Movses Khorenatsi
5th century CE
translated by Jason Colavito
2025
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NOTE |
Movses Khorenatsi is believed to be a fifth-century Armenian historian, though he is not securely attested in Armenian literature before 900 CE, suggesting to some scholars that he was medieval rather than Late Antique in date. The pendulum has swung repeatedly on this, and the current consensus seems to be that he is fifth-century in date. His History of the Armenians is the first universal history of Armenia. In the passage below, Movses presents an account of the aftermath of the Flood that merges a number of sources, primarily drawn from Eusebius's Chronicle, with references to Greek texts and oral traditions otherwise unattested. Scholarly opinion has been divided. Some scholars argued that he drew on now-lost original sources, or even the lost chronicle of Sextus Julius Africanus, while others have suggested that Movses made up his sources. My translation below is made from the French edition of P. E. La Valliant de Florival published in 1841.
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History of the Armenians 1.6
Extracting the truth, as far as possible, from a large number of writers, we have arranged the lineage of the three sons of Noah, back to Abraham, Ninus, and Aram. I believe no one among men of understanding will object to this. But if, believing that they wish to break the pattern of truth, someone takes pleasure in turning my true words into fables, that is their prerogative; let everyone enjoy themselves as they wish.
If you are grateful for our vigilance and our efforts, O you friend of instruction, you who are the patron of this work, I will repeat briefly what we have established above. I have told how the first among the chroniclers took pleasure in writing on these subjects, although I cannot say here whether it was in the libraries of the kings that they found these documents, or whether each one according to his whim changed the names, the stories, the times, or whether there was some other reason. [1] As for the beginning [i.e. the Creation], sometimes they give truth, sometimes falsehood, as with their accounts of the first created being, whom they do not call the first man, but king, and also give him a barbaric, meaningless name, and they give him a life of thirty-six thousand years; but as for the number of patriarchs and the mention of the Flood, there is agreement with Moses. Likewise, after the Flood, in placing three famous figures before the building of the tower, after Xisut’ra’s voyage to Armenia [2], these chroniclers tell the truth; as for the change of names, and on many other points as well, they lie.
But now I will rejoice in beginning my stories according to my beloved Sibyl of Berossus, [3] who is more truthful than many historians. “Before the Tower,” she said, “and the multiplication of languages among humankind, after Xisut’ra’s voyage to Armenia, Zrvan [4], Titan, and Iapetus were princes of the earth.” These figures appear to me to be Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
"No sooner had they divided the entire universe under their dominion than Zrvan established himself as master over his two co-partitioners." The magician Zradasht (Zoroaster), king of the Bactrians, that is, of the Medes, claimed to be the origin and father of the gods. Zradasht also told many other fables about Zrvan, fables that it would be inappropriate to reproduce here.
"Titan and Iapetus opposed the tyranny of Zrvan and engaged in war with him. For Zrvan thought of making his children kings over everyone. In this conflict, Titan,” she says, “seized part of Zrvan’s territory: but their sister Astlik, interposing between them, put an end to the dispute. They agreed to let Zrvan reign, but they agreed by a sworn treaty to kill every male child born to Zrvan, so that he would not reign over them in his posterity: this is why they appointed strong men from among the Titans to oversee the births of Zrvan’s wives. Already two male children were sacrificed to maintain the sworn pact, when Astlik, along with Zrvan’s wives, undertook the project of convincing the Titans to let the other male children live, and to send them to the West on the mountain called Diwts‘enkets‘, now Olympus."
