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 Armeniantzov 'sea, large body of water', and nar or Nar.[3][4] The word cov is considered by some scholars to be a loanword from
Urartianṣûǝ, 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
Iraniannār ('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 goddessApi,[27] described as a mother goddess tied to water.
^Shalian, Artin K. David of Sassoun : the Armenian folk epic in four cycles. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1964. p. xxvi.
^Hrachya Sarukhan; Violet Grigorian; Khachik Manoukyan; Azniv Sahakyan; Anatoli Hovhannisyan; Hasmik Simonian (2013). Six Armenian Poets. United Kingdom: Arc Publications. p. 1.
ISBN978-1-908376-51-0.
^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
^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.
JSTOR603403. 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
^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
^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.