutyunyan, Tsovinar. "The Image of the Cosmogonic Sacrifice in the Armenian Heroic Epic 'Sasna Tsrer'" In: Folk Belief Today. Edited by Mare Kõiva and Kai Vassiljeva. Tartu: Estonian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Estonian Language; Estonian Museum of Literature, 1995. p. 119. ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
  21. 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 978-0-941694-81-0.
  22. Harutyunyan, Tsovinar. "The Image of the Cosmogonic Sacrifice in the Armenian Heroic Epic 'Sasna Tsrer'" In: Folk Belief Today. Edited by Mare Kõiva and Kai Vassiljeva. Tartu: Estonian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Estonian Language; Estonian Museum of Literature, 1995. pp. 121-122. ISBN 9985-851-11-0.
  23. Sital, Karapet. Kašti Kaǰer. Caravan Books, 2000. p. 5. ISBN 9780882060996.
  24. Sargis Haroutyunian. "Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore". In: Iran & the Caucasus 1 (1997): 87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4030741.
  25. 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
  26. 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.
  27. Hovannisian, Richard G. Armenian Van/Vaspurakan. Mazda Publishers, 2000. p. 55. ISBN 9781568591308.
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