CC BY
10Urbis et Orbis. 2023. 3 (1)
https://d0i.0rg/i0.34680/urbis-2023-3(i)-82-96
The image of the city in Armenia: Anthropological perspective
Viktorya Vasilyan ©
Institute of Archeology and Ethnography NAS RA, Yerevan, Armenia viktoryavasilyan@gmail.com
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
polis
capital
Artashat
Mother Goddess
Mother Armenia
Tyche
Cilicia
Van
classical
Tigranakert
urban anthropology
victory
monuments
Socially significant phenomena are usually personified and embodied in the images of ancestors, ethnarchs, and heroes. The anthropomorphic symbol in the fine arts was an integral part of ancient Greek culture from the very beginning. Accepting the traditional classification as natural phenomena (e. g. Earth, Sky, River), places (e. g. Region, Earth, City), time (e. g. Month, Time of Life, Season), emotions (e. g. Love, Fear), political concepts (e. g. Victory, Democracy, War), etc., the question of their deification remains a complex and difficult one. The image of the city in anthropomorphic form first appeared in Hellenic art, but its iconographic roots go back to earlier times. Social well-being can be associated with divine figures, such as Tyche or the successive heroes of state power. Artists depicted these characters as resembling heroes or demigods, perhaps deliberately placing them between the divine and human realms. One such heroic character for Armenia is expressed in the idea of "Mother Armenia, Capital, Hero". However, the image of the "Mother City Goddess" went a long way in Armenia before it became a symbol of the capital. The polis (city) could be depicted as a male or female figure, with the female image being more predominant. The close association with the male figure of Demos reflects the ambivalent nature of urban culture. The polis can be seen as the basic unit of Greek society throughout antiquity. The personification of the polis, understood as a broad and diverse social, geographical, and political phenomenon, can be considered on the basis of the analysis of archaeological and written sources. Defining the polis in a heterogeneous Hellenistic society is a difficult task, especially when the socio-historical context is not directly reflected by individual archaeological findings and detailed historical data. A single definition may not be appropriate, since the meaning and function of the polis varied.
For citation:
Vasilyan, V. O. (2023). The image of the city in Armenia: Anthropological perspective. Urbis et Orbis.
Microhistory and Semiotics of the City, 3(1), 82-96. https://doi.org/i0.34680/urbis-2023-3(i)-82-g6
© Vasilyan V. O., 2023
Образ города в Армении: антропологическая перспектива
В. О. Васи ля н
Институт археологии и этнографии НАН РА, Ереван, Армения viktoryavasilyan@gmail.com
КЛЮЧЕВЫЕ СЛОВА
АННОТАЦИЯ
полис
столица
Арташат
Богиня-мать
Мать Армения
Тихе
Киликия
Ван
классика
Тигранакерт
городская антропология
победа
памятники
Социально значимые феномены, как правило, перснифицируются и воплощаются в образах первопредков, этнархов и героев. Антропоморфные символы в изобразительном искусстве с самого начала были неотъемлемой частью древнегреческой культуры. Принимая традиционную классификацию природных явлений (например, земля, небо, река), мест (например, область, земля, город), времени (например, месяц, время жизни, сезон), эмоций (например, любовь, страх), политических понятий (например, победа, демократия, война) и т. д., автор показывает, что вопрос об их обожествлении остаётся сложной и трудной задачей. Город в антропоморфном облике впервые появился в эллинском искусстве, но его иконографические корни восходят к более ранним временам. Социальное благополучие может быть связано с божественными фигурами, такими как Тихе, или со сменяющими друг друга героями государственной власти. Художники изображали этих персонажей похожими на героев или полубогов, возможно, намеренно располагая их между божественной и человеческой сферами. Один из таких героических персонажей для Армении выражен в идее «Мать Армения, столица, герой». Однако образ «Матери-городской богини» прошёл в Армении долгий путь, прежде чем стал символом столицы. Полис (город) мог изображаться в виде мужской или женской фигуры, при этом женский образ был более преобладающим. Тесная связь с мужской фигурой Демоса отражает амбивалентный характер городской культуры. Полис можно рассматривать как основную единицу греческого общества на протяжении всей античности. Персонификация полиса, понимаемого как широкий и разнообразный социальный, географический и политический феномен, может быть рассмотрена на основе анализа археологических и письменных источников. Определение полиса в гетерогенном эллинистическом обществе является сложной задачей, особенно когда социально-исторический контекст не отражён непосредственно отдельными археологическими находками и подробными историческими данными. Единое определение может оказаться неприменимым, поскольку значение и функции полиса варьировались.