Although these stories are sometimes treated as fables or sometimes held to be true, I am persuaded to find much truth in them: for Epiphanes, Bishop of Constance in Cyprus, in his Refutation of Heresies, when he undertakes to show that God is true and just in his judgments, even in exterminating the seven races at the hands of the children of Israel, expresses himself thus: “It was with justice that God annihilated and made these races disappear from before the children of Israel; for the land of these possessions had fallen to the children of Shem as a portion, and Ham came upon this land and seized it. Now God, preserving the rights of the sworn treaties, took vengeance on the race of Ham by tearing from them the inheritance of Shem.” [5] The Titans and the Raphaims are mentioned in the divine scriptures. [6]
But, as for those ancient oral accounts told in the past among the wise men of Greece, and transmitted to us by writers named Gorgias, Banan, and even a third personage called David [7], we must, although in very few words, repeat these discourses. One of these people, well-versed in philosophy, spoke thus: “Old men, when I was among the Greeks cultivating wisdom, it happened one day that there was a conversation and a dissertation among these wise and learned men on the subject of geography and the division of nations. Some interpreted in one way and others in another quotations from books; now the most profound of all, Olympiodorus, [8] expressed himself thus: “I will relate to you,” he said, “the unwritten tales, which have come down to us by tradition, stories that many peasants still tell. There is a book concerning Xisut‘ra and his children, a book that is nowhere to be seen today, a book, it is said, in which the following account may be found:
“‘After Xisut‘ra’s voyage to Armenia and his arrival on dry land, one of his sons named Sem, it is said, went northwest to reconnoiter the country. Having arrived at a small plain at the foot of a long-based mountain, a plain crossed by a river, which carried its waters to Assyria, he stopped on the banks of the river for the time of two moons, and called the mountain by his name, Sem; then he returned to the southeast, from whence he had come. One of his younger sons, named Taraban, with his thirty brothers, his fifteen sisters and their husbands, having separated from his father, returned to settle on these same banks. Sem, from the name of his son, calls the province Tarawan; as for the place where he himself lived, he calls it Ts‘rawnk‘ (dispersion): for there took place the beginning of the separation of his children far from him. Having gone to the borders of the country of the Bactrians, it is said, he remained there a few days, but one of his sons remained there: for the countries of the east call Sim, Zrvan, and its canton Zaruand, until now.’” [9]
But often, very often, the ancient descendants of Aram [10] retell these popular traditions in their ballads for the lyre and their songs and dances. Whether these stories are false or true, it matters little to us. But to instruct you in all that is found in oral tradition and in books, I review everything in this work, so that you may know the full sincerity of my disposition towards you.
Notes
[1] This is quite ironic, since Movses himself rewrote and fabricated material promiscuously. Perhaps this was a secret confession.
[2] The Armenian name for the Mesopotamian Flood hero, known in Greek as Xisuthrus, from the Neo-Assyrian Akkadian Ziusudra. Movses, taking the name from the Armenian translation of Eusebius’ Chronicle, has interpolated it into a text where originally Noah was indicated (see note 3 below).
[3] The 1978 English translator, Robert W. Thompson, read this as an appositive, “my beloved Sibyl, Berossus,” with a masculine pronoun (“he”), while the French translator P. E. La Valliant, in 1841, read it as an adjective, “ma chere Sibille berosienne,” with feminine pronouns. It seems Movses was actually referring to the “Sibyl of Berossus,” Sabbe, the alleged daughter of Berossus who served as the Hebrew Sibyl (Pausanias 10.12.9) and composed the Pseudo-Sibylline oracles, from which the quotation is roughly and inaccurately drawn. It makes more sense to me that Movses would attribute the paraphrased quotation to his actual source than to one his readers would know did not say it. The quoted material comes from the Pseduo-Sibylline Oracles 3.97-121, a Jewish and Christian forgery, but Mosves has translated the names into Armenian, and has merged the Sibyl’s references to Noah with Berossus’ references to Xisuthrus, likely because he did not know the Sibylline Oracles firsthand and assumed that Berossus’ daughter would use the same names as Berossus.
[4] Movses equates the Zoroastrian Zurvan (Zrvan in Armenian), the ancient father of the gods and first principle, with Kronos, the father of the Olympians.
[5] Abridged from Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses 83.
[6] The Titans are not actually named in Scripture. Movses is presumably referring to pagan deities such as Rimmon, the Syrian storm god mentioned in 2 Kings 5:18.
