HAYK A HERO OR VILLAN IN THE ARC OF THE ARMENIAN MONOMYT

Sulgi as sportsman in the Sumerian self lauditary royal hymns

FROM MATRILENEAL DYNASTY TO PATRILINEAL ARISTARCHY
The word that is sounded out 'Azk,' in Armenian, ազգ, is a noun which has been variously been translated to mean a nation, a people, a generation, a genus and a kind. I believe at origin the word would have best been translated to the contemporary English word 'polity' which is more than a kinship group of people related by blood or marriage like a clan, a kin and or a tribe.
A polity is organized by some form of institutionalized social relations, and has a capacity to mobilize resources, much like a state, it is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory,) is an identifiable political entity – a group of people with a collective identity. Misogyny (/mɪˈsɒdʒɪni/) is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that keeps women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny likely arose at the same time as patriarchy: six thousand years ago at the start of the Early Bronze Age.
Institutionalized misogyny has been practiced for six-thousand years obviously apparent in human societal structures, expressed in coniform tablets from the earliest Sumerian literature, reflected in art, recorded in mythology as well as historical events yet ancient philosophers nor contemporary ones seem to have managed to get a handle on the origin or the first cause. I would like to offer the Bull of Heaven the mythical beast that Inanna brought down from heaven to fight the first misogynist 'hero' Gilgamesh as the day the writing was placed on the wall of history. where we are told not only the why but also the how.
Gilgamesh is placed in the Early Dynastic period. Abbreviated to ED it defines an archeological culture in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq)It is generally dated to c. 2900–2350 BC. It saw the development of writing and the formation of the first cities and states. The ED itself was characterized by the existence of multiple city-states. These small states with a relatively simple structure had developed and solidified over time as Matrilocal societies.
The ED III (2600–2350 BC) saw an expansion in the use of writing and increasing social inequality. Basically larger political entities started developing along the length of Mesopotamia, in Upper Mesopotamia as well as southwestern Iran.This development ultimately led to the unification of much of Mesopotamia under the
Leading up to the year 2350 B.C. which is the date of the enthronement of Sargon start of the rule of Sargon, the first patriarchal monarch in history to build and hold an empire, known as the Akkadian Empire, we have the date of the first recorded war in history which took place in Mesopotamia in around 2650 B.C. of the ED period. This was between the forces of Sumer and Elam. The Sumerians, under the command of Enmebaragesi, the King of Kish, defeated the Elamites and it is recorded "carried away as spoils the weapons of Elam".
It is only for the later parts of the ED period that information on political events becomes available. Writings from this period, the end of the third millennium, include several Sumerian heroic narratives and the Sumerian King List. They seem to echo military conflicts.
The best example, is the reign of legendary figure king Gilgamesh of Uruk, who's adversary was Enmebaragesi of Kish. These semi-legendary narratives seem to indicate an age dominated by men from two major powers, that is Uruk in Sumer and Kish in the Semitic country. However, the existence of the kings of this "heroic age" remains controversial for they appear later on a clay tablet from the reign of Sargon of Akkad (2334–2279 BC) of the Semitic Akkadian Empire. These texts come mainly from Lagash and detail the recurring conflict with Umma over control of irrigated land. These conflicts show that already in this stage in history there was a trend toward stronger states dominating larger territories. For example, king Eannatum of Lagash was able to defeat Mari and Elam in Upper Mesopotamia around 2450 B.C. which coincides with the origin of the one who became the progenitor of the Armenians, the Hay, their legendary hero Hayk.
During the middle of the third millennium BC, Sumerian society became more urbanized.  As a result of this, Sumerian deities began to lose their original associations with nature and became the patrons of various cities.  Each Sumerian city-state had its own specific patron deity, who was believed to protect the city and defend its interests. After the arrival of Sargon 2350 BC, the Sumerians were conquered by the Akkadians. The Akkadians syncretized their own gods with the Sumerian ones,  causing Sumerian religion to take on a Semitic coloration. Male deities became dominant and the gods completely lost their original associations with natural phenomena.

The patriarchal order as we know it today is only about five thousand years old, the origins of patriarchy in the West are generally traced to Mesopotamia, or the fertile crescent. By 2500 BC, men in Sumer had started in earnest claiming ownership rights over children, and were gaining political control over women. Before Sumer was patrilineal, it was matrilineal. Worldwide, matrilineal societies abounded before the advent of colonization. In Mesopotamia, patriarchy become embedded in the system at about the time of the formation of cities states and the rise of militarism. Societies in Sumer were forced to became patriarchal from the time of martial mind set.
The European tradition a result of the Sumerian Martial tradition legalized both marital rape and wife battering. A woman’s property and earnings legally belonged to her husband, and divorce became almost impossible for women to pursue. Matrilineal societies existed throughout the Near and Middle East before the creation of patriarchy.
The end of the matrilineal society where children inherited from their mothers. When sons, husbands or brothers had access to property because of their relationships to women who were the recognized guardians was no more, for most matrilineal societies were what is described as matrilocal - meaning that women inherit rights to land, men help to raise their sisters’ children, and young men leave home to marry into another matrilineal clan - and matrilocal societies simply don't work after colonization under martial authority.
Once patrilineality was established, with women marrying into their husbands’ clan, rather than vice versa – it was difficult for women to escape.
Patriarchy during the development of surplus agriculture and population increase, fuelled territorial expansion and militarism which embedded male priority. Women who had controlled all lost that power in this shift, the temple complex was controlled by a city ruler and his wife in the city centre, who was left to managed the harvest. This gave them the power over labor force to continue producing a surplus. As Sumerian temples started promoting gods over goddesses, the goddess Inanna lost primacy.
The capture, enslavement and ownership of women and children at war was the beginning of class formation, and probably the first form of private property. After centuries of conquering other localities the structure led by women in matrilocal societies gave way to the enslavement of all women men and children.

During 3000-2500BC in Sumer, military elites developed next to temple elites, before becoming an independent and overpowering force. Military strong men became chieftains over villages, later taking over previously communally held temple lands and herds, and then using their clans to dominate a city and its surrounds. The strongest of these chieftains eventually set themselves up as kings, treating temple property as their own – eventually a smaller number would united several city-states into a kingdom or a national state.

Many myth cycles reflect the gradual subjugation of women, with wars between the sexes resulting in men as triumphant or taking women’s powers.

In early Sumerian myths, “goddesses created everything, and Siduri, one of the most prominent, reigned in paradise. Later, a sun god usurped her realms, goddesses were demoted, and, by the later epic of the legendary king Gilgamesh which describes the fall of the matrilineal social structure, and the final defeat of the Goddess Inanna at the hands of Gilgamesh, we find Siduri demoted to a barmaid. The later Babylonian/ Assyrian creation epic describes how the god Marduk defeats Tiamat, the divine mother.

Originally Inanna encompassed everything, from the controlled birth, death, and rebirth “as mother, protector and goddess of the vegetation and the weather, of the morning and the evening star.” In a relatively later myth, the one of “Enki and the World Order,” into which i will go into greater detail below, where the male Enki became the primary god, as in a bureaucrat, presiding over a hierarchy of lesser gods. Enki assigned offices where he includes only two minor goddesses, and Inanna is not one of them. We trace Inanna later who reappears as a goddess of love and war, and later a healer.