Для цитирования:
Василян, В. О. (2023). Образ города в Армении: антропологическая перспектива. Urbis et Orbis.
Микроистория и семиотика города, 3(1), 82-96. https://doi.org/10.34680/urbis-2023-3(1)-82-96
Ideas about society are almost always expressed through individual images. The city in human form first appeared in Hellenic art, but its iconographical roots date back to earlier times. Social welfare can be associated with deified figures, such as Tyche, or successive heroes of state power. Artists created these characters similar to heroes or demigods, possibly intentionally standing between the divine and human spheres.
Polis (City) could be portrayed as a male or female figure, while the female image was more prevailing (Tab. 1, Fig. 3).
Table 1
The close connection with the male figure of Demos reflects the ambivalent character of urban culture. Polis can be understood as the principal unit of Greek society in the whole of antiquity (Tab. 5, Fig. 2). Personification of the polis, understood as a broad and diverse social, geographic, and political phenomenon, can be approached by an analysis of archaeological and written sources (Tab. 1, Fig. 5). Defining polis in miscellaneous Hellenistic society is a complex task, especially when the socio-historical context is not directly reflected by individual archaeological finds and detailed historical data. The uniform definition could not be appropriate as the meaning and function of the polis changed (Tab. 2, Fig. 7).
Table 2
Analyzes of the mythical and ritual texts of ancient West show, that cities were often identified with female characters, described as women, as virgins, and so on (Toporov, 1987, pp. 125-126). Human image, as a personification of a country, a land, or a city, can be seen in the Armenian Highlands for the first time in the iconography of the Hittites (Tab. 4, Fig. 3; Tab. 5, Fig. 1) and the Urartian Kingdom where the enthroned patron Mother Goddess was a symbol of the fortress and the guarantee of fortune of city. The inscription on Mher's door mentions a number of deities, who are patrons of mountains, countries, and seas. The goddess Tushpuea was considered a symbol and the patron Goddess of the impregnable fortress of the city Tushpa-Van (Hmayakyan, 1990, pp. 46-47; Petrosyan, 2002, p. 146; Melikisvili, 1965, pp. 441-445; Badalyan, 2015, pp. 150-151) (Tab. 4, Fig. 1). In the Armenian traditions, the city of Van was built by Shamiram, it was called Shamiramakert, which provides a basis not only for the identification of Shamiram with Tushpuea but also for the identification of the images of the city patron goddesses with queens (Badalyan, 2015, pp. 21-155).
Table 3
345
Comparative analyzes of cuneiform data show, that in the Kingdom of Van, queens were also considered to be the viceroys of the goddesses on earth, their supreme priests, often appearing in similar images (Grekyan, 2008, p. 292-309) (Tab. 5, Fig. 3).
Table 4
3
In this regard, the analysis of the image of a woman as an allegory of the city in the context of biblical tradition is very remarkable (Frank-Kamenetsky, 2004, pp. 535-548). From the point of view of revealing the peculiarities of the iconography of the patron goddesses of the country or the city, we consider extremely important V. Toporov's
observations. The author clearly shows, that there are two types of cities in cultural texts: a. cities protected by the Virgin goddess of war, and cities engaged in trade under the patronage of the Mother goddess. During the war, the city had to have a strong defense system, the gates of the city were closed by the goddess. And during the merchantry, the gates of the city were opened, and the patron goddess ensured fertility, the patronage of the city. V. Toporov divided them into two types: a. prodigal cities, b. virgin cities. The example of the first city was Babylon in the image of a prostitute with the closed "Gates of the Gods", the second - Heavenly Jerusalem in the image of the bride - with the "Open Gates" (To-porov, 1987, pp. 121-132). These two opposing characters, according to the researcher, are the two sides of the mother goddess, which ensures her wholeness - the period of eternity (Toporov, 1987, pp. 122-123, p. 128). We had the same cultural image in Armenia from the Urartian period until yet, as the patron goddess of the country, the city. One of such heroic characteristics of Armenia is summed up in the idea of "Mother Armenia, the capital, the hero". However, the image of Mother City Goddess has come a long way in our country, before it turned into the image of the Capital, starting from the heroines of Mother City Goddesses, who were presented as a humanized, personified image of Armenia.