[7] These names are not easily identifiable. The last may be David Anyalt‘.
[8] While there are many Greek writers named Olympiodorus, none wrote in such detail on Armenian geography, suggesting that either the quotation or the author, or both, are inventions of Movses.
[9] Movses switches from identifying the ancient god Zrvan with Kronos to identifying him with Sem.
[10] Josephus makes Aram the father of the founder of Armenia in Antiquities 1.6.14, and Movses, in his account of Semiramis’s love for Aram’s son Arai (1.15), makes Aram the progenitor of the Armenians.
If you are grateful for our vigilance and our efforts, O you friend of instruction, you who are the patron of this work, I will repeat briefly what we have established above. I have told how the first among the chroniclers took pleasure in writing on these subjects, although I cannot say here whether it was in the libraries of the kings that they found these documents, or whether each one according to his whim changed the names, the stories, the times, or whether there was some other reason. [1] As for the beginning [i.e. the Creation], sometimes they give truth, sometimes falsehood, as with their accounts of the first created being, whom they do not call the first man, but king, and also give him a barbaric, meaningless name, and they give him a life of thirty-six thousand years; but as for the number of patriarchs and the mention of the Flood, there is agreement with Moses. Likewise, after the Flood, in placing three famous figures before the building of the tower, after Xisut’ra’s voyage to Armenia [2], these chroniclers tell the truth; as for the change of names, and on many other points as well, they lie.
But now I will rejoice in beginning my stories according to my beloved Sibyl of Berossus, [3] who is more truthful than many historians. “Before the Tower,” she said, “and the multiplication of languages among humankind, after Xisut’ra’s voyage to Armenia, Zrvan [4], Titan, and Iapetus were princes of the earth.” These figures appear to me to be Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
"No sooner had they divided the entire universe under their dominion than Zrvan established himself as master over his two co-partitioners." The magician Zradasht (Zoroaster), king of the Bactrians, that is, of the Medes, claimed to be the origin and father of the gods. Zradasht also told many other fables about Zrvan, fables that it would be inappropriate to reproduce here.
"Titan and Iapetus opposed the tyranny of Zrvan and engaged in war with him. For Zrvan thought of making his children kings over everyone. In this conflict, Titan,” she says, “seized part of Zrvan’s territory: but their sister Astlik, interposing between them, put an end to the dispute. They agreed to let Zrvan reign, but they agreed by a sworn treaty to kill every male child born to Zrvan, so that he would not reign over them in his posterity: this is why they appointed strong men from among the Titans to oversee the births of Zrvan’s wives. Already two male children were sacrificed to maintain the sworn pact, when Astlik, along with Zrvan’s wives, undertook the project of convincing the Titans to let the other male children live, and to send them to the West on the mountain called Diwts‘enkets‘, now Olympus."
Although these stories are sometimes treated as fables or sometimes held to be true, I am persuaded to find much truth in them: for Epiphanes, Bishop of Constance in Cyprus, in his Refutation of Heresies, when he undertakes to show that God is true and just in his judgments, even in exterminating the seven races at the hands of the children of Israel, expresses himself thus: “It was with justice that God annihilated and made these races disappear from before the children of Israel; for the land of these possessions had fallen to the children of Shem as a portion, and Ham came upon this land and seized it. Now God, preserving the rights of the sworn treaties, took vengeance on the race of Ham by tearing from them the inheritance of Shem.” [5] The Titans and the Raphaims are mentioned in the divine scriptures. [6]
