Tzovinar (Ծովինար) or Nar (Նար) was the Armenian goddess of water, sea, and rain. 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.

Name and etymology

Her name can be decomposed into two parts:

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

Old Armenian Classical Armenian (, , ; meaning "literary anguage; also Old Armenian or Liturgical Armenian) is the oldest attested form of the Armenian language. It was first written down at the beginning of the 5th century, and most Armenian literature fro ...

''tzov'' 'sea, large body of water', and ''nar'' or ''Nar''. The word ''cov'' is considered by some scholars to be a loanword from

Urartian Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushp ...

''ṣûǝ'', meaning '(inland) sea'. The second part is speculated to be related to Nara, a Hittite or Hurrian deity. Scholar James R. Russell translates her name as 'Lady of the Lake', from ''cov'' ('sea') and ''nār'' from Proto-Indo-European ('woman'). Larisa Yeganyan translates the name as 'Marine' or 'Nymph of the Sea'. Tsovinar Harutyunyan interprets her name as "the sea", "the spirit of the sea" and "the light of the sea". According to Armen Petrosyan, ''Covinar'', a character in Armenian epic, is also called ''Covean'' or ''Coveal'' ('Marine'), both deriving from ''cov'' 'sea'. However,

Hrach Martirosyan Hrach K. Martirosyan (; born in Vanadzor in 1964) is an Armenian linguist. He is currently Lecturer in Eastern Armenian in the department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Martirosyan conside ...

interprets ''*Covean'' as 'lightning/thunder goddess of the celestial Purple Sea'. According to Artin K. Shalian, ''Dzovinar'' either means 'a cloudless lightning shaft' or 'sea-born'.

Role

As a goddess

Yeganyan associates Tzovinar with the celestial waters or a primordial ocean, where the rain waters gather. On the other hand, Armenian folklorist

Manuk Abeghian Manuk Khachaturi Abeghyan (, , alternatively Manouk Abeghian or Manuk Abeghian, 1865 – 26 September 1944) was an Armenians, Armenian Philology, philologist, Literary criticism, literary scholar, Folklore studies, folklorist, Lexicography, lexic ...

interpreted her as "an angry storm goddess". 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.

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: by drinking of the spring or ''Kat'nov haxpür'' ('Milky Fountain'), she becomes pregnant with heroes Sanasar and Baghdasar. In another account, Covinar drinks a "milky liquid" that sprouts from a rock in the middle of

Lake Van Lake Van (; ; ) is the largest lake in Turkey. It lies in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey in the provinces of Van Province, Van and Bitlis Province, Bitlis, in the Armenian highlands. It is a Salt lake, saline Soda lake, soda lake, receiv ...

Parallels

Russell sees a parallel between Covinar's impregnation episode with a similar event involving Ossetian character ''

Satanaya Satanaya ( ; ; Ubykh ; ''Satana'') is a mythological figure who appears in many cycles of the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus. Satanaya is the mother of the Narts, a fertility figure who is also an authority over her children. Satanaya is o ...

'', in the

Nart sagas The Nart sagas (; ; ) are a series of tales originating from the North Caucasus. They form much of the basic mythology of the ethnic groups in the area, including Abazin, Abkhaz, Circassian, Ossetian, Karachay- Balkar, and to some extent ...

. It is also been suggested that both characters are remnants of Scythian goddess

Api An application programming interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how to build ...

,Hovannisian, Richard G.
Armenian Van/Vaspurakan
'. Mazda Publishers, 2000. p. 55. . described as a mother goddess tied to water.

References

External links

Armenian Mythology from the Tour Armenia site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsovinar (Goddess) Armenian goddesses Sea and river goddesses Sky and weather goddesses