Table 5
If we'll start from the beginning, then from the point of view of iconography, the Goddess of the Capital, as the patron saint of the country, originated in Armenia from ancient times, and bore the stamp of the Hellenistic period (Tab. 1, Fig. 1). Tigran the Great presented Antioch or Tyche as his patron deity in order to legitimize his authority and emphasize his divine nature. The cult of the "Mother-Goddess" was also spread in Armenia during Hellenism, which was compared to Anahit, who, during the Artaxiad period, from the time of Tigran the Great, was depicted on the reverse of the royal coins as the king's mother's guardian. As the patron saint of Artashat, she was also associated with Tyche-Antioch, whose statue was erected near Antioch, on a hill on the banks of the Orontes River, during the Seleucid period. Tyche, the image of a city-goddess, later became a prototype for the representation of queens on Armenian coins (examples of coins in the type of "Artashat-City-Goddess" (Tab. 1, Fig. 3) found from Artashat, as well as coins brought from Cilicia, Damascus, Tigranakert, Delphi, Antioch) (Vasilyan, 2014, pp. 18-21). Dozens of coins with the half-face of Queen Erato were found at the ancient site of Artashat, on the obverse of which she is presented with her hair gathered on the neck, and on the reverse, the model of the city of Artashat's defense wall (Tab. 1, Fig. 4). This is also a vivid proof of the comparison of the images of the queen with the goddess of the capital and identification with Artashat as the patron and guardian of the city. Now let's try to find the prototypes of these cities or regions depicted in the image of "Capital-City-Goddesses", represented as a woman (Tab. 1, Fig. 5; Tab. 2, Fig. 4). As it is known, presenting the homeland in the form of a mother (female) is a common pictorial metaphor and can be appealed to a wider and archaic idea of mother-land (Toporov, 2000, p. 162).
Alexander the Great in 331, after the famous victory of Arbela, ordered a sculpture, the reconstruction of which was preserved in Rome for the palace of Chigi (Hardie, 1985, pp. 11-31). This sculpture depicts the dream of the Achaemenid queen Atossa through the personifications of ancient women in Europe and Asia, facing the famous type of capital goddesses with the mural crowns with the inscriptions "Europe" and "Asia" (Bienkowski, 1900, p. 12) (Tab. 2, Fig. 6). As twin sisters, they hold a shield depicting the victory of Macedonian troops at the famous Battle of Arbela (Aeschylus, 1939, pp. 185-211; Scott, 2002, pp. 87-90). The Roman emperors embraced the Macedonian world's plans and iconography, his deification to further glorify and internationalize them. They've often used this iconography and Greek heroes as symbols for the representation of war against Par-thia. It is noteworthy, however, that in the turbulent historical periods of Armenia, these goddesses were represented in different semantics. After the elaboration of the Roman Empire's world's ideology, the goddess of Fortune and the goddess of Victory were presented as symbols of the defeated countries (Pierson, 2000, p. 45; Warner, 1996, p. 12; Weigel, 1987, p. 221; Bronfen, 1995, p. 417; Gardner, 1888, pp. 47-81; Hölscher, 2006, pp. 29-34; Arya, 2002, pp. 2-367). And it was the powerful image of these queens that was later "knelt down" and "enthroned" to glorify the victory of the Roman Empire (Koep-pel, 1983, pp. 26-27, 225-226).
During the reign of Augustus and during the Julian-Claudian period, the allegories of cities and lands are usually presented as a symbol of a defeated country, in the form of a woman with a mural crown on her head, which is often found in mosaics, coins, and sculptures. Numerous examples have been found from the Hellenistic period when the city was represented by a woman in the company of rivers and lakes. By the way, when Roman historians and authors talked about Armenia, they also used metaphoric phrases. For example, in one of his poems, the famous Vergil compares Armenia metaphorically
with the "Araxes River, which never tolerated bridges". Roman historian Ovidius also compares other nations with Tigris, Euphrates, Rhine, and Danube Rivers, and the Armenian army as a "Persian breed" (Ovid, 1929, pp. 219-27). The personification of Armenia was also represented on the Roman coins ordered by Trajan between the allegories of the Tigris and Euphrates male rivers (Tab. 1, Fig. 2; Tab. 2, Fig. 3).
