The Epic of Sasun: Armenian Apocalypse

Abstract

This chapter concerns the fourth and last of the great heroes of the line of Sasun, "Little" Mher (Mithra), son of the slain David. Mithra, then, merits particular attention in the discussion of apocalyptic in Armenia. The individual recitations of variant narratives enable one to discover details that the artificial, composite texts obscure. In the midst of this crisis, Naomi Shemer was asked to write a song for the festival to be held in Jerusalem on 15 May, the anniversary in the Western calendar of the founding of the State nineteen years earlier. Apocalypse predicates upon the destruction of world the instauration of eternal life. The variant recitations of Armenian Epic of Sasun mention both, but never do so in a conclusive way. The restored cosmos is simply being at home again in Jerusalem, or Van. Keywords: apocalypse; Armenian epic of Sasun; Jerusalem; Mithra; Van