Così tacque Zarathustra (Italian Edition)

Nagarajan Aiyar projected the map facing page , Mr. Krishna Aiyar prepared photographs of several illus- trations, and Mr. Krishnasawmy typed the greater part of the copy for press. Raymond Beazley, the Trustees of the British Museum, and Messrs Macmillan, have kindly allowed me to reproduce illustrations from their publications.

To all these I offer grateful thanks. Arabice et Latine, opera Jacobi Golii Amsterdam, Angelitti, Sulla Data del Viaggio Dantesco. Aristotle, Four Books on the Heavens. Greek and German, with notes, by C. Beazley, Dawn of Modern Geography. Berry, History of Astronomy. Brunetto Latini, Li Livres dou Tresor.

Delambre, Histoire de I'Astronomie Ancienne. Epping and Strassmeier, Astronomisches aus Babylon. Gardner, Dante's Ten Heavens. Gruppe, Die Kosmischen Systeme der Griechen. Ideler, Ursprung und Bedeutung der Sternnamen. King, History of Sumer and Accad. Lockyer, Dawn of Astronomy. Lubin, Dante e gli Astronomi Italiani.

Maunder, The Oldest Astronomy. Journal of the British Astronomical Association. Moore, Dante and his Biographers. Langloh, Australian Fairy Tales. Rashdall, Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Scartazzini, A Companion to Dante, translated by Butler. Schaubach, Geschichte der Griechischen Astronomie bis auf Eratosthenes. The Panchasiddhantika of Varaha Mihira.

Translated from the Sanscrit, and edited by Thibaut and M. Wicksteed, The Early Lives of Dante. Wicksteed and Selfe, Villani's Chronicle. The Beginnings of Astronomy. Gnomons and clepsydras ; the constellations and the calendar; astrology and star-worship; early cosmogonies Homeric Greece; First Notions of Astronomy 51 2. Earth flat, heaven a series of hemispheres Pythagoras and his Followers: Earth round, Earth in Motion 66 IV. Earth turning on her axis, and revolving round the sun The School of Alexandria: Greek Cosmogonies ; Greek calendar VI. Astronomy under Imperial and Christian Rome.

Schools of Baghdad, Egypt, Spain. Improvements in Mathematics and Instruments ; Ptolemy's values more correctly determined ; supposed discoveries of planetary distances and trepi- dation ; a ninth sphere added to Ptolemy's eight VIII. The Return of Greek Astronomy to Europe. Popular Astronomy in Italy in Dante's Time. The astronomy of Dante contrasted with Homer and Milton. General feeling for astronomy in his day; some famous astro- logers: Knowledge of average educated man.

Dante a representative of contemporary beliefs: Books on Astronomy used by Dante. Dante's wide reading ; his diligence and memory. Classical Latin authors ; Greek ; Arab ; Christian Astronomy in Dante's Writings. Artistic use of the facts and theories of astronomy. Movements of the Moon Movements of the Sun 3. The Stars 4. The Galaxy 5. The Planets 6. Celestial Phenomena and Time Dante's Journey through the Three Realms: Time-references in the Divine Comedy The Inferno 3.

The Assumed Date of the Vision The Spheres 2. The Spheres and the four Elements Dimensions and Physical Nature of the Universe Influence of the Spheres on Human Affairs 5. From a fresco by Luca Signorelli at Orvieto The Sun's Path in the Sky at different Seasons The Moon at Sunset, soon after New, and three days old Path of Mars among the Stars, 16 4.

The Star Sphere- 19 5. Synodic and Sidereal Periods Fro7n a Cylinder-seal in the British Museum, date about B. The triple Star-sign of the Babylonians The young Moon and the Pleiades after sunset, as seen in Babylon, B. From a Babylonian boundary stone of about B. Now in the British Museum The Goat with Fishes' Scales. From a Babylonian boundary stone From an ancient Egyptian papyrus. The Universe according to Anaximander The Universe of Leucippus The Universe of Democritus The Universe of Pythagoras The System of Philolaus: Earth and Sun according to Heraclides A Pekin Astrolabe of the thirteenth century A.