In the territory of Cilicia, as in other parts of Armenia, the cult of the Goddess of Capital was widespread, who, as the goddess of fortune, was often met with examples of both coins and sculptures. In the late 1930s, archaeologists from Princeton University found an ancient mosaic of the goddess Cilicia from the territory of the ancient city Cilicia mausoleum, Seleucid Pieria (in the Roman province of Antioch), where she is sitting on the throne "Cilicia" with an image of Syrian Goddess Tyche (the "Cilicia" inscription; 2 centuries BC), corona muralis on her head (Tab. 5, Fig. 4) (Lajos, 2014, p. 184; Ostrowski, 1990 b, Cilicia 2; Levi, 1971, pp. 57-59). She is depicted in the dress of an ancient woman sitting under a tree, facing the personification of a Mesopotamian woman depicted next to her, from which part of her leg and part of a cornucopia has been preserved (Ansel, 2015, p. 304, 329; Lajos, 2014, pp. 182-183). Beside her was Euphrates, Tigris, Ceyhan, Tarson River (Bienkowski, 1900, pp. 106-107). What is interesting here is the combination of the personification of the "City" next to the four rivers, which also are allegories of the geographical area, the four strategic points, and the towers, which are important by capturing the city by an enemy. The image of the beloved "Mother-City-Goddess" woman as Armenia personification is known to us from the Arch of Trajan in Benevento's reliefs (114-117-120 CE, Italy, marble). She is kneeling on one foot before Roman emperor Trajan in the image of the Tyche goddess, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Lajos, 2014, p. 359; Ostrowski, 1990 a, p. 316). The picture of the fallen Armenian personifications1 between two rivers is also reflected on Roman coins depicting Trajan (Ansel, 2015, pp. 227-228). Tyche as a symbol of the defeated Armenia also was represented on Diocletian's and Maximus's triumphal arch sculptures composition. His restored and newly represented the Via Lata Santa Maria Church Sculptural program (Tab. 2, Fig. 2). The remaining original sculptures molds, which are attributed to Diocletian in 293-294 and Maximus Arcus Novus victory arch are stored now in Rome, on the Capitoline Museum (Tab. 2, Fig. 5).
The victorious sections of the triumph of Diocletian presented the victory of Caesar as was presented August's victory to Turkey's Laconia-Caria section and its verdict on that occasion. As the Emperor-keeper and guardian deities, Aphrodite and Eros were the ancestors of the Emperor's dynasty. In these victorious chapters were also presented Athena and Roman soldiers, before they had been kneeling the defeated countries Armenia and Parthia were presented as twin city goddesses. "Between the two kneeling goddesses embodying Parthia and Armenia, the goddess Victoria proudly positioned herself as a symbol of Augustus' victory" (Hamberg, 1945, pp. 69-70; Kuttner, 1995, Fig. 12, pp. 204-205, 225-226; Koeppel, 1983, Fig. 32, p. 122; Vasilyan, 2014, pp. 18-21).
Roman emperors and warriors issued gold, copper, silver coins, intaglios, cameos, medallions, sculptures, bowls, etc., on which the conquest of Armenia was depicted. It is necessary to draw attention to the fact that all countries, considered to be the enemies of Rome, were "honored" in the same way and depicted as conquered nations. In this regard,
1 "With the wild portion of the feminine power the unlimited, unmanaged nature becomes limited, civilized and conquered territory - e. g. the city - compared with its domesticated share" (Weigel, 1987, p. 221).
it is important to note that the images of Nike-Victoria and Tyche-Fortuna, typical for the civil population, were viewed as the prototypes of the personifications of the countries represented by women (Correll, 1991, p. 142; Pierson, 2000, p. 45; Warner, 1996, p. 12; Weigel, 1987, p. 221; Bronfen, 1995, p. 417; Gardner, 1888, pp. 47-81; Hölscher, 2006, pp. 29-34; Arya, 2002, pp. 2-367).
It is also evident that if the personifications of women were viewed as city guardians, and nation keepers (like Venus Genetrix, Victory, and Tyche as Mother Keepers of Cities and Countries), naturally she also should be turned into a symbol of capture, obedience, and defeat of the nation and country in the eyes of the Roman emperors (Koeppel, 1983, pp. 225-226).
