[page 12]

1. One must not confuse the fortress of Ani (also called Kamakh; on modern maps, Kemakh) situated on the left bank of the Euphrates in Upper Armenia, with the city of Ani on the Axurian River, in the province of Ararat which was the capital of the Bagratid kingdom and whose ruins are well known. Cf. Saint-Martin, Mémoires sur l'Arménie, I, p. 72 and 111 ff.

2. Eriza, according to Tommaséo, Langlois, etc. However, Eriza is the genitive-dative form of Ere'z. See the two instances in Agat'angeghos (Venice, 1862) pp. 49 and 590.

1. See the map accompanying this study.

1. The word Vahe'vahe'an is still not sufficiently explained. It seems to stem from a form of Vahe'vahe', which is equivalent to Vahagn. Cf. Gelzer, Zur armen. Goetterlehre. p. 104; Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, I, pp. 76, 508.

2. The eighth... The majority of translators have not considered that the text here plainly concerns the eighth [and last] idol temple destroyed by saint Gregory. Tommaséo: celebrato col nome d'ottavo culto del cosi detto Vaacno; Langlois: célèbre par le nom de la huitième statue du dieu appelé Vahak'n; Hübschmann has translated it best: das achte berhmte Heiligthum, Arm Gramm. I, 76.

3. The Armenian text, literally translated calls the third temple "the sleeping chamber seneak of Vahagn." The same word seneak also means "concubine."

1. In the rest of Movses Xorenats'i's History the names of the gods used by Agat'angeghos are seldom encountered. It further appears that that author displays a certain repugnance to regard them in these forms as Armenian deities. Aramazd, the most frequently cited (I. 31; II. 53, 86; III. 15) is never called a god in Armenia (II. 53), rather he is a god of the Iberians (II. 86). Vahagn (I. 31; II. 8, 12), though a son of an Armenian king

has a statue among the Iberians who sacrifice to it (I. 31). Barschame'n (II. 14; I. 14 under the name Barscham) is worshipped by the Syrians. Mihr appears only once and as a Persian god (III. 17). Astghik also appears just once (I. 6) as a sister of Zrvan, Titan, and Yapetosthe' who are, according to Movses, Shem, Ham, and Japhet (see A. Carrière, Moïse de Khoren et les généalogies patriarcles , p. 42), thus she is Noah's daughter! Anahit, who was the great goddess of Armenia according to the unanimous testimony of antiquity, is never mentioned. Neither are the deities Tir and Nane'.

1. Agathangelus und die Akten Gregors von Armenien, neu herausgegeben von Paul de Lagarde (Goettingen, 1887).

2. We have seen above how the idols of Armavir were transported to Artashat.

3. Here we keep the genitive dios because all the other gods' names are in the genitive in the Greek text of agat'angeghos, as well as in the Armenian of Movses Xorenats'i. The passage concerning dios (ed. Lagarde, p. 67) presents a difficulty. the Armenian reads: "the altar of Aramazd, called the

father of all the gods" whereas the Greek has "the altar of Cronos, father of Dios the supreme god." This would have contradicted the customary usage of the translator for whom Aramazd is always Zeus (see the word Dia in Lagarde's index). We have no doubt that this is a correction by a copyist who, not accepting Zeus as "the father of the gods" added the name of Cronos (Saturn). To Movses Xorenat'si, Dios is the nominative form, the genitive being Diosi. Moreover Dios is ordinarily employed as a nominative in Armenian. See the numerous examples in Father Dashean's booklet Agat'angeghos ar' Ge'orgay asori episkopos [Agat'angeghos according to Bishop George the Syrian].

1. The two spellings Bagayar'inj and Bagayar'ij refer to the same place.

2. At press time I have found another instance of Barschamina in a variant reading in the Venice, 1835 edition of Agat'angeghos.

1. Hübschmann, Armenische Grammatik, I, p. 212.

1. La légende d'Abgar, p. 385.

2. Or Vahnunik'. The most recent editions of Movses have Vahunik'.

1. ...taran i gawar'n Taro'noy i bnik giwghn iwr[eants'] sep'hakan` yanuaneal Ashtishat, cf. Koriwn, ed. 1833, p. 25, and Moïse Khor. III. 67.

2. A. Carrière, Nouvelles sources de Moïse de Khoren. Supplément, p. 22.

1. One can get some idea of this from the following detail: according to Movses Xorenat'si the two statues at Artashat are 1. Artemis-Anahit, and 2. Apollo-Tir. However the sanctuaries were destroyed in reverse order, first that of Tir followed by that of Anahit. Nonethless Movses Xorenats'i reproduces the names in exactly the same order as they appear in the text of Agat'angeghos: "Trdat set out to destroy the temple of Anahit. En route he came upon the temple of Tir and destroyed it before that of Anahit" (Agat. p. 584).

1. This is not the first time that Movses Xorenats'i tells us about

the "temple histories which narrate the deeds of the kings." These "temple histories" existed in the archives at Edessa (II. 10) where they had been transported from Nisibis (II.27) and from the city of Sinope in Pontus (II. 38). In an earlier publication (La légende d'Abgar, p. 361 ff.) we have indicated that these alleged sources should be regarded as imaginary. Subsequently we have concluded that Movses took this idea of the "temple histories" from Eusebius' Chronicle, which he frequently used. [As Eusebius notes] Manetho wrote based on the histories of the temples (i mehenakan patmut'eants') where the Greek text has eichon anagraphas en tais irais biblois; ibid. I, 133; see also I. 208.

1. This mention of a Syriac redaction and the translation from Syriac into Greek is taken from Eusebius (History of the Church, IV, 30; Arm. version p. 312) which is the source of much of Xorenats'i's chapter 66. However Eusebius' information about the writings of Bardesan has no mention of any "temple histories."

2. Reading patmut'eants' in place of the text's pashtamants'.

3. Baguan or Bagawan, "awan (village, small town) of the gods" (Hübschmann, Arm. Gram.

p. 113). Agat (p. 612) states that this is a Parthian word and that its Armenian equivalent is Dits'awan ("town of idols/gods"). Movses Xorenats'i renders this as Bagnats'awan ("town of altars"), cf. II. 55; III. 67.

1. Cf. H. Gelzer, Zur armen. Götterlehre, p. 132ff.

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