Argavan

According to legend, the wife of King Artashes , the Alanian princess Satenik , was in love with the king of dragons Argavan. She also wanted to get the magic grass that Argavan was hiding in his pillows. According to the Armenian poet Hovhannes Tumanyan , flowers meant love for Argavan ^[2] . The courtiers of the Armenian king became aware of the queen's predilections, and intrigues unfolded in the palace.

Years later, the son of Artashes and Satenik, the prince Artavazd , had matured, persuading his father to war with Argavan. Many researchers are inclined to the version that the reason for the outbreak of war by Artavazd is rather his ambitious nature than the restoration of the honor of the family. The outcome of the war is the overthrow of Argavan from the throne and the coronation of Artavazd to his throne. However, the story does not end there. Deprived of his throne, Argavan invites the imperial family to a conciliatory dinner, plotting cunning. The plot becomes known at the time of the reception, and the imperial family takes up arms in order to punish the conspirators. Upon returning to Artashat, Artashes sends his son Mazhan to exterminate the Muratsyan family together with the palace of Argavan. Also, apparently in revenge for the scolded honor because of Satenik, Artashes orders to bring the concubine of Argavan, the beautiful Mand, to him. However, Mazhan could not fulfill his father’s order, and Artavazd set to work, destroying the Vishaps and Argavan in particular.

It is noteworthy that the Gokhtan songs speak of the ruin of the Vishap temple. According to some researchers, the Vishap temple refers to the descendants of the Medes, whose ancestors were once captured by Tigran Yervandyan, who settled in Armenia. And the Medes were known as dragon worshipers, in contrast to the Armenians, whose religion was of the opposite, “dragon-fighting” nature.

According to some, probably more recent information, the Archangel Gabriel helped to defeat the Vishapas, since the mere mortal was not given the chance to defeat the dragon ^[3] .

In Ossetian legends, Satenik betrays Uryzmagu represented as her husband with the son of the local Vulcan Safa. Ossetian legends are quite similar to the epic about Artashes and his unfaithful wife, who cheated on him with vishap. Also, an episode reminiscent of the treacherous reception of the royal family from Argavan is known from the Nart epic. The epos says that the Narts invited Urygzmag to a feast with the secret intention of killing, but the conspiracy broke through thanks to the faithful Uryzmag Satenik and the nephew of Batraz, who killed all the gathered sleds with a sword. In this case, the myth of reprisal during the feast, which is often used by many peoples, has a “back reaction” in comparison with the Armenian epos. So, if the figures of Argavan and Uryzmag are more or less identical, then Artavazd and Batraz out of common have only unbridled disposition, fighting on different sides; the plot is also directly opposite to the Armenian one ^[4] .

According to a rational interpretation, Argavan and his tribe were the descendants of the Medes, whom Tigran the Ancient had settled at the time of Mount Masis . Thus, it turns out that Argavan became a very powerful man, creating a state of the Medes inside Armenia and in fact deciding to secede.

Kurds , according to one version, are considered descendants of the Medes, have in their own language the words Argam and Argavan , respectively, meaning the Judas tree and its flower ^[5] . This can explain the addiction to the flowers of Argam in Queen Satenik. Argavan is also a female name among Iranian-speaking peoples and is translated as red purple .

The name Argam-Argavan is preserved in the names of two villages called Aygavan in the Ararat region and near Yerevan .

• The origins of Armenian poetry , Levon Miridzhanyan; Foreword G. Grigoryan, 214 p., Yerevan Sovetakan Grokh 1980
• Myths of Armenia , Martiros Ananikyan, 2010, Centerpolygraph, ISBN 978-5-227-02375-9
• S. B. Harutyunyan // The main features of ancient Armenian mythology. Պատմա-բանասիրական հանդես, No. 3. pp. 57–66. - 2006 ISSN 0135-0536 [1]
• Myths of the peoples of the world , ed. Tokareva S.A. - M., Soviet Encyclopedia, 1987 - v. 1 - 671 p.