The Moveable Eccentric The Movement of Spica The Sun and the Equinox The Movement of the Earth's Axis which is the true cause of Precession. Precession of the Equinoxes Path of Mars, The Epicycle A Planet " retrograding " and " in opposition " Venus, Mercury, and the Sun The Sun's Deferent Apparent Variation in the size of the Sun. Photographs taken at Kodaikanal Observatory, with the spectroheliograph, July 1, , and Jan.

Actual size of the negative The Moon's Epicycle and Deferent The Ptolemaic System Method erroneous of estimating Planetary Dis- tances, described by Alfraganus From a painting hy Gerard Dow Astronomy. Reproduced from Beazlefs Dawn of Modern Geograyhy Sun, Moon, and zenith. The Zodiac and the Months The Ram on the Ecliptic.

From the Cosmi Historia of Robert Flud, a. Repro- duced from Brown's Aratos. Ursa Minor as a Horn. The Sun at the Equinox, seen from the poles and the equator. Lunar and Solar Eclipses The Universe of Dante The Signs of the Zodiac at sunrise from the Mountain of Purgatory Northern Slope of the Mountain of Purgatory Dante's View of Earth from the stars.

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An impossible interpretation of Far. The Rising Sun at the spring equinox. Comparative sizes of the Sun and his satellites Son Sonetto, Ball Ballata. Be Mon De Monarchia. E De Vulgari Eloquentia. Q,u Qusestio de Aqua et Terra. Delia Composizione del Mondo Ristoro. In a beautiful passage of the Convivio Dante describes how he first began to devote himself diligently to science and philosophy. When the gentle soul of Beatrice had passed to heaven, a great darkness fell upon him: It was long before he could find any comfort, but at last he bethought himself of studying a book by Boethius, who when exiled, imprisoned, and unjustly condemned to death, had strengthened his soul with the " Con- solations of Philosophy.

Books in those days could only be had in manuscript, full of abbreviations, and often also of errors, and at first the young student found the Latin hard to master; but as he struggled on, half deciphering and half divining the meaning, the mists cleared a little, and the weight was lifted from brain and heart. He compares himself to one who, seeking silver, should light not without Divine guidance on a treasure of gold; for he found not only relief from his tears, but a door into a new world of literature, philosophy, and science. Henceforth, he tells us, he eagerly frequented the schools of the religious orders and the discussions of the philosophers; and how extensive and thorough was his learning we can see in his writings.

In them we find a reflection of thirteenth-century thought in every field of in- tellectual research. Among all his studies was one which evidently had a great attraction for him, even in the early days of the Vita Nuova, before learning had become a passion. Astronomy appealed to many sides of his nature. The beauty of the skies stirred his imagination; their suggestive symbolism touched his religious sense ; the harmony of the celestial movements and the accuracy with which they can be foretold delighted his instinct for order and precision.

He must have read, and perhaps possessed, some of the best text- books then available, and he grasped with singular clearness the phenomena observed and the theories taught in his day. His works are full of allusions to astronomy. In the Vita Nuova he finds pleasure in connecting the story of his lady with the revolutions of the spheres ; in the Convivio he teaches the elements of the science ; in the Vision of the Divine Comedy he journeys through the universe as it was depicted by medioeval astronomers; and throughout his works are scattered similes drawn from celestial phenomena and descriptions of " le belle cose che porta il ciel.

Many of his readers think that Dante's astronomy is very complicated and difficult to understand. What makes it seem difficult is that in this age we are generally unfamiliar with the skies. We do not eat our breakfast or go to our office by the san, nor do we watch the stars to see when grouse-shooting begins or the summer holidays end. If it is important for us to know at what hour the sun sets and lamps must be lighted, or if we wish to see a view by moonlight, we consult an almanac.