Kar.kid is the Sumerian word for a female “prostitute.” It first appears around 2400BC in one of the earliest lists of respectable professions – Inanna's priests used prostitutes to draw men and money to the temples
Kubaba is one of very few women to have ever ruled in their own right in Mesopotamian history. Most versions of the king list place her alone in her own dynasty, the 3rd Dynasty of Kish, following the defeat of Sharrumiter of Mari, but other versions combine her with the 4th dynasty, that followed the primacy of the king of Akshak. Before becoming monarch, the king list says she was an alewife. "In the reign of Puzur-Nirah, king of Akšak, the freshwater fishermen of Esagila were catching fish for the meal of the great lord Marduk; the officers of the king took away the fish. A brief account of the rise of "the house of Kubaba" occurring in the reign of Puzur-Nirah of Akshak:"Kubaba gave bread to the fisherman and gave water, she made him offer the fish to Esagila. Marduk, the king, the prince of the Apsû, favored her and said: "Let it be so!" He entrusted to Kubaba, the tavern-keeper, sovereignty over the whole world."


The land of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris stretching from what is today through southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, Iraq, and southwestern Iran is widely considered by historians to be the cradle of civilization. During this period when recorded history began, it became what we now refer to as Mesopotamia and it housed some of the ancient world's most highly developed and socially complex states. It is in the evidence left behind by this region where we can trace the shift from the Old Religion when the Goddess reigned to when male gods took her place and chaos began with states acquiring wealth and power through war and destruction. Sumer, later to be Mesopotamia, on the Euphrates River. From these texts come the Sumerian’s most humane laws; they are attributable to the Goddess. These excavated tablets tell us that the Goddess Nanshe of Lagash was worshiped as “She who knows the orphan, knows the widow, seeks justice for the poor and shelter for the weak.” On New Year’s Day it was She who judged all of humankind. And in tablets from nearby Erech, we read that the Goddess Niaba was known as “The Learned of the Holy Chambers, She who teaches the Decrees.” Such ancient names of the Goddess as the Giver of Law, of Justice, and of Mercy, and the first Judge also indicate the existence of some earlier codification of laws, and possibly even a judicial system of some complexity, in which the Sumerian priestesses who served the Goddess adjudicated disputes and administered justice.
Throughout the entire period of Sumerian civilization the Sumerian goddesses and their later gods personified the forces of nature. The well-being of the community depended upon close observation of natural phenomena. They developed not only: their advanced agricultural systems of production, irrigation, and flood control; their knowledge of medicine and healing; their systems of social justice and literature, but sophisticated and complex systems of math and astronomy. They believed that each of their deities was represented by a number. The number sixty, sacred to the god of the heavens, was their basic unit of calculation. The minutes of an hour and the notational degrees of a circle were Sumerian concepts. The emergence of urban life, made possible by advanced agricultural production and surplus food supply, led to further technological advances. Lacking stone, the Sumerians made marked improvements in brick technology, making possible the construction of very large buildings such as the famous ziggurat of Ur. The Sumerians developed the wheeled chariot. At approximately the same time, they discovered that tin and copper when smelted together produced bronze – a new, more durable, and much harder metal. These were undoubtedly important innovations prompted by their attempts to ward off the Kurgan Indo-European invasions. Though Sumer was historically a Neolithic matriarchal Goddess-centered culture, by late in the 3rd millennium B.C.E. all of Mesopotamia was by force, blending more with the androcratic. This was true even of the native Sumerians. While they had multiple deities representing aspects of nature, by the late Sumerian period (2800 B.C.E. on) male gods held higher power over consort goddesses; simultaneously, man was emerging more powerful over woman, and their written codification of laws exemplified this. It is in Sumer that we can literally trace the shift from the female deity being supreme to being over-run and forced to a lesser role by the male gods and the corresponding lowering in the status of women and violence against women as a result. Androcratic tribes started to overtake the Goddess-centered Neolithic, women were treated more and more as property of men, just as were livestock and other forms of wealth. Symbolically when the Sumerian Goddess Ninnlil was raped, probably at the end of the third or the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C.E., in many locales in the region, women were owned, raped, and bartered for profit or mutilated and murdered if their behavior did not conform to male rules, particularly their sexual behavior.

The first indication that a change had taken place or was taking place in Mesopotamia is recorded in the most famous Sumerian epic, the one that has survived in nearly complete form and that is the epic of Gilgamesh. This for me is the story that speaks of the time and the events of a transition, a tipping point from matriarchal to patriarchal rule, it tells of the battle between the King Gilgamesh with the supreme Goddess Inanna.
In the story Gilgamesh and his 'body' guard Enkidu are confronted by Inanna whom they insult, in effect challenge her position as the supreme power. Inanna who refuses to take the challenge lying down, with the consent of her father eventually brings down the 'Heavenly Bull' in an attempt to destroy the pair who have have dared challenge her sovereignty.


The killing of the 'Heavenly Bull by Gilgamesh, I believe to be the last nail on the coffin, better still the event that seals and confirms, the transition from a matriarchal to a patriarchal society, which ultimately leads to the failure of a social structure that had already begun to fail throughout Mesopotamia.
The slaying of the Bull of Heaven occurs in extant works of ancient Mesopotamian art. Representations are especially common on cylinder seals of the following patriarchal Akkadian Empire (c. 2334 – 2154 BC).
This ancient literature, this Sumerian recording of history, this legacy of which there are numerous depictions has been interpreted in many ways, yet only one writer that I could trace recognised the events above as the coup de grace of Matriarchy.


The story is about the ultimate struggle to the death between the masculine and the feminine protagonists, as to who will control the kingdom, who will govern, who will hold the centralized power and control 'the bull of heaven. In the Sumerian poem, the Bull is sent to attack Gilgamesh by the goddess Inanna for reasons that are said t unclear. The more complete Akkadian account comes from Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, in which Gilgamesh refuses the sexual advances of the goddess Ishtar, the East Semitic equivalent of Inanna, leading the enraged Ishtar to demand her father Anu for the Bull of Heaven, so that she may send it to attack Gilgamesh in Uruk. Anu gives her the Bull and she sends it to attack Gilgamesh and his companion, the hero Enkidu. Gilgamesh and Enkidu work together to slay the Bull;Enkidu goes behind the Bull and pulls its tail while Gilgamesh thrusts his sword into the Bull's neck, killing it. Gilgamesh and Enkidu offer the Bull's heart to the sun-god Shamash. While Gilgamesh and Enkidu are resting, Ishtar stands up on the walls of Uruk and curses Gilgamesh. Enkidu tears off the Bull's right thigh and throws it in Ishtar's face. Ishtar calls together "the crimped courtesans, prostitutes and harlots" and orders them to mourn for the Bull of Heaven. Meanwhile, Gilgamesh holds a celebration over the Bull of Heaven's defeat. The epic of Gilgamesh reflects the intellectual sophistication of the Sumerians.
Most in fact all scholars avoid to view the question of misogyny as being rooted not only in men's conflicting feelings but also their fundamental fear of mortality, simply put the dont bleed on a monthly basis. Men's existential dependence on women for love, which subconsciously leads to the distancing from the responsibility of procreation, and their fear of the power women have over them in their times of male weakness, which is an undercurrent exposed from their deep-seated need love and reassurance, care and comfort. It is these needs that makes the men feel vulnerable and are openly expressed by Gilgamesh.
The very recent, 1966 post figurative novel Gilgamesch by Guido Bachmann became a classic of German "queer literature" and set a decades-long international literary trend of portraying Gilgamesh and Enkidu as homosexual lovers. This trend proved so popular that the Epic of Gilgamesh itself is included in the Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature (1998) as a major early work of that genre.
Finally in the 1970s and 1980s, feminist literary critics analyzed the Epic of Gilgamesh as showing evidence for a transition from the original matriarchy of all humanity to modern patriarchy.

