Hayk the Patriarch

Among these giants was Hayk of the lineage of Habetosten — a renowned and valiant chieftain, a mighty archer and a keen-eyed bowman. Hayk was well-built and broad-shouldered, with powerful arms, curling hair, and beautiful vivid eyes. He was the one among the giants who alone dared to rise up against all those who lifted their hands against other giants and heroes and sought to dominate them. This was in the time when, in the wake of the Babylonian confusion, the human race had scattered and spread across the whole earth among vast, powerful, and brutal giants, each plunging a sword into a neighbour's side in savage fury for the sake of dominion. One of the giants — Bel the Titan — by chance succeeded in subjugating the rest, bringing all the earth and the human race under his sway, and proclaiming himself king and god.

Hayk rose against Bel, refused to submit to him, and with contempt declined to call him god. Bel then launched an assault against Hayk, but the valiant Hayk drove him back with his enormous bow.

During this time, in Babylon, Hayk's sons and daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren were born.

Hayk's firstborn son was Aramaneak (also called Armenak), whose firstborn was Aramais, whose firstborn was Amasia, whose son was Gegham, whose firstborn was Harma, whose firstborn was Aram, and whose firstborn son was Ara the Beautiful.

Unwilling to submit to Bel, Hayk set out from Babylon northward to the land of Ararat with his entire household — some three hundred souls, all of them mighty men — together with all his servants and handmaids and the foreigners who had attached themselves to him.

Here Hayk first settled on a plain at the foot of a mountain, where a small number of people already lived. Subduing them to his authority, he established a settlement with estates and left it as an inheritance to his grandson Kadmos, son of Aramaneak. He himself then moved with his remaining people and household further to the northwest, settled on an upland plain, and named this highland region Harq — meaning that those who dwell there are fathers, of the lineage of the House of Torgom. Here Hayk built a village and named it after himself: Haykashen. On the southern side of the plain, near a long mountain ridge, there likewise lived a small number of people who willingly submitted to the hero.

At that time in Babylon reigned Bel the Titan, the great hunter, who had brought all the nations of the earth under his dominion and by his magical arts and royal decree compelled all peoples to worship his proud and haughty image as a god and to offer him sacrifice.

All nations obeyed his commands immediately — all save the patriarch Hayk, who neither submitted to him, nor set up his image in his home, nor honoured him with divine ceremony.

Bel nursed his enmity toward Hayk but concealed it for a time, and sent one of his sons, escorted by trustworthy men, as an envoy to the north, to Hayk, urging him to submit and live in peace.

“You have settled amid the frozen cold,” Bel's message to Hayk through his ambassador said, “but warm and soften the icy coldness of your proud nature, submit to me, and live in peace in my land, wherever it pleases you to dwell.”

Hayk sternly rejected Bel's envoys, and they returned to Babylon empty-handed.

The enraged Bel the Titan mustered his army and, at the head of a vast infantry, marched north to the land of Ararat, to the place where Hayk's grandson Kadmos dwelt. Kadmos, seeking to avoid Bel, fled to Harq, sending messengers ahead to Hayk with the following word:

“Know, O greatest of heroes, that Bel marches straight upon you with warriors of eternal valour and giants rivalling the heavens in stature. Having learned that he has drawn near my home, I come to you in fear and anguish, a fugitive with my wife and children. Decide quickly what must be done.”

Learning this, Hayk took Aramaneak and Kadmos with their sons, as well as the sons of his seventy daughters — all mighty men — and went forth against the vast host of Bel.

With his small force, Hayk could not withstand the multitude of Bel's armed giants. Bel even attempted to capture Hayk, but Hayk slipped away and withdrew. Bel, clad in heavy armour, pursued Hayk with his army. Hayk turned back and said to Bel:

“Why do you pursue me in vain? Return to your place, lest you die at my hand this very day, for my arrow never misses.”

Bel replied:

“So that you do not fall into the hands of my soldiers and be slain — surrender, live in peace under my roof, and become the commander of my hunting warriors.”

Hayk said in anger:

“You are a dog, and you and your people are of the dog's own pack. For that, this very day I shall loose upon you the arrows of my quiver.”

But the keen and wise Hayk, with his small band of valiant archers, reached the shores of a great lake teeming with fish. Stopping at the lakeshore, he gathered his warriors and addressed them thus:

“When we go out against Bel's horde, let us strive to meet Bel where he stands amid the dense throng of his champions — either we must die and our entire house fall into Bel's service, or we must display the strength of our hands, scatter his rabble, and win the victory.”

Hayk led his small army forward, reached an open plain between high mountains, and took a firm position on the right bank of a river on the high ground. From there the vast horde of Bel was clearly visible, spread across the entire surrounding area, with soldiers moving freely and boldly in all directions. Bel himself stood calmly amid his multitude on a hill on the left bank of the river, as though on an observation post.

