Armenian Mythology: Stories of Armenian Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines, Hells & Heavens, Folklore & Fairy Tales

by Mardiros Harootioon Ananikian, M. H. Ananikean

Armenian mythology was strongly influenced by Zoroastrianism, with deities such as Aramazd, Mihr or Anahit, as well as Assyrian traditions, such as Barsamin, but there are fragmentary traces of native traditions, such as Hayk or Vahagn and Astghik. According to De Morgan there are signs which indicate that the Armenians were initially nature worshipers and that this faith in time was transformed to the worship of national gods, of which many were the equivalents of the gods in the Roman, Greek and Persian cultures. Georg Brandes described the Armenian gods in his book: "When Armenia accepted Christianity, it was not only the temples which were destroyed, but also the songs and poems about the old gods and heroes that the people sang. We have only rare segments of these songs and poems, segments which bear witness of a great spiritual wealth and the power of creation of this people and these alone are sufficient reason enough for recreating the temples of the old Armenian gods. These gods were neither the Asian heavenly demons nor the precious and the delicate Greek gods, but something that reflected the characteristics of the Armenian people which they have been polishing through the ages, namely ambitious, wise and good-hearted."

Genres: Mythology, Nonfiction, Fairy Tales

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Suren Oganessian · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is informative in some ways, but flawed in others. No where else have I ever read that the Armenians "invaded and conquered Urartu" for instance. I don't know where the author gets that idea from, as most archaeologists agree the Urartians and Armenians were mainly one and the same. The author also doesn't give ancient Armenians enough credit sometimes, claiming that nearly every Armenian deity was borrowed from another culture.

But, the question you may ask youself when you buy this book is, how many other books on Armenian pagan mythology are there to choose from? Not too many sadly, especially not in English. I would just take everything the author says with a grain of salt though.

[T. Isajanyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, could be better. But I admit to having the book as a main source of reference for my own novels, despite really wishing there were more details and just more, overall

[Regina Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very difficult to read the names of deities that you know in English, in Russian they use different sounds so the names are completly different.