As the Green Movement expanded in Europe, Gilgamesh's story began to be seen also through an environmentalist lens, with Enkidu's death symbolizing man's separation from nature, 'the feminine.'
Scholars like Susan Ackerman and Wayne R. Dynes have noted that the language used to describe Gilgamesh's relationship with Enkidu seems to have homoerotic implications. Ackerman notes that, when Gilgamesh veils Enkidu's body, Enkidu is compared to a "bride". Ackerman states, "that Gilgamesh, according to both versions, will love Enkidu 'like a wife' may further imply sexual intercourse."

GILGAMESH'S FEAR OF DEATH IS EMBLAMATIC OF HIS GENDER DIFFERENCE 
In Psychology today there is a wonderful article by Gina Barreca Ph.D. titled 'Women's Fears Vs. Men's Fears' that echoes my understanding concerning and the fear of death expressed by the hero Gilgamesh,( Masculine gender ) who is  juxtaposed with Inanna, (Feminine gender). The question is which gender has an innate or instinctive or is more preoccupied with the fear of death. 
The answer seems to be straight forward if we go along with the studies on this subject by clinicians at Columbia University. In the late 1980s they revealed a fascinating and emblematic gender difference concerning fear. Simply put, when asked to write a fear-laden story about death, male subjects overwhelmingly chose to write about the terror of their own death. Women subjects, given precisely the same instructions, wrote stories about the death of a loved one—a child, a spouse, a parent. They almost never attached their greatest fears to the loss of their own lives, but instead to the sense of powerlessness over the lives of others—regarded as personal and private.

What's most fascinating about looking at gender differences in terms of fear is the way the discussion unmasks the forces behind our own anxieties to reveal the fear we dare not admit. Instead of the more typically masculine patterns of bottling up anxiety and irritation, or acting out in terms of violent or outwardly destructive behavior, women are more likely to manifest their feelings in terms of physical symptoms—nagging and vague complaints, headaches, dizziness, toothaches, cramps, and allergies—and the symptoms are often prompted by clues from the culture letting us know this is perfectly acceptable in women.
While all of us are naturally fearful during the most vulnerable years of childhood, boys and girls alike, girls are not taught or encouraged to slough off their fears and anxieties, or to fight their enemies and demons directly. Part of the reasoning behind this is perfectly adaptive for the real world of the playground—a girl who punches, even when she punches her enemy, will be regarded as deviant in a way that a boy would not—and also for later life. The ordinary woman will have to be more cautious when she walks alone in a new city than the ordinary man.

Every other finding in research done on the subject of who is more fearful, women are reported with significantly higher fear scores than men, even though their responses did not indicate that females actually experienced greater levels of physiological disturbance; they said they were more afraid than their male counterparts, believed it was true, but acted at least as courageously as the men. 

The passivity encouraged in girls by our culture feeds directly into the early development of habits of fear, according to a study titled "The Aetiology of Fear," which reports Masserman's findings that "a feeling of helplessness intensifies fear while having something to do reduces it."

To most men, a fearful woman seems a willing captive within the walls of her own home, tending her children, and toiling endlessly with her formulae for improving her life one day when things won't be quite so pressured or hectic.The implications of this are manifold and emblematic of the way gender roles function; the woman apparently receives the benefit of feeling protected, but the horizon of her real future and her own competence remains out of focus and out of reach.

Her fear is her cage; the complex gridwork of her anxieties, jealousies, resentments, illnesses, isolations, and failures keep her locked in, even though she cannot see that it is a larger sense of fear planed and executed over millennia by the high-priests of patriarchy which prevents her from achieving success and developing healthy relationships.
In feminist literature, matriarchy and patriarchy are not conceived as simple mirrors of each other. While matriarchy sometimes means "the political rule of women", that meaning is often rejected, on the ground that matriarchy is not a mirroring of patriarchy. Patriarchy is held to be about power over others while matriarchy is held to be about power from within, Starhawk having written on that distinction and Adler having argued that matriarchal power is not possessive and not controlling, but is harmonious with nature.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), matriarchy is a "form of social organization in which the mother or oldest female is the head of the family, and descent and relationship are reckoned through the female line; government or rule by a woman or women." A popular definition, according to James Peoples and Garrick Bailey, is "female dominance". Within the academic discipline of cultural anthropology, according to the OED, matriarchy is a "culture or community in which such a system prevails" or a "family, society, organization, etc., dominated by a woman or women." In general anthropology, according to William A. Haviland, matriarchy is "rule by women".

Anthropologists have begun to use the term matrifocality.[citation needed] There is some debate concerning the terminological delineation between matrifocality and matriarchy.[citation needed] Matrifocal societies are those in which women, especially mothers, occupy a central position.[citation needed] Anthropologist R. T. Smith refers to matrifocality as the kinship structure of a social system whereby the mothers assume structural prominence.[50] The term does not necessarily imply domination by women or mothers.[50] In addition, some authors depart from the premise of a mother-child dyad as the core of a human group where the grandmother was the central ancestor with her children and grandchildren clustered around her in an extended family.

The term matricentric means 'having a mother as head of the family or household'.

Matristic: Feminist scholars and archeologists such as Marija Gimbutas, Gerda Lerner, and Riane Eisler label their notion of a "woman-centered" society surrounding Mother Goddess worship during prehistory (in Paleolithic and Neolithic Europe) and in ancient civilizations by using the term matristic rather than matriarchal. Marija Gimbutas states that she uses "the term matristic simply to avoid the term matriarchy with the understanding that it incorporates matriliny."

Matrilineality, in which descent is traced through the female line, is sometimes conflated with historical matriarchy. Sanday favors redefining and reintroducing the word matriarchy, especially in reference to contemporary matrilineal societies such as the Minangkabau. The 19th-century belief that matriarchal societies existed was due to the transmission of "economic and social power ... through kinship lines" so that "in a matrilineal society all power would be channeled through women. Women may not have retained all power and authority in such societies ..., but they would have been in a position to control and dispense power."

A matrilocal society defines a society in which a couple resides close to the bride's family rather than the bridegroom's family.


According to Rohrlich, "many scholars are convinced that Crete was a matriarchy, ruled by a queen-priestess"[117] and the "Cretan civilization" was "matriarchal" before "1500 BC," when it was overrun and colonized.[118]

Also according to Rohrlich, "in the early Sumerian city-states 'matriarchy seems to have left something more than a trace.

