Hayk the Great, or The Great Hayk, also known as Hayk Nahapet, is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. His story is told in the History of Armenia attributed to the Armenian historian Moses of Chorene.
Etymology
The name of the patriarch, of , the Armenian term for "Armenian." Some claim that the etymology of Hayk' from Hayk is impossible and that the origin of the term Hay is verifiable. Nevertheless, Hayk and Haig are usually connected to hay and hayer, the self-designation of the Armenians. Armen Petrosyan believes that the name Hayk can "very plausibly" be derived from the Indo-European *poti- ‘master, lord, master of the house, husband’. Hayk would then be an etiological founding figure, like e.g. Asshur for the Assyrians, etc. One of Hayk's most famous scions, Aram, settled in Eastern Armenia from the Mitanni kingdom, when Sargon II mentions a king of part of Armenia who bore the name Bagatadi. Some sources claim that Hayk is derived from the Urartian deity Ḫaldi. Armenian historiography of the Soviet era connected Hayk with Hayasa, mentioned in Hittite inscriptions. The Armenian word Haykakan or Haigagan finds its stem in this progenitor. Additionally, the poetic names for Armenians, Haykazun or Haykazn, also derives from Hayk.
Genealogy
"This is how the origination of the Armenian forefather is depicted in book of Movses Khorenatsi : 'The first of the gods were dreadful and outstanding and they were the reasons of world’s blessings, they were reasons of the beginning of world and population. From these gods the giants were originated... One of them was Yapetostean Hayk ….' In Christian period the Armenian legend was changed due to the understandings of Bible, according to which after the Flood the whole mankind was originated from Noah’s three sons. According to the new, Christianized version of the legend Hayk Nahapet is considered to be the son of Torgom nahapet who was one of the descendants of Japheth, in the medieval written sources the name given to Armenia 'Torgoma tun' and to the Armenians 'Torgomyan azg' comes from there." Moses of Chorene gave Hayk's genealogy as Japhet, Gomer and Tiras, Torgom. Hayk's descendants are given as Amasya, Ara, Aram, Aramais, Armanak, Gegham, and Harma. Hayk was also said to be the founder of the Haykazuni Dynasty. According to Juansher, Hayk "was prince of the seven brothers and stood in service to the giant Nimrod who first ruled the entire world as king." According to Moses of Chorene, the Armenian noble family, the Haykazunis, which included a number of legendary kings, descended from Hayk.
According to the accounts of Moses of Chorene and Sextus Julius Africanus, the battle occurred between the dynasty of Hayk and a Chaldean Dynasty in its third generation that had control of Babylon and the remaining territory of Akkadia under King Belus, a symbolic Babylonian/Akkadian God of War, or founder of Babylon depending on mythological tradition. The conflict is said to have happened in 2492 BCE or 2107 BCE. Bel may symbolize the Gutian dynasty of Sumer, which ruled remnants of Akkadia as a tyrannical power during a Mesopotamian Dark Age after the Akkadian Empirebroke up in 2154 BC. Gutia is also overlapping with Chaldeas territory. In Moses of Chorene's account, Hayk son of Torgom had a child named Armanak while he was living in Babylon. After the arrogant Titanid Bel made himself king over all, Hayk emigrated to the region near Mount Ararat. Hayk relocated near Mount Ararat with an extended household of at least 300 and settled there, founding a village he named Haykashen. On the way he had left a detachment in another settlement with his grandson Kadmos. Bel sent one of his sons to entreat him to return, but was refused. Bel decided to march against him with a massive force, but Hayk was warned ahead of time by Kadmos of his pending approach. He assembled his own army along the shore of Lake Van and told them that they must defeat and kill Bel, or die trying to do so, rather than become his slaves. In his writings Moses states that:
Hayk and his men soon discovered Bel's army positioned in a mountain pass, with the king in the vanguard. At Dyutsaznamart, near Julamerk southeast of Lake Van, on August 11, 2492 BC, Hayk slew Bel with a nearly impossible shot using a long bow, sending the king's forces into disarray. The hill where Bel with his warriors fell, Hayk named Gerezmank meaning "tombs". He embalmed the corpse of Bel and ordered it to be taken to Hark where it was to be buried in a high place in the view of the wives and sons of the king. Soon after, Hayk established the fortress of Haykaberd at the battle site and the town of Haykashen in the Armenian province of Vaspurakan. He named the region of the battle Hayk, and the site of the battle Hayots Dzor.
Comparative mythology
The figure slain by Hayk's arrow is variously given as Bel or Nimrod. Hayk is also the name of the Orion constellation in the Armenian translation of the Bible. Hayk's flight from Babylon and his eventual defeat of Bel, was historically compared to Zeus's escape to the Caucasus and eventual defeat of the Titans.
