Mihr

The cult of Mihr was widespread throughout ancient Armenia. The eighth day of every month in the ancient Armenian calendar bore his name — Mihr — and the seventh month, corresponding to present-day February, likewise carried his name: Mehekan. The word for Armenian pagan sanctuaries in general — mehyan — also derives from his name.

The name and deeds of Mihr, in somewhat altered form, survive in the heroic epic “Sasna Tsrer” (David of Sassoun), in the figures of Great Mher and Little Mher.

According to “Sasna Tsrer,” Great Mher was the son of Sanassar, born of the sea. He was still only fifteen years old when famine and hardship fell upon Sassoun. It emerged that a ferocious lion had appeared in the mountains of Sassoun, blocking all the roads leading into the city, tearing apart all who passed, and allowing neither bread nor any other goods to enter Sassoun.

When Mher learned the cause of the shortage and the famine, he set out the very next day to fight the lion. Seeing Mher approach, the lion charged at him in fury, lashing its tail against the ground and raising clouds of dust. When his companions told him that the creature approaching was indeed the lion, Mher went to meet it unarmed. He grappled with the lion, cried out his ancestral oath — “Bread and wine, the Lord liveth” — seized the lion with one hand by the upper jaw and the other by the lower, pulled them apart, tore the lion in two, placed one half on one side of the road and the other half on the other side, and returned to Sassoun. From that day on he was called Mher the Lion-Render.

Great Mher was then advised to go and seek the hand of Armaghan, daughter of the king of Aghjagla Yaller. When Mher arrived in that city, he found all its people dressed in black and weeping. He asked the cause of their grief. It emerged that a dragon had taken up residence in a mountain cave near the city — the very source of the city's water — blocking the spring and cutting off the flow. Each time, in exchange for a little water, the dragon demanded a girl. The city had been thirsting for seven days. That day it was the turn of the king's daughter; she was to be given to the dragon, and for this reason the whole city was in mourning. Mher went to the cave and ordered the townspeople to bring the king's daughter there. He stood by the cave's entrance; the king's daughter was brought, clothed in black. When the dragon saw the girl, it crawled out of the cave to swallow her. Mher drew his sword and struck off all seven of the dragon's heads — from which rose dense fire and smoke. He rolled the slain dragon down from the cave; immediately a murky torrent of blood gushed forth, which gradually began to clear and run clean. The people in their joy threw themselves into the water, drank, and celebrated.

At the moment the blood-water began to flow, the king's daughter dipped her hand into the blood and pressed it against Mher's back, then returned to the palace. When the king saw his daughter, he rejoiced greatly and asked how she had been saved and who had freed her. The girl said nothing. The king ordered that the dragon-slayer be found and brought before him, promising to give his daughter in marriage to the man.

Many came forward claiming they had killed the dragon. Armaghan exposed each one as a liar. At last Mher came before the king. The king asked:

— Was it you who saved my daughter?

— It was I, — said Mher, — with my sword I struck off the dragon's seven heads.

But the king did not believe him either. As Mher turned to leave, Armaghan noticed the bloodstained imprint of her hand on his back, stepped forward, took him by the arm, and presented him to her father.

— Father-King, this is the young man who freed me — it is he I must marry.

It should be noted that, when telling the tale of the lion, bards interpreted the epithet “Lion-Render” primarily in its literal sense — as one who tears a lion apart. Yet there exist versions of the epic in which the lion-killing motif is entirely absent, while Mher is still called Lion-Mher. The original meaning of the epithet appears to have been the second one — “bearing the form or likeness of a lion” — since in numerous ancient Roman reliefs depicting the god Mithra-Mihr, he is shown with the head of a lion and the body of a man. Hence the name Lion-Mher, preserved in certain versions of the epic.

The king rejoiced, gave Armaghan to Mher, and Mher brought her back to Sassoun.

In another version of the legend, it is the White Dev (demon) who abducts Armaghan and carries her off to his dwelling on the peak of a mountain from which a spring flows. Mher, through inquiry, finds the demon's lair, wakes him from sleep, fights him in single combat, kills the White Dev, frees Armaghan, brings her back to Sassoun, and takes her as his wife.

Little Mher is the grandson of Great Mher and the son of David. At birth, one of his hands was clenched in a fist; no matter how hard they tried, they could not open it. His father David was called, or his uncle Toros, who by rubbing or praying managed to open Mher's fist — and inside was found a clot of congealed blood. It was foretold that Mher had taken the whole world and compressed it into a clot of blood in his fist.

In some versions, the mother — Khandut — hearing the clash of the duel, came to intervene, but the two men, heated with combat, did not heed her pleas. Khandut was compelled to call upon God's intervention. The Archangel Gabriel descended from heaven, intervened in the fight, and separated father from son. David, enraged by the battle, cursed Mher: may he remain immortal and childless. The father's curse was fulfilled: Mher remained immortal and without issue.

Throughout his long wanderings, Little Mher fought against the enemies of Sassoun, against demons and idolaters, and defeated them all. In the end, the aged and unjust earth could no longer bear the feet of the immortal and childless Mher upon its surface — his feet sank into the ground, tormenting him. In despair, driven from his ancestral home, Mher called for help from the graves of his dead parents. They advised him to go to Aleppo or to Aghravaqar and seek shelter there. Along the way, Mher addressed God, asking for a fight. God sent seven legions of angels against him. Mher fought on, but could not overcome the angels. At God's command, the rock of Aghravaqar near Lake Van opened, Mher rode into it on horseback, and the rock sealed shut behind him. Mher will come out of the rock when the old world is destroyed and rebuilt anew — when injustice disappears from the earth and abundance prevails — when a grain of barley grows to the size of a walnut, a grain of wheat to the size of a rosehip berry — when the earth becomes just and bears the weight of his feet.