Many researchers studied the phenomenon of matriarchy afterward, but the basis was laid by the classics of sociology. The notion of a "woman-centered" society was developed by Bachofen, whose three-volume Myth, Religion, and Mother Right (1861) impacted the way classicists such as Harrison, Arthur Evans, Walter Burkert, and James Mellaart[102] looked at the evidence of matriarchal religion in pre-Hellenic societies.

HAYK from day one had patriarchal, militarist, and nationalist ideas. The relationship between militarization, patriarchy, and structured gender inequality is obvious. From militarism emerged the system of patriarchy and patrilineal patriarchy in turn reinforced and perpetuated patriarchal institutions and attitudes in society eventually globally. To the best of my knowledge, the relationship between militarization and patriarchy and gender inequality has not been empirically tested. Given that everything has a beginning the empirical evidence on the issue must be easier to find at the beginning of organized imperialism and the collapse of matrilocallity. 

Militarism has been a significant element of the imperialist or expansionist ideologies of many nations throughout history. Some notable cases include the Ancient Assyrian Empire, the Greek city state of Sparta, the Roman Empire, the Aztec nation, the Mongol Empire, the Zulu Kingdom, the Kingdom of Prussia, the Habsburg/Habsburg-Lorraine Monarchies, the Ottoman Empire, the Empire of Japan, the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, North Korea, the United States of America, Nazi Germany, the Italian Empire during the rule of Benito Mussolini, the German Empire, the British Empire, and the First French Empire under Napoleon.

Oligarchy 'rule by few'; is a form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.

Throughout history, oligarchies have often been tyrannical, relying on public obedience or oppression to exist

Before going into how we should interpret the story arc of the monomyth of the hero, the progenitor of the Armenians Hayk, we have to take into consideration the violent power struggles that had taken place, between the up and coming Masculine power hungry Giants of of the time, the backhanded political maneuvering, the historical antagonisms and the politics of personal prestige were all at play. We also have to be aware of the social and political ideas and entities that were current at the time. The idea of a centralised patrilineal power structure, as a unitary state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority which defines its borders was new, it came about with the development of agriculture allowing small groups of farmers with the support of a strong leader to break off and go it alone. The Monomyths no matter where the location places the Hero, tells us that all was done in the name of breaking out from the hierarchical wealth inequalities, in the name of freedom. 

We are made aware that at the time of Hayks' departure from Babylon 'the times they were a changing' and that the civilization at the location that Hayk was deserting which was created over time with his and his forefathers full participation, including the existence of social classes and the inequality inherent within the system.

What was new in Babylon at the time of Hayk's departure was the development of structured abstract phonetic syllabic logos, language. A new writing system for distant communication was well established. Also the days of organic structures of an extended family where borders were not defined were gone with the wind. Humanity had moved 'forward' from the stone age, the copper age and was in the early stages of the bronze age. 

The idea of governance had given way to patriarchal monarchies. 

The year 2494 BCE when we are informed was the date of the beginning of the story arc of our Hero was a very civilized, sophisticated as technologically advanced relatively a 'modern' time. Authoritarianism and the total rejection of political plurality was the status quo and the separation of powers was not acceptable. the regimes were autocratic or oligarchic and the only challenge to this authority was the military or an armed group like say hunters.

As an Armenian, how do you interpret the act of your progenitor Hayk as described by Moses Khorenatsi, would you say he is a Hero who was guilty of the insulting of a monarch 'lese-majesty,' or was he a traitor, a betrayer, back-stabber, double-crosser, double-dealer, renegade, Judas, quisling, fifth columnist, viper' turncoat, defector, apostate, deserter, was the hero involved in what can only be described as an act of treachery, disloyalty, betrayal, faithlessness, perfidy, perfidiousness, duplicity, infidelity, sedition, subversion, mutiny, rebellion, high treason, Punic faith. There is only one word for all the above in Armenian language and that is tavajan/դավաճան. However we are led to believe that the Titan, the king Bel, at the beginning of the novel is a brutal tyrant who misuses his power and oppresses his people.

The superlatives that describe Hayk tell us that he was a magnificent and stately man, over time every synonym for stately has been used to describe him, suggesting He was dignified, majestic, ceremonious, courtly, imposing, impressive, solemn, awe-inspiring, regal, imperial, elegant, grand, glorious, splendid and mighty, with thick-hair, clear-eyes, he was famous among the giants of which he was one, for his bravery and He this is telling for it is said that He stood against all who aspired to sole power over all giants and divine heroes. 

He proudly rose up against the sole power and 'tyranny' of Bel. This was a time when the giants in Mesopotamia were all trying to gain power over each other as in the game 'king of the castle.' Apparently Bel got lucky or through the murder, in a rampage, by thrusting a sword into his brother's side, he took possession of the whole land. 

Hayk first son named Aramaneak was born in Babylon, Hayk, not wanting to obey Bel, decided to leave with his sons, his daughters and his grandson Kadmus sons of his sons, mighty men, about three hundred in number and other household members and aliens who joined him and all the people and belongings, went to the Ararad land, located in the northern regions. On the way, he settles at the foot of the mountain, on the plain, where few people from among those who had scattered even earlier, settled and lived. Having subdued them, Hayk builds a house there - a master dwelling - and gives it to the hereditary possession of Kadmos, son of Aramaneak.” This confirms the unwritten fables. ​

“along with the rest of the people and belongings, moves to the northwest, comes and settles on a plain with high mountains and gives this highland the name Khark, indicating that those who settled here are the progenitors of Torgom's clan. He builds a village and calls it by his name Haykashen.”
At this location Khorenatsi tells us that a small number of people were already settled there, (on the southern side of this plain, near a mountain with an elongated base we are told) who voluntarily submit to Hayk.


The story continues and gives details of the battle and the death of Bel the Titanid, who having established his royal power over everyone, sends one of his sons accompanied by some of the people devoted to him in the northern region, to Hayk, with a tempting offer, which is that if Hayk accepts his soverinty over all the terratories then he will let him be and live in peace anywhere he chooses within the empire. "You settled”, he says, “in the region of fierce cold, but warm and melt the icy coldness in your proud heart and, by obeying me, calmly live in the country of my dwelling wherever you want."
But Hayk response is stern he sends off the son of Bel with those who arrived with him from Bel, After the messenge gets to Bel in Babylon the Titanid decides to take up arms against Haik and with an army of foot soldiers, sets off to cofront Hayk with might at the northern edge, of his terratory, the highlands where the rivers Tigris and the Eupfraetis tributaries lie, the land of Ararat. When Bel approaches the territory where Kadmos had settled, probably a days ride from Hayk, Kadmos gets spooked and with his entourage goes to Hayk, having earlier sent the fast walkers to warn him.
Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. Storytelling, intertwined with the development of mythologies, predates writing. The earliest forms of storytelling were oral. Oral stories passed from one generation to the next and storytellers were regarded as healers, leaders, spiritual guides, teachers, cultural secrets keepers. Every culture has its own stories or narrative, which are shared as a means of education, cultural preservation or instilling moral values. Crucial elements of stories and storytelling include plot, characters and narrative point of view. The term "storytelling" can refer specifically to oral storytelling but also broadly to techniques used in other media to unfold or disclose the narrative of a story.
The story of Hayk is said to be a legend and Sagen, translated a "legend", as an event that is supposed to have actually happened, very often at a particular time and place, and legends draw much of their power from this fact.