One of the heroic images of the city of Armenia is summed up in the idea of the "Motherland". The image of Mother Armenia first emerged as a symbol of the national liberation movement (Hakobyan, 1985, 72). His subsequent revival also lived in the medieval Armenian culture, with the image of a loyal Armenian noblewoman under his jaw as a poster on 19th century by J. Aramean in 1862 in France (Aramean, 1860, p. 94; Ghazaryan, 1989, p. 3.). It was written by an artist, writer, publicist, and reformer of the Armenian alphabet. This composition was published in an improved form in the August 16, 1861 issue of the Paris Weekly (Tab. 4, Fig. 2) (Ayvazyan, 2018, p. 110). The poster was called "Spirit of Armenia" ("Mother Armenia", "Armenia", "Ruins of Ani" or "I mourn for you Armenia"). It became the first example of an Armenian poster on the theme of patriotic struggle, presenting Mother Armenia as a desperate crying woman sitting on the ruins, outlined on the basis of the Ararat-Araks perspective, surrounded by the ruins of 12 historic Armenian capitals. Armavir, Artashat, Dvin, Ani, Kars, Van, Vagharshapat, etc., as well as the ruins of the shrine of the goddess Anahit in Artashat, the shrine of Vahagn in Ashtishat, the Mother Cathedral of Etchmiadzin. In the middle of them, the artist placed the seated image of a young Armenian woman in an attacking position, in a costume dedicated to the Renaissance goddesses. In the foreground of the painting, the artist placed Bel's armor, the Arshakuni dynasty flag, and the Artaxiad crown with the image of eagles, a spear, a dagger, an arrow, a bow, etc. "Mother Armenia" became one of the most popular figures in Armenian iconography of the XIX-XX centuries, meaning historical Western Armenia. This example then was depicted of Adil Bessem's carpets, stamps, posters, and postcards (Tab. 4, Fig. 2).
Every discourse on female allegory in general and female characters in war memorabilia, in particular, implies another aspect: the relationship of the human body to the state, which is a highly gendered one. It is noteworthy that this tradition was so deeply rooted in the 19th century that it was reborn in Soviet art in 1945. Even the two World Wars of the 20th century did not eliminate the woman's ideals and her powerful worship. After the end of the war, the entire Soviet Union began to erect the Motherland's and women's personalities symbolizing the freedom of the country. The monuments of victory, imitating the feminine's differences of the nation-state of the 19th century, show the weak point that still exists in the idea of citizenship. "These monuments are dedicated to the memory of men, although they use the beauty of the female body in their content" (Pejic, 2012, pp. 68-99). In the Soviet Union "Motherland" and "Victory Monument" personified victory in the Great Patriotic War (Anderson, 1983, p. 10). By "recording" the consequences of the war, the war memorials, according to Barbara Correll, played a special role: "By sacralizing military force and cushioning the issues of the material body by means of eradication or mystification, they produce that national, sovereign subject".
From the national(s) / patriotic point of view, it is the masculine body sacrificed (mostly voluntarily) on the "altar of the Fatherland", and this body fundamentally underlies any victim discourse. Relationship of the female body to the state, on the other hand, is quite differently constructed, since women had no access to the military and could not sacrifice their bodies on this "altar", they were expected to provide the homeland (patria) with sons, whose body was then offered on this "altar" and whose death later could be mourned by the wives/mothers, on the living conditions of women in the nineteenth century, says Ruth Roach Pierson: "Because military service was the key to full citizenship and a promise of extended civil rights, women were excluded from the state's political scene, but they were not excluded from the national embrace". Nonetheless, the women who saw themselves after the Great War, again firmly in the national embrace, were portrayed in monuments as a nameless, mourning Mother of the Nation or as a triumphant Nike, once again proving its suitability as a figure for patriotic heroes or sacrifices.
In Armenia, since the most ancient times, the Mother goddesses and Virgin-Warriors were identified with the homeland and were considered patronesses and keepers-guardians of the native earth and the country. During development the antique female allegory of "Armenia" revives in a Monuments by Ara Harutyunyan (Tab. 3, Fig. 1), Ara Sargsyan (Tab. 3, Fig. 3-4), Adibek Grigoryan's "Mother Armenia" (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, 5). Prototype of the image "Mother Armenia", which first appeared in Rome as a symbol of a defeated country (Tab. 1, Fig. 6), over the centuries has become a symbol of Victory and became the mother and guardian of the nation in the new and modern period (Vasilyan, 2013, p. 223) (Tab. 2, Fig. 1). Armenian nation, that survived the Genocide, survived the massacres, suffered wars, earthquakes, and are still on the stage of geopolitical developments between the East and the West, for our people the image of the city became multifaceted. First, if we typify the image of the city in us, it came in four types:
