During my many wanderings in Yerevan
when I began my tenure with Birthright Armenia in April 2015, I happened to
walk near an observatory. Outside this observatory I made the unexpected
discovery of a statue of the Goddess Anahit. It was in somewhat poor condition,
unfortunately, cracked and crumbling in places. But she stood tall and proud. I
would visit this statue again whenever I happened to be in the area. Anahit was
the Goddess of motherhood, femininity, and in early times war, although the
Goddess Nane eventually took that role. She was a favorite in Armenia.
I would see Anahit many other times
while I was in Armenia; a replica bust at Armenian History Museum; on a banner
over the popular flea market in Yerevan known as Vernissage, and there was even
a beauty salon in Vanadzor that used her name and image (pictured above). This image is based on
a statue unearthed in what is today known as eastern Turkey, but was well
within Armenia’s historic borders. The statue eventually ended up in the
British Museum of Natural History, where it is often mischaracterized as a
statue of the Greek Goddess Artemis. It’s another illustration of how Armenia
has lost its place in history, due to centuries of colonization and genocide;
not to mention the erasure of history by early Christian Armenians of the old
Gods. But after more than 1,700 years of Christianity, Anahit has still not
been erased from her lands. She turns up when you least expect, making Her
presence known. Anahit is still a popular girl’s name as well. If my son had
instead been a daughter, I would have named her Anahit.
I find it fascinating that Anahit's statue seems to take on different facial expressions depending on how you view it.
Compare the above to this image, taken at the Vernissage market.
I’ve often wondered about this
statue. Who buried it, and why? Was it perhaps hidden there by devout Anahit
followers, fleeing Christian persecution? Were they going to come back for it,
but were for some reason unable to? All of the other statues and temples of
Anahit were destroyed. This one statue survived. And with it, the memory of
Anahit. Was that the intention of the people who buried the statue; to make sure at least one survived? This is only real image of Anahit we still have. That the statue later
ended up in England after being discovered by a Turkish farmer and passed
around on the black market and was mislabeled as a statue of Artemis is not
only due to Turkey’s infamous genocidal ethnic cleansing and historic erasure.
Some of the blame must also lie with the overzealous early Christians who
destroyed so much of Armenia’s history. Egypt and Greece were converted, and
they don’t have this problem. Their history and myths are well documented. Why
was Armenia different? All it did was make it that much easier for Armenia’s
modern enemies to claim that they never existed. This self-destructiveness
1,700 years ago negatively impacts Armenia to this day. There was an effort in
the early 2010’s to get the statue transferred back to Armenia from England,
but predictably this didn’t go anywhere. The statue wasn’t found in
Armenia’s modern territory, and wasn’t looted or stolen per se, just dug up.
Even countries with much stronger cases than that, such as Greece and its Elgin Marbles or all of Egypt’s stolen artifacts, never get their artifacts back from
England. At least Armenia has a pretty nice replica for their museum.
April 6th is the date of
Anahit’s holiday, Mayreri Or; essentially a Mother’s Day. Although on leap
years, due to the fact that the old Armenian calendar adds its extra days at
the end of its year (just before August 11th), it would be more
accurate to celebrate it on April 5th this year. The Christians did
end up appropriating this holiday, making the focus on the Virgin Mary instead.
But this all predates the more mainstream American version of the holiday in
May, started by greeting card companies. A couple years ago I marked the day by
painting a portrait of Anahit’s bust (going off the image I found of her from
the beauty salon in Vanadzor), using golden paint in honor of one of her titles
the Voskemayr, or Golden Mother in English. It was my way of keeping the
memory of the distant past alive. An homage to my distant ancestors.
References
Siamanto
was an Armenian poet who often included pagan elements in his poetry. Although
this poem is specifically dedicated to Navasard, it is also dedicated to
Anahit.
As
you could probably tell, I was mainly the one who wrote and edited this article, and
contributed some of my own pictures.
This
has some good basic historical information on Anahit.
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