Back in the middle of the 20th-century, a literary critic by the name of Joseph Campbell put forward a theory that there was only one great story and that was the hero’s journey. (Yes, the hero is a man). He called this the ‘monomyth‘ and applied it to stories across cultures and times, and argued that the stories of Osiris, the Buddha, Moses, Mohammed and Jesus are all versions of the same story. To these I add the progenitor, Hero of the Armenians Hayk.
Aspects of the monomyth including the call away from the ordinary world, a series of trials, and a death and resurrection.


This kind of reading of stories including myths and religious narratives has been extremely popular this century even influencing pop culture literary fiction.

The origin of the 'Arc' as in the story ark could have derived from Archē. Ἀρχή in ancient Greek religion was the muse of origins and beginnings. She was one of the five later identified (Boeotian) muses. In Graeco-Roman scholarship, the term 'etiological myth' comes from the Ancient Greek aition, αἴτιον, meaning "cause" and or "origin" the word is sometimes used for a myth that explains an origin, particularly how an object or custom came into existence.Greek myths were, to some extent, familiar to medieval Armenian authors, mainly through translations of late classical and early Christian writings; they also appear in original works, but this knowledge was never profound or accurate. Both translators and Armenian authors, as well as later scribes, while translating, renarrating and copying short mythical stories, or mentioning or just alluding to them often related the stories and the familiar or unfamiliar names occurring in them correctly, but sometimes they made mistakes, chiefly corrupting names not well-known to them, and sometimes, even details of the plot.
Movses Khorenatsi (Moses of Khoren) was a 5th-century CE Armenian historian whose work the History of the Armenians has earned him the title of the “father of Armenian history”. Drawing on ancient sources and ambitiously covering the history of his country up to his own lifetime, Movses' work has been instrumental in helping to create a sense of continuous history and nationhood for the Armenian people.
Armenian written history began with Movses Khorenatsi, thus he became known as the father of Armenian historiography. The History of the Armenians (Patumtiun Hayots), has become the most important source of information on ancient Armenia from the earliest traditions. One of the unique contributions Movses made to Armenian history was his recounting of the foundation myth of the nation (some scholars might say 'inventing').
With the story of Hayk (Haik) and Bel Movses after placing the origins of the Armenian people as the descendants of the biblical Noah via his son Japheth.
The story that ends with the death of Bel at the hands of Hayk in face to face combat, starts in the year 2494 BCE when Hayk, the descendant of Japheth, decides to leave Babylon and move with his 300 followers and their families to the highlands where the tributaries of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates lie, the area defined by the twin peaks of Ararat, the location we are told where the Arc of his forefather Noah landed at the end of the great flood.
Next we are told that Bel the Titan, the first of many Giants sent his son to beseech Hayk also a Giant in status to make his peace with the idea that Bel alone was the head of all territories and that Hayk and his extended family could live wherever he/they chose, as long as they accepted they were within Bels Empire. Hayk we are told refused point blank to accept the offer to submit to Bels' offer and authority.
Bel understandably could not allow Hayk to disrupt the order and his authority so he gathered a huge army and with his personal bodyguard set off to convince Hayk that might is right. Hayk did not sit and wait, we are told that he took the fight to a place of his choosing a mighty battle followed in which Bel was killed by an arrow shot by Hayk. Where the story becomes difficult for me to accept as a heroic or noble act is when Hayk mummifies the dead body of Bel and takes it back to show the wives and children hamlet or the village he has settled after subduing to his will the local community, the peasants he had found there. Awe


Hay as it turned out became the name, Hayks' descendants go by and Hayastan the name of the country they call their fatherland, their home today region of Armenia in the Armenian language. The narrative of Hero Hayk that Khorenatsi brought forward may have been an exercise in myth building but it has itself become an integral part of Armenian history and tradition. The Hayk myth is still being taught to children in Armenian schools worldwide. Indeed, Movses' work still continues to play an important role in discussions on Armenian national identity in the 21st century CE.


Movses Khorenatsi as the author, the chronicler who originated or who gave existence to the legendary hero Hayk his son Armenak and his grandson Kadmus in his 'History of Armenia' should take full responsibility for what he created or reported.

There are takeaways in the narrative that are tantalizing for a sociologist, the most in order of relevance is the patrilinear tradition that is being defined in stone, the inheritance from father to first son is portrayed as a given the extension or expanded of territory and gave names to the outstanding features of the territories they lorded over, all is described vividly and as I read it this independent/free extended family came to a sticky end at the time of Ara the Beautiful great, great, great, great grandson of Hayk at the hands of Ninus and Semiramis who both had vengeance against what Hayk had done a millenia or more earlier in mind.
The legend or story or myth of Hayk appears to be set within a preexisting universe, the author simply describes events, a simple narrative, where he does not go into the causes or the origin of natural phenomena. The legend starts with the conflict between two 'giants,' who lead two conflicting human institutions (Monarchy an institution where the King is chosen by a god verses Aristarchy a government led by the first of the many, the best qualified ruler. All takes place within a preexisting universe about which not a word is said.in the Myth.


Cadmush: Mush is one of the oldest settlements in the Armenian highland. Here there were found traces of Cyclopian castles, as well as inscriptions of the king Menua (810-789 B.C.). Mush is located on the left bank of the river Mush. In Mush, there is the legendary Sulukh Bridge, which connected the plain of Mush over the Aratsani River.
The province is considered part of historical Western Armenia. Historically, Muş was known for producing wheat.[9] The province also grew madder, but locals retained it, using it for dye. The area also had salt mines. As of 1920, the region had so much salt that it was said to have enough to supply Europe and Asia. Rubia tinctorum, the rose madder or common madder or dyer's madder, is a herbaceous perennial plant species belonging to the family Rubiaceae. The plant's roots yield a red dye that was widely used for thousands of years for dyeing cloth.Vardenik (Armenian: Վարդենիկ) is a village in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, that sits along the Vardenis River. ... The village was founded in 1828-29 by emigrants from Mush.Vardenik (Armenian: Վարդենիկ) is a village in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia, that sits along the Vardenis River. The cyclopean fort ruins of Kaftarli are located 3 km south of the village, with petroglyphs being present downhill along the bank of the river.



The Hero is ready to fight to death for he has a deep rooted desire to be free to subjugate others
He is described as good looking giant of a man with a strong right arm, a noble civilized man.


THE SPIRIT
In the spirit of the oneness of love, come together over me Hayk.
The Spirit is the source of harmony, unity and universal truths and sayings teach the children that the unity of the Spirit in the secret to peace
There is only one body, one 'Spirit,' one hope one father one all, above all through all in all. So what is the meaning of “spiritual unity? “the quality or state of being made one (unification),” “a condition of harmony,” and “a combination or ordering of parts … that constitutes a whole.” ” Spiritual is defined as “related or joined [together] in spirit.” Here lies the meaning of the word Armeni/Harmony which word/noun/name starts with the prefix *ar which is defined as a PIE root signifying 'to fit,' 'to fix,' 'fitting together,' 'to slot, *h2 er-/*ar-.
The above moto is as close as I could get to what Hayk the progenitor of the Armenian was attempting to pass on to the generations that came after him.