1. The mother goddess, the symbol of the victorious country
2. An image of a defeated city or country represented by Rome
3. Armenia is a personification of a woman mourning in the ruins of Ani
4. Mother Armenia is a symbol of the spirit of war and a defender of the city and country.
The other important aspect refers to the dual-faced image of the city as the Motherland and Fatherland. We see this approach from Hellenism as Demos (People) and Polis (City). The symbol of the capital in our popular perceptions is considered Yerevan after the first Republic of Armenia, and as Fatherland we considered Gyumri (Alexandropol). In the sacred and holy religious city image we have Etchmiadzin-Vagharshapat, Khor Vi-rap, Dvin, and Sis. Ani and Kars became the symbols of lost Western Armenia. Cilicia, Tarsus, and Hromkla became the royal cities of the Renaissance and symbols of Homeland. However, in this respect, it is noteworthy that the ruins of Ani became a symbol of the lost Homeland in the collective image of all cities of Western Armenia, Ani was associated with the "Armenian style". Artashat, Garni, and Van were the capital of art and the royal residence. Erebuni-Yerevan is still considered a city of sun and the Capital of the country. Gyumri is a cultural capital, which after the 1988 earthquake became a mourning city identified with the mourning woman of the Armenian Genocide, associated with the "Ruins of Ani". The other cultural capital, Shushi, the center of Artsakh, which became a symbol of the whole Lost Artsakh of 2020 in the psychology of our people, was identified with the history of the occupation of Kars. Thus, according to the functions, we can classify the images of cities:
1. Capitals of sun, commerce, and production (Yerevan, Bagaran, Yervandashat, Ar-tashat)
2. Cities of education, enlightenment, art, and culture (Gladzor, Hromkla, Shushi, Gyumri)
3. Religious cities and centers (Etchmiadzin, Dvin, Sis)
4. Lost territories, mourning cities, and cities symbolizing Armenian mourning (Adana, Mush, Ani, Van, Shushi).
The prototype of the iconography of the capital, which first originated from the Greeks, was transformed over the centuries and became a symbol of victory in the new and modern eras, the guardian mother of the people. The image of the capital did not lose its traditional description among the people during its development; it is connected with the militant image of the mother goddess rooted in the nation's self-consciousness.
List of figures
1.1. Silver coin of Tigran the Great (95-55 BC). On the obverse there is a portrait of Tigran, on the reverse there is a goddess Tyche Antiochia, History Museum of Armenia (Photo by Ruben Vardanyan).
1.2. The coin depected the victory of Roman Trajan Caiser in Armenia and Mesopotamia, 116 AD (Photo by Victorya Vasilyan).
1.3. City-Mother-Goddess Tyche, where is depicted personification of City Artaxata, History Museum of Armenia, Inv. No 5374, 4.35 g, copper coin, detail, 2nd century BC (Photo by Ruben Vardanyan).
1.4. City-Mother-Goddess Erato, where is depicted the walls and citadel of the City Artaxsata, History Museum of Armenia, Inv. No 20093-4, 14.49 g, Erato, copper coin, detail, 2nd century BC (Photo by Ruben Vardanyan).
1.5. Portrait medal of Dido, Queen of Carthage (obverse); A View of Carthage (reverse), Artist Alessandro Cesati (1538-1564), Medal; circa 1550, Bronze (Copper alloy with light brown patina), Diam. 4.2 cm, wt. 33.95 g., Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, Accession number 1975.1.1268 (Source: https://www.met-museum.org/art/collection/search/460840).
1.6. "Armenia CAPTA" copper coin made by Lucius Verus, 2 AD (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
2.1. "Armenia", Naples, Archaeological Museum, 145 AD, marble (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan), Medallion "Armenia", France, Rouen, 1-2 centuries (Photo by Wuilleumier & Audin, 1952, Fig. 158).
2.2. The remaining victory arch moulds are stored now in Rome, Capitoline Museum, which is attributed to Diocletian in 293-294, and Maximus Arcus Novus (Photo by Victorya Vasilyan).
2.3. Relief from the Triumphal Arch of Trajan at Benvenetum, Trajan with Armenia, 117120 BC, Italy, marble, detail (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
2.4. Women with corona muralis on her head, Berlin Museum, Ancient Collection, 2nd century (Photo by Gudrun Stenzel).
2.5. Relief from the Via Lata Santa Maria Church, Italy, marble, detail, Tyche as a symbol of defeated Armenia on Diocletian's and Maximus's triumphal arch sculptures composition detail (Photo by Ruben Vardanyan).
2.6. "Mother of the City as defeated Goddess" or Tyche as allegorical representation of Asia by Alexander the Great's Arbela stele (3 centuries BC, marble tile), reconstructed by R. Hardie (Photo by Victorya Vasilyan).
2.7. Relief sculpture from the Ara Pacis Augustae, The Panel of Tellus, Roman, 13 BC, marble. This one depicts a goddess — variously argued to be Tellus (a personification of the earth), Italia, Pax, Venus, or another goddess — holding twins on her lap. The twins have been said to be Augustus' heirs at the time this was constructed, Gaius and Lucius Caesar, and in turn, they represent the future of Rome. Surrounding the goddess and children is a scene of fertility: an ox, a sheep, poppies and other flowers, fruit, and a bird. Two nymphs representing beneficial land breezes and sea breezes flank the scene (Source: https://www.luisatesta-tourguide.com/gallery/).