Hayk instantly noticed a detachment of armed men standing at a considerable distance from the main horde. Among them he recognised Bel, who wore an iron helmet with embossed rims, a bronze breastplate over his chest and shoulders, greaves and arm guards on his legs and arms, with a double-edged sword hanging from his belt on the left side; in his right hand he held an enormous spear, in his left a shield, and on either side of him stood chosen warriors.

Seeing Bel the Titan encased in his heavy armour and flanked on both sides by his finest warriors, Hayk placed Aramaneak with two brothers on his right, and Kadmos with two sons on his left, as skilled archers and swordsmen; he himself took the foremost position, placed the remaining warriors behind him, and arranging the whole force in a wedge, advanced calmly.

When the giants of both sides met and the fierce battle erupted, a terrible roar rose over the earth; the giants spread terror and dread upon one another by the sheer force of their monstrous charge. Many powerful men were cut down and fell on both sides, yet neither side was broken.

Seized with terror at this unexpected onslaught and the course of the battle, the Titan king, who had descended from the hill, began to fall back and climb it once more, intending to secure himself among his bodyguards until the full army could come up for a second engagement.

The sharp-eyed Hayk, seeing this, immediately divined Bel's intention: he hurled himself forward, drew close to the king, drew his broad and powerful bow to its full extent, and releasing a three-vaned arrow, struck squarely the bronze breastplate guarding Bel's chest. The arrow drove straight through the armour with tremendous force, emerged from Bel's back, and buried itself in the earth. The arrogant king toppled to the ground like a great statue of flesh, and breathed his last.

Bel's armed horde, witnessing this unheard-of feat of valour and the fall of their king, fled in terror. Hayk's warriors, pursuing many of them, captured vast herds of horses, mules, and camels.

On the site of the battle Hayk raised a settlement and named it Hayk, in commemoration of the victorious battle. From that name, the whole province is called Hayots Dzor to this day. The hill where Bel fell with his warriors, Hayk named Gerezmanq (the Sepulchres), which later became widely known by that name.

The Descendants of Hayk (Aramaneak, Aramais, Amasia, Gegham, Harma)

After slaying Bel, Hayk returned to his dwelling in Harq, gave his grandson Kadmos many gifts from the spoils of war as well as distinguished men from among his household's retinue, and commanded Kadmos to return to his former home and establish himself there permanently.

After many years of living in Harq, Hayk died, entrusting his entire people to his son Aramaneak.

Aramaneak left two of his brothers — Khor and Manavaz — and Manavaz's son Baz in Harq. Manavaz inherited Harq, and his son Baz inherited the northwestern shore of the saltwater lake, naming the province and the lake after himself: Bznunik and the Sea of Bznunik. From Manavaz there later descended the nakharardom of the Manavasians, and from Baz that of the Bznunians. Khor, for his part, built settlements in the northern regions, multiplied, and from him sprang the great nakharardom of the Khorkhourunis.

After Aramais's death, Armavir was inherited by his son Amasia. Amasia had three sons — Gegham, Parokh, and Tsolak. After the birth of the latter two, Amasia crossed the river, approached the foot of the tall southern mountain, and in its sheltered hollows built, at great expense, two dwellings — one to the east, near the springs rising at the mountain's foot, and the other to the west. These he left as an inheritance to his two sons — the valiant Parokh and the lively Tsolak — who, settling there, named them after themselves: Parikhot and Tsolakert. The towering mountain Amasia named after himself — Masis. After Amasia's death, his eldest son Gegham inherited Armavir, but soon left it to his own son Harma and moved to the shores of the lake lying beyond the northeastern mountains. Here he settled and developed the lakeshore, naming the mountain after himself — Geg — and the settlements and the lake — Gegharkunik. It was here that Gegham's son was born, named Sisak — tall and broad-shouldered, of graceful bearing, eloquent of speech, and a fine archer. Gegham granted him a portion of his estate and many servants, and established the boundaries of his land inheritance. He bestowed upon his son the territories east of Lake Gegharkunik, as far as the plain where the Yeraskh, having cleft the wedge-shaped mountain ranges and passed through long and narrow gorges, finally flows out. Settling in this region, Sisak built numerous hamlets, villages, and dwellings and named the land after himself — Syunik, or, as the Persians called it, Sisakan.

In the eastern part of the aforementioned plain, in a sheltered ravine at the foot of a mountain, Gegham built an estate and named it Gegham's; it was later renamed after his grandson Garnig and became known as Garni. In later years, during the reign of King Artashes, a young man of Gegham's lineage lived by the name of Varazh — a brave and accurate archer and a skilled hunter of deer, gazelles, and wild boar — whom King Artashes appointed as the royal chief huntsman and rewarded with numerous villages and settlements in the valley of the Hrazdan River. It is from this Varazh that the princely house of the Varazhnunis traces its origin.