The placing of the Hero Hayk with Orion by scholars, high in the night sky .

The connection starts in ancient Mesopotamia, we know that Sirius the the brightest star was named KAK.SI.DI by the Babylonians, whose written records on tablets date back to around 1100 BC. Sirius was seen at the time as the tip of an arrow aiming in the direction of Orion, while the southern stars of Canis Major and a part of Puppis were viewed as a bow, named BAN in the Three Stars Each tablets, again dating to around 1100 BC. In the later compendium of Babylonian astronomy and astrology titled MUL.APIN, the arrow, Sirius, was also linked with the warrior Ninurta, and the bow with Ishtar, daughter of Enlil. Ninurta was linked to the later deity Marduk, who was said to have slain the ocean goddess Tiamat with a great bow, and hence worshipped as the principal deity in Babylon.
Canis Major is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere. Its name is Latin for "greater dog" in contrast to Canis Minor, the "lesser dog". Both figures are commonly represented as following the constellation of Orion the hunter through the sky. The Milky Way passes through Canis Major. Canis Major contains Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is now known as the "dog star".




Lord Byron writes about Armenians and Armenia: “Whatever may have been their destiny - and it has been bitter - whatever it may be in future, their country must ever be one of the most interesting on the globe; and perhaps their language only requires to be more studied… It is a rich language… If the Scriptures are rightly understood, it was in Armenia that Paradise was placed. . . It was in Armenia that the flood first abated, and the dove alighted” [15, рp. 8, 10-12]. S. N. Glinka (1776-1847) comprehended the history of Armenia in the spirit of touching the cradle of human civilization [16, p. 77]. He writes: “According to the Biblical and folk traditions the second cradle of mankind rested on the summits of the Armenian mountains” [17, p. III]. David Marshall Lang writes in the same spirit: “The ancient land of Armenia is situated in the high mountains... Although Mesopotamia with its ancient civilizations of Sumeria and Babylon is usually considered together with Egypt as the main source of civilized life in the modern sense, Armenia too has a claim to rank as one of the cradles of human culture. To begin with, Noah's Ark is stated in the Book of Genesis to have landed on the summit of Mount Ararat, in the very centre of Armenia.... Whether or not we attribute any importance to the Book of Genesis as a historical source, none can deny the symbolic importance of its account of Noah's Ark, which is cherished by both believers and unbelievers all over the world. Again, Armenia has a claim on our attention as one of the principal homes of ancient metallurgy, beginning at least five thousand years ago. Later on, Armenia became the first extensive kingdom to adopt Christianity as a state religion pioneering a style of Church architecture which anticipates our own Western Gothic” [18, p. 9]. The roots of the origin and development of the Armenian language (as a separate branch in the Indo-European family of languages)1 and writing are millennia old2.




LORD OF URARTA/ARMENIA LORD OF GIRSU THE SON OF THE CHIEF HOLY GOD ENLILSumerian religion was the religion practiced by the people of Sumer, the first literate civilization of ancient Mesopotamia. The Sumerians regarded their divinities as responsible for all matters pertaining to the natural and social orders.
Archaeologists have speculated on possible locations where Aratta could have been, using criteria from the myths. Land travelers must pass through Susa and the mountainous Anshan region to reach it. First and formost it is said to be a holy place, next it is a source of, or has access to valuable gems and minerals, in particular lapis lazuli, that are crafted on site.
Next it is accessible to Uruk by watercourse, yet remote from Uruk. Finally it is close enough to march a 27th-century BC Sumerian laden army there in days.


Many scholars have attempted to pin down the location referred to as Aratta. Also writers in other fields have continued to hypothesize potential Aratta locations. However there is no agreement on where it might be. However the name is compared with the toponym Ararat which is where I stand on the probable implied location for all other possibilities on this planet have been exhausted. Following the lead that Archeologists have given us to follow, as above A holy place, a marching distance, a mountainous area that has 'lapis lazuri, a place connected by river from Uruk.(The ancient city of Uruk is located in present-day Iraq, on an abandoned channel of the Euphrates River.) does not leave any room for the location which later in Semitic tradition in Genesis became known as 'Ararat' the mountain Noah landed on after the flood.


Ninurta (Sumerian: 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒅁: DNIN.URTA, "Lord [of] Urta" meaning of this name not known), also known as Ninĝirsu (Sumerian: 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒄈𒋢: DNIN.ĜIR2.SU, meaning “Lord [of] Girsu”), is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with farming, healing, hunting, law, scribes, and war who was first worshipped in early Sumer.

In the earliest records, he is a god of agriculture and healing, who cures humans of sicknesses and releases them from the power of demons. In later times, as Mesopotamia grew more militarized, he became a warrior deity, though he retained many of his earlier agricultural attributes. He was regarded as the son of the chief god Enlil and his main cult center in Sumer was the Eshumesha temple in Nippur. Ninĝirsu was honored by King Gudea of Lagash (ruled 2144–2124 BC), who rebuilt Ninĝirsu's temple in Lagash.

Later, Ninurta became beloved by the Assyrians as a formidable warrior. The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (ruled 883–859 BC) built a massive temple for him at Kalhu, which became his most important cult center from then on. After the fall of the Assyrian Empire, Ninurta's statues were torn down and his temples abandoned because he had become too closely associated with the Assyrian regime, which many conquered peoples saw as tyrannical and oppressive.

In the epic poem Lugal-e, Ninurta slays the demon Asag using his talking mace Sharur and uses stones to build the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to make them useful for irrigation. In a poem sometimes referred to as the "Sumerian Georgica", Ninurta provides agricultural advice to farmers. In an Akkadian myth, he was the champion of the gods against the Anzû bird after it stole the Tablet of Destinies from his father Enlil and, in a myth that is alluded to in many works but never fully preserved, he killed a group of warriors known as the "Slain Heroes". His major symbols were a perched bird and a plow.

Ninurta may have been the inspiration for the figure of Nimrod, a "mighty hunter" who is mentioned in association with Kalhu in the Book of Genesis. Conversely, and more conventionally, the mythological Ninurta may have been inspired by a historical person, such as the biblical Nimrod purports to be. He may also be mentioned in the Second Book of Kings under the name Nisroch. In the nineteenth century, Assyrian stone reliefs of winged, eagle-headed figures from the temple of Ninurta at Kalhu were commonly, but erroneously, identified as "Nisrochs" and they appear in works of fantasy literature from the time period.