3.1. Mother Armenia, sculptor: Ara Harutyunyan, Yerevan, Victory Park, 1967, Copper, 22m (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
3.2. Mother Armenia Ijevan, Ajgehovit village, aluminium, 1978-1980, sculptor: Adibek Grigoryan, 17m (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
3.3. Mother Armenia, sculptor: Ara Sargsyan, 1975, Gyumri, copy in Yerevan Museum after the name of Ara Sargsyan (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
3.4. Mother Armenia, sculptor: Ara Sargsyan, 1975, original in Gyumri Park (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
3.5. Mother Armenia in Artsakh, Martuni region, Berdzor, aluminium, 1980, sculptor: Adibek Grigoryan, 17m (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
4.1. Urartian city Goddess Tushpuea depicted next to the city's citadel wall, copper plate, 8-7th centuries BC, Louvre Museum (Photo by Louvre Museum).
4.2. ("Mother Armenia", "Armenia", "Ruins of Ani" or "I mourn for you Armenia") "Spirit of Armenia", Adil Bessim Rug, Sardarapat Museum (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
4.3. - 5.1. The Marriage between Hittite god and goddess, the site listed as World Heritage by UNESCO, rock sanctuary, and relief panel of the 13th century BC Hittite religious rock carvings of Yazilikaya Hattusa, Bogaz Kale, Turkey. Plaster cast at the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, room A (Photo by R. Mattes René / hemis.fr).
5.2. An ancient Roman marble mural, depicting three City-Mother-Goddesses personified as Tyches, personifications of cities, their identities revealed by their symbolic attributes, mural crowns, Louvre Museum, c. 160, Paris (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
5.3. Urartian style priestess or queens during the ceremony, Pazyryk 5th carpet, detail, 54th century (Photo by S. I. Rudenko).
5.4. Goddess Cilicia from the territory of the ancient city Cilicia mausoleum, Seleucid Pieria (in the Roman province of Antioch, nowadays Turkey), where she is sitting on the throne "Cilicia" with the image of Syrian Goddess Tyche (with the inscription "Ci-licia"), 2 centuries BC, corona muralis on her head, mosaic (Photo by Viktorya Vasilyan).
References
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso Publishing.
Ansel, Ch. (2015). Les "personnifications des provinces orientales" sur l'architecture romaine [doctoral dissertation]. Universite Charles de Gaulle - Lille III.
Aramean, J. (1860). Class of Haykaz children. Aramean publishing. (In Armenian).
Arya, D. (2002). The goddess Fortuna in imperial Rome: Cult, art, text [doctoral dissertation]. The University of Texas at Austin.
Ayvazyan, G. (2018). From the history of Armenian national-political symbols of XVIII-XIX centuries. In Shirak Armenological Research Center NAS RA. Scientific Papers: Vol. 21. (pp. 107-112). clck.ru/34g97h. (In Armenian).
Badalyan, M. (2015). The Supreme Trinity of the Urartu (cult, symbols, iconography) according to archaeological sources [doctoral dissertation]. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. (In Armenian).
Bienkowski, P. (1890). De simulacris barbarorum gentium apud Romanos: corporis barbarorum prodromus. Typ. Univ. Jagellonicae. (In Latin).
Bronfen, E. (1995). Weiblichkeit und Repräsentation, Genuszur Geschlechterdifferenz in den Kulturwissenschaften. Kröner.
Correll, B. (1991). Rem(a)inders of G(l)ory: Monuments and bodies in Glory and in the year of the pig. Cultural Critique, 19, 141-177.
Gardner, P. (1988). The countries and cities in Ancient art. The Journal of Roman Studies (JRS), 9, 47-81.
Ghazaryan, M. (1989, May 15). "Whose lament is it?" (About the strange belonging of a carpet). Night Yerevan Journal, p. 3. (In Armenian).
Grekyan, Y. (2008). Woman in Urartu. Queens of Urartu. In Grace from Above: Myth, Ritual, and History. A Collection of Articles Dedicated to the 80th Anniversary of Sargis Harutyunyan. (pp. 292-309). Gitutyun. (In Armenian).
Hakobyan, M. (1985). The idea of Mother Armenia in the fields of Armenian libertarian thought. Etchmiadzin, April, 71-76. https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/268538. (In Armenian).