But, as for those ancient oral accounts told in the past among the wise men of Greece, and transmitted to us by writers named Gorgias, Banan, and even a third personage called David [7], we must, although in very few words, repeat these discourses. One of these people, well-versed in philosophy, spoke thus: “Old men, when I was among the Greeks cultivating wisdom, it happened one day that there was a conversation and a dissertation among these wise and learned men on the subject of geography and the division of nations. Some interpreted in one way and others in another quotations from books; now the most profound of all, Olympiodorus, [8] expressed himself thus: “I will relate to you,” he said, “the unwritten tales, which have come down to us by tradition, stories that many peasants still tell. There is a book concerning Xisut‘ra and his children, a book that is nowhere to be seen today, a book, it is said, in which the following account may be found:
“‘After Xisut‘ra’s voyage to Armenia and his arrival on dry land, one of his sons named Sem, it is said, went northwest to reconnoiter the country. Having arrived at a small plain at the foot of a long-based mountain, a plain crossed by a river, which carried its waters to Assyria, he stopped on the banks of the river for the time of two moons, and called the mountain by his name, Sem; then he returned to the southeast, from whence he had come. One of his younger sons, named Taraban, with his thirty brothers, his fifteen sisters and their husbands, having separated from his father, returned to settle on these same banks. Sem, from the name of his son, calls the province Tarawan; as for the place where he himself lived, he calls it Ts‘rawnk‘ (dispersion): for there took place the beginning of the separation of his children far from him. Having gone to the borders of the country of the Bactrians, it is said, he remained there a few days, but one of his sons remained there: for the countries of the east call Sim, Zrvan, and its canton Zaruand, until now.’” [9]
But often, very often, the ancient descendants of Aram [10] retell these popular traditions in their ballads for the lyre and their songs and dances. Whether these stories are false or true, it matters little to us. But to instruct you in all that is found in oral tradition and in books, I review everything in this work, so that you may know the full sincerity of my disposition towards you.
Notes
[1] This is quite ironic, since Movses himself rewrote and fabricated material promiscuously. Perhaps this was a secret confession.
[2] The Armenian name for the Mesopotamian Flood hero, known in Greek as Xisuthrus, from the Neo-Assyrian Akkadian Ziusudra. Movses, taking the name from the Armenian translation of Eusebius’ Chronicle, has interpolated it into a text where originally Noah was indicated (see note 3 below).
[3] The 1978 English translator, Robert W. Thompson, read this as an appositive, “my beloved Sibyl, Berossus,” with a masculine pronoun (“he”), while the French translator P. E. La Valliant, in 1841, read it as an adjective, “ma chere Sibille berosienne,” with feminine pronouns. It seems Movses was actually referring to the “Sibyl of Berossus,” Sabbe, the alleged daughter of Berossus who served as the Hebrew Sibyl (Pausanias 10.12.9) and composed the Pseudo-Sibylline oracles, from which the quotation is roughly and inaccurately drawn. It makes more sense to me that Movses would attribute the paraphrased quotation to his actual source than to one his readers would know did not say it. The quoted material comes from the Pseduo-Sibylline Oracles 3.97-121, a Jewish and Christian forgery, but Mosves has translated the names into Armenian, and has merged the Sibyl’s references to Noah with Berossus’ references to Xisuthrus, likely because he did not know the Sibylline Oracles firsthand and assumed that Berossus’ daughter would use the same names as Berossus.
[4] Movses equates the Zoroastrian Zurvan (Zrvan in Armenian), the ancient father of the gods and first principle, with Kronos, the father of the Olympians.
[5] Abridged from Epiphanius, Adversus Haereses 83.
[6] The Titans are not actually named in Scripture. Movses is presumably referring to pagan deities such as Rimmon, the Syrian storm god mentioned in 2 Kings 5:18.
[7] These names are not easily identifiable. The last may be David Anyalt‘.
[8] While there are many Greek writers named Olympiodorus, none wrote in such detail on Armenian geography, suggesting that either the quotation or the author, or both, are inventions of Movses.
[9] Movses switches from identifying the ancient god Zrvan with Kronos to identifying him with Sem.
[10] Josephus makes Aram the father of the founder of Armenia in Antiquities 1.6.14, and Movses, in his account of Semiramis’s love for Aram’s son Arai (1.15), makes Aram the progenitor of the Armenians.
Source: Möise de Khoréne, Histoire d’Armenie, trans. P. E. La Valliant de Florival (Venice: 1841), 29-37.