Enlil, later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon,[5] but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur.
The Cosmology of Ekur. Peter Jensen also associated the Ekur with the underworld in "Die Kosmologie der Babylonier", where he translated it as a settlement of demons. The location also appears in Ludlul bēl nēmeqi and other myths as a home of demons who go out into the land.
It is noted by Wayne Horowitz that in none of the bilingual texts do the demons appear to be "going upwards" but "outwards", contrary to what would be expected if Ekur referred to later concepts such as Sheol, Hades and Hell, which were believed to be located under the surface of the earth.
Morris Jastrow discussed the place of the Ekur in Sumerian cosmology, "Another name which specifies the relationship of Aralu to the world is Ekur or 'mountain house' of the dead. Ekur is one of the names for the earth, but is applied more particularly to that part of the mountain, also known as E-khar-sag-kurkura (É.ḪAR.SAG.KUR.KUR-'a' "house of the mountain of all lands") where the gods were born. Before the later speculative view was developed, according to which the gods, or most of them, have their seats in heaven, it was on this mountain also that the gods were supposed to dwell. Hence Ekur became also one of the names for temple, as the seat of a god."
The Ekur was seen as a place of judgement and the place from which Enlil's divine laws are issued. The ethics and moral values of the site are extolled in myths, which Samuel Noah Kramer suggested would have made it the most ethically-oriented in the entire ancient Near East. Its rituals are also described as: "banquets and feasts are celebrated from sunrise to sunset" with "festivals, overflowing with milk and cream, are alluring of plan and full of rejoicing". The priests of the Ekur festivities are described with en being the high priest, lagar as his associate, mues the leader of incantations and prayers, and guda the priest responsible for decoration. Sacrifices and food offerings were brought by the king, described as "faithful shepherd" or "noble farmer"'

In the Hymn to Enlil, the Ekur is closely linked to Enlil whilst in Enlil and Ninlil it is the abode of the Annanuki, from where Enlil is banished. The fall of Ekur is described in the Lament for Ur. In mythology, the Ekur was the centre of the earth and location where heaven and earth were united. It is also known as Duranki and one of its structures is known as the Kiur ("great place").The Tummal Inscription records the first king to build a temple to Enlil as Enmebaragesi, the predecessor of Gilgamesh, around 2500 BC. It is used as part of such Sumerian phrases as e-kur-igi-gal; "House, Mountain Endowed with Sight", e-kur-igi-bar-ra; "House, Mountain which Sees", e-kur-mah; "House, Exalted Mountain", e-kur-mah; a temple of Ninazu, e-kur-me-sikil; "House, Mountain of Pure Mes (laws or judgement)" - a sanctuary of Ishtar, e-kur-nam-ti-la; "House, Mountain of Life", e-kur-ni-zu; "House, Fearsome Mountain" - the sanctuary of Ninlil at hursag-kala-ma (likely a later name of e-hursag-kalam-ma), etc.

Enlils cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk. The Babylonian god Bel was a syncretic deity of Enlil’s brother Enki, Enki’s son Marduk, and the shepherd deity Dumuzid.

Enlil plays a vital role in the Sumerian creation myth; he separates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), thus making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth, Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian flood myth, Enlil is the cause of the flood himself, having sent the flood to exterminate the human race, who made too m.uch noise and prevented him from sleeping. The myth of Enlil and Ninlil is about Enlil's serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu. Enlil was regarded as the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture. Enlil also features prominently in several myths involving his son Ninurta, including Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies and Lugale.

The Ancient Greeks when they came on the scene replaced the bow and arrow depiction with that of a dog. In Greek Mythology, Canis Major represented the dog Laelaps, a gift from Zeus to Europa; or sometimes the hound of Procris, Diana's nymph; or the one given by Aurora to Cephalus, so famed for its speed that Zeus elevated it to the sky.[5] It was also considered to represent one of Orion's hunting dogs, pursuing Lepus the Hare or helping Orion fight Taurus the Bull; and is referred to in this way by Aratos, Homer and Hesiod. The ancient Greeks refer only to one dog, but by Roman times, Canis Minor appears as Orion's second dog. Alternative names include Canis Sequens and Canis Alter. Canis Syrius was the name used in the 1521 Alfonsine tables.

The Roman myth refers to Canis Major as Custos Europae, the dog guarding Europa but failing to prevent her abduction by Jupiter in the form of a bull, and as Janitor Lethaeus, "the watchdog". In medieval Arab astronomy, the constellation became al-Kalb al-Akbar, "the Greater Dog", transcribed as Alcheleb Alachbar by 17th century writer Edmund Chilmead. Islamic scholar Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī referred to Orion as Kalb al-Jabbār, "the Dog of the Giant". Among the Merazig of Tunisia, shepherds note six constellations that mark the passage of the dry, hot season. One of them, called Merzem, includes the stars of Canis Major and Canis Minor and is the herald of two weeks of hot weather.

Enlil, later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon,[5] but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the "mooring-rope" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even the other gods could look upon him. Enlil rose to prominence during the twenty-fourth century BC with the rise of Nippur. His cult fell into decline after Nippur was sacked by the Elamites in 1230 BC and he was eventually supplanted as the chief god of the Mesopotamian pantheon by the Babylonian national god Marduk. The Babylonian god Bel was a syncretic deity of Enlil’s brother Enki, Enki’s son Marduk, and the shepherd deity Dumuzid.

Enlil plays a vital role in the Sumerian creation myth; he separates An (heaven) from Ki (earth), thus making the world habitable for humans. In the Sumerian flood myth, Enlil rewards Ziusudra with immortality for having survived the flood and, in the Babylonian flood myth, Enlil is the cause of the flood himself, having sent the flood to exterminate the human race, who made too m.uch noise and prevented him from sleeping. The myth of Enlil and Ninlil is about Enlil's serial seduction of the goddess Ninlil in various guises, resulting in the conception of the moon-god Nanna and the Underworld deities Nergal, Ninazu, and Enbilulu. Enlil was regarded as the inventor of the mattock and the patron of agriculture. Enlil also features prominently in several myths involving his son Ninurta, including Anzû and the Tablet of Destinies and Lugale.


Seven "debate" topics are known from the Sumerian literature, falling in the category of 'disputations'; some examples are: the Debate between Winter and Summer; the Debate between bird and fish; the Tree and the Reed; and The Dispute between Silver and Copper.[1] These topics came some centuries after writing was established in Sumerian Mesopotamia. The debates are philosophical and address humanity's place in the world.
The first sixty-one lines of the myth were discovered on the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology catalogue of the Babylonian section, tablet number 14,005 from their excavations at the temple library at Nippur. Stephen Herbert Langdon also translated further parts of the text and discusses the myth saying, "One of the most remarkable tablets in the Museum is number 14005, a didactic poem in 61 lines on the period of pre-culture and institution of paradise by the earth god and the water god in Dilmun". Later work has added to this and modern translation has removed the deification of Lahar and Ashnan, naming them simply "grain" and "sheep" (also known as cattle).The story opens with a location "the hill of heaven and earth" which is discussed by Chiera as "not a poetical name for the earth, but the dwelling place of the gods, situated at the point where the heavens rest upon the earth. It is there that mankind had their first habitat, and there the Babylonian Garden of Eden is to be placed."[3] The Sumerian word Edin, means "steppe" or "plain",[13] so modern scholarship has abandoned the use of the phrase "Babylonian Garden of Eden" as it has become clear that the "Garden of Eden" was a later concept.[13] Jeremy Black suggests that this area was restricted for gods, noting that field plans from the Third dynasty of Ur use the term hursag ("hill") to describe the hilly parts of fields that are hard to cultivate due to the presence of prehistoric tell mounds (ruined habitations).[14] Kramer discusses the story of the god An creating the cattle-goddess, Lahar, and the grain goddess, Ashnan, to feed and clothe the Annunaki, who in turn made man. Lahar and Ashnan are created in the "duku" or "pure place" and the story further describes how the Annunaki create a sheepfold with plants and herbs for Lahar and a house, plough and yoke for Ashnan, describing the introduction of animal husbandry and agriculture.[15] The story continues with a quarrel between the two goddesses over their gifts which eventually resolves with Enki and Enlil intervening to declare Ashnan the victor.The benefits that grain and sheep bring to the habitation are also described:


They brought wealth to the assembly. They brought sustenance to the Land. They fulfilled the ordinances of the gods. They filled the store-rooms of the Land with stock. The barns of the Land were heavy with them. When they entered the homes of the poor who crouch in the dust they brought wealth. Both of them, wherever they directed their steps, added to the riches of the household with their weight. Where they stood, they were satisfying; where they settled, they were seemly. They gladdened the heart of An and the heart of Enlil.