Hamberg, P. (1945). Studies in Roman imperial art. With special reference to the state reliefs of the second century. Ejnar Munksgaard.
Hardie, P. (1985). Imago mundi: cosmological and ideological aspects of the shield of Achilles. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 105, 11-31.
Hmayakyan, S. (1990). The state religion of the Kingdom of Van. GA Publishing House of Armenia. (In Armenian).
Hölscher, T. (2006). The transformation of victory into power. In Representations of War in Ancient Rome. (pp. 29-34). Cambridge University Press.
Pejic, B., Ivekovic, S., Lunghi, E., & Gallois, Ch. (2012). Lady Rosa of Luxembourg. Mudam Luxembourg Publishing.
Frank-Kamenetsky, I. G. (2004). Woman-City in biblical eschatology. Chariot of Jehovah. In Works on Biblical Mythology. (pp. 224-236). Labyrinth. (In Russian).
Koeppel, G. (1983). Die historischen Reliefs der römischen Kaiserzeit, I. Stadtrömische Denkmäler unbekannter Bauzugehörigkeit aus augusteischer und julischclaudischer Zeit. Bonner Jahrbücher, 183, 61-144.
Kuttner, A. (1995). Dynasty and Empire in the Age of Augustus: The case of the Boscoreale cups. University of California Press.
Lajos, J. (2014). A rômai provinciaperszonifikâciôk ikonogràfiàja és szerepe a csâszârkori propagandàban [doctoral dissertation]. Eötvös Lorand University Press. (In Hungarian).
Levi, D. (1971). Antioch mosaic pavements: 1898-1991. Princeton University Press.
Ostrowski, J. (1990 a). Personifications of rivers as an element of Roman political propaganda. Étude et Travaux, 15, 309-316.
Ostrowski, J. (1990 b). Les personifications des provinces dans l'art romain. Archeobooks.
Petrosyan, A. (2002). Armenian epos аnd mythology: Source, myth, аnd history. NAS RA Publishing House. http://vizantarm.am/page.php?369. (In Russian).
Pierson, R. (2000). Nations: Gendered, racialized, crossed with empire. In I. Bloom, K. Hagemann & Catherine Hall (Eds.), Gendered Nations - Nationalism and Gender Order in the Long Nineteenth Century. (pp. 41-63). Berg Publishers.
Scott, J. (2002). Paul and the nations: The Old Testament and Jewish background of Paul's mission to the nations with special reference to the destination of Galatians. Mouton Grammar Library.
Toporov, V. (1987). The text of the virgin-city and the harlot-city in mythological aspect. In Studies on the Structure of the Text. (pp. 99-132). Nauka. (In Russian).
Toporov, V. (2000). To the reconstruction of the Balto-Slavic mythological image of the Earth-Mother *Zemia & *Mate (*Mati). Balto-Slavic Studies, Vol. 14: 1998-1999. (pp. 239-371). Indrik. (In Russian).
Vasilyan, V. (2013). The most Ancient Prototypes of Mother Armenia. History and Culture Armenological Journal, Vol. A, 209-223.
Vasilyan, V. (2014). Depiction of Queens in the Hellenistic art of Armenia. Bulletin of Yerevan State University. Armenian Studies, 3, 18-34. (In Armenian).
Warner, M. (1996). Monuments and maidens - the allegory of the female form. Vintage.
Weigel, S. (1987). Die Städte sind weiblich und nur dem Sieger hold, Triumph und Scheitern in der Metropole. Elke Steg.
Информация об авторе
Виктория Оганнесовна Василян
кандидат исторических наук
научный сотрудник
Институт археологии и этнографии
Национальной академии наук
Республики Армения
Армения, 0025, Ереван, ул. Чаренца, 15
преподаватель
Американский университет Армении Армения, Ереван, пр-кт М. Баграмяна, 40 ORCID: 0009-0003-0754-481X e-mail: viktoryavasilyan@gmail.com
Information about the author
Viktorya Hovh. Vasilyan Cand. Sci. (Historical Sciences) Research Fellow
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography
of the National Academy of Sciences of
the Republic of Armenia
15, Charents St., Yerevan, 0025, Armenia
Lecturer
American University of Armenia
40, M. Baghramyan Ave., Yerevan, 0019, Armenia
ORCID: 0009-0003-0754-481X
e-mail: viktoryavasilyan@gmail.com
Материал поступил в редакцию / Received 22.03.2023 Принят к публикации / Accepted 22.05.2023