The final merits of grain are emphasized in a proverb at the end of the myth:

Mount Ararat is widely considered a national symbol of Armenia. Due to its association with the Biblical flood story it is known as the “holy mountain” of the Armenian people. One author described the Armenians as having “a sense of possession of Ararat in the sense of symbolic cultural property.” It is featured prominently in Armenian literature and art. Along with Noah’s Ark, it is depicted on the coat of arms of Armenia.

The term Ararat derives from the Hebrew name of the ancient kingdom of Urartu. In the Armenian tradition Ararat, Ayrarat, Urartu or any variant thereof is the land rather than the “summit/peak”, but the biblical land of Ararat was confused with Masis , hence the world learned to call Masis as Ararat.
The traditional Armenian name is Masis, which is sometimes transliterated as Massis. The plural Masikʿ may refer to both peaks. The folk etymology expressed in Movses Khorenatsi’s History of Armenia derives the name from a king Amasya, the great-grandson of the legendary Armenian patriarch Hayk, who is said to have called the mountain Masis after himself.
If one were to read the prevailing reference to the mountain, like that of the Bible, one would see that it says – “on the mountains (plural) of Ararat, I.e “on the mountains in the Land of Ararat”. From sunrise till sunset, may the name of Grain be praised. People should submit to the yoke of Grain. Whoever has silver, whoever has jewels, whoever has cattle, whoever has sheep shall take a seat at the gate of whoever has grain, and pass his time there.Mashu to the Sumerians, was a sacred mountain. Its name means "twin" in Akkadian, and thus was it portrayed on Babylonian cylinder seals—a twin-peaked mountain, described by poets as both the seat of the gods, and the underworld (60). References or allusions to Mt. Mashu are found in three episodes of the Gilgamesh cycle which date between the third and second millennia B.C.
Mashu was located in a forest in the "land of the Living," where the names of the famous are written (61). It is alluded to in the episode "Gilgamesh and Humbaba."Aratta was a city, city-state, or country with which Sumerians had close trade and religious ties in the third millennium B.C. Its location is not known. Of four general sites suggested for Aratta, two are located in eastern Asia Minor: the Van-Urmia area and the Ayrarat district of historical Armenia. Gilgamesh continues in the forest and "uncovered the sacred dwelling of the Anunaki"—old gods who, like the Greek Titans, had been banished to the underworld (66). Furthermore, Gilgamesh seems to go into a death-like trance here (67); and in the same general region, the goddess Ishtar, whom Gilgamesh spurned, threatened to break in the doors of hell and bring up the dead to eat with the living (68).

Mashu is mentioned directly in the episode "Gilgamesh and the Search for Everlasting Life." This story unfolds after the death of Gilgamesh's friend, Enkidu, a wrenching experience which makes Gilgamesh face his own mortality and go searching for eternal life. It is en route to Utnapishtim, the one mortal to achieve immortality, that Gilgamesh comes to Mashu "the great mountain, which guards the rising and setting sun. Its twin peaks are as high as the wall of heaven and its roots reach down to the underworld. At its gate the Scorpions stand guard, half man and half dragon; their glory is terrifying; their stare strikes death into men, their shining halo sweeps the mountains that guard the rising sun" (69). Gilgamesh is able to convince the Scorpion-people to open the gate and let him enter the long tunnel through the mountains. Eventually Gilgamesh emerges from the tunnel into a fantastic Garden of the gods, whose trees bear glittering jewels instead of fruit (70).

In the view of several scholars, Mashu is also the mountain mentioned in the story that Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh. [18] Utnapishtim, sometimes called the "Sumerian Noah," told Gilgamesh how the gods had become angered with humanity and decided on the Flood as one means to exterminate it. A sympathetic god warned Utnapishtim and told him to build a boat and board it with his family, relatives, craftsmen, and the seed of all living creatures (71). After six days of tempest and flood, Utnapishtim's boat grounded on a mountain. He released a dove and a swallow, both of which returned to him. Then he released a raven which did not return; Utnapishtim and his family came down from the mountain. When the disgruntled gods are finally reconciled with the re-emergence of humanity, Utnapishtim and his wife are taken by the god Enlil to live in the blessed place where Gilgamesh found him "in the distance, at the mouth of the rivers" (72).

In his classic study, Armenia in the Bible, father Vahan Inglizian compared the above myths with the Biblical accounts of the Garden of Eden (Gen. 2) and the Flood (Gen.7-8), both of which he sited in eastern Asia Minor (73). Accepting Lehmann-Haupt's equation of the tunnel through Mashu with the naturally occuring subterannean Tigris tunnel near Bylkalein, Inglizian suggested that Mashu should be sought in the Armenian Taurus mountain range, south of Lake Van (74). It is in this same southern area, rather than at Mt. Ararat, that many scholars, including Inglizian, place the mountain of Noah (Gen. 8.4) (75). Inglizian suggested that the phrase "at the mouth of the rivers" describing the blessed land where Utnapishtim lived, should be understood to mean "at the sources of the [Tigris and Euphrates] rivers"
The early inhabitants of Mesopotamia were familiar with two parts of the Armenian highlands: the Diarbekir-Van-Urmia area in the south and (perhaps) the Ararat area in the north. In the stories of the Gilgamesh and Aratta cycles, eastern Asia Minor was considered a source of timber, precious stones, metal and skilled craftsmen. The Mother goddess is especially associated with the area, as are hybrid creatures such as the Scorpion-people, and monsters like Humbaba. Eastern Asia Minor is regarded as the place of salvation after the Deluge in most versions of the Flood story, including the account in Genesis. The early inhabitants of Mesopotamia also, apparently, regarded eastern Asia Minor as the location of the paradisical Garden of the gods, as well as the entrance to the underworld. The Hurrians, who lived in the environs of Lake Van, sited many of their myths in eastern Asia Minor. The volume of Hurrian material which, currently, is not great, can be expected to increase with future discoveries and publications. At present, nonetheless, based solely on the Kumarbi cycle, three images emerge of eastern Asia Minor: it was a place of metals and metallurgy from remote antiquity, a place where Ishtar/Saushka, the goddess of love and war, had special influence, and a place where monsters lived and grew—be it the serpent/dragon Hedammu, or Ullikummi himself, a monster made of volcanic rock.