When we think at all of the movements of the heavenly bodies, our notions are usually taken from diagrams and tables, not from what is actually seen in the skies. We only think, for instance, of the seasons as caused by the earth's journey round the sun, and the tilt of her axis: When Cacciaguida, in the heaven of Mars, tells the date of his birth by counting how many times the planet had since then returned to his Lion, those who only think of Mars as circling round the Sun, and have never traced his path among the stars, are at a loss, and think the method very far-fetched.

Others complain that the subject is dull. Other readers say that Dante's astronomy is so entirely false and obsolete that it is not worth study. This is hardly true. Where Dante speaks of appear- ances he is remarkably accurate, far more so than most modern artists and writers of fiction. Where he speaks of the heavens as he supposes them actually to exist, he is interpreting the appearances according to the astronomical theories of his day, with which he was very well acquainted.

Its main outlines can be explained in a few pages, with the help of a couple of diagrams, but when presented thus, especially to those unfamiliar with the skies, it seems very strange and artificial. To appreciate it at its true worth, we must know just what are the phenomena it was intended to explain, and trace its gradual development out of man's first clear perception that the movements of sun, moon, and stars follow unchanging laws.

The story of this development is of entliralling interest, and after the system had been completed by one of the greatest mathematicians the world has seen, its later history reads like a romance. It was at this time that Dante was born, and the scholar-poet immortalized the Ptolemaic system of astronomy in his verse, adding to its popularity in his own day, and making it known to thousands of readers since, who might otherwise scarcely have heard of it. Dante's astronomy, therefore, is of wide and deep significance.

To study its history is to learn a chapter in the development of the human intellect ; to see the universe with his eyes is to know how it appeared, not only to his contemporaries but to men in many lands and many centuries. The system of Ptolemy was already a thousand -years old when Dante studied it, and it continued to be taught long after Copernicus had introduced a truer one ; nor has it ever been completely swept away, for much that it taught was accurate.

The new astronomy has developed from the old, and bears traces to this day, in its phraseology, its written symbols, and its methods, of the many races and ages which have contributed to its progress. This book, therefore, is divided into two parts. In the first, I put before my readers the elementary facts which form the foundations upon which all astro- nomy is based, the movements of sun, moon, stars, and planets, so far as they can be easily observed by the naked eye; then follows a sketch of the attempts which were made to interpret these observations from very early days until Dante's time.

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In the second part, we shall examine Dante's works, and see how familiar he was with the movements of the skies, and how well he understood the theories which in his time were held to explain them. We shall see how astronomy was generally regarded in his day, what books he read, and which authors influenced him most.

We shall see how false is the assertion often made that in the Middle Ages men studied astronomy only for the sake of astrology, and how closely the science of the stars was connected with religion and the loftiest speculations of philosophy. We shall also examine in particular some diflicult passages connected with astronomy which occur in Dante's works, but my aim is not so much to explain all the astronomical references as to put the reader in a position to attempt an explanation himself.

My greatest ambition is to share with others the pleasure I have had in learning what Dante knew and thought about the stars, and who were the master builders who had erected through the ages the system so vividly pictured in his immortal poem. The stars appear to us like points of light, differing greatly in brightness, and scattered very irregularly over the dome above us.

All are moving, some much more quickly than others, yet a little attention shows that they do not change their relative positions, and therefore that all must share in one connected move- ment. If, for instance, any one group be singled out, and looked for again some hours later, it will be evident that it has moved considerably as a whole, yet the stars composing it have kept the same places with regard to one another.

Careful and prolonged observations prove that to observers in the northern hemisphere one star has hardly any perceptible movement, that those nearest to it sweep round it in small circles, and those further away in larger and larger circles, parts of which are hidden below the horizon. All these circlings are performed in the same time, and therefore the stars near the stationary point move more slowly in their small circles than those further away. All this is precisely what we should see if the sky were a great hollow sphere, turning about the earth on an axis which runs close to the almost stationary star — known therefore as the Pole Star.

The direction is from east to west, and a complete revolution is made in a day and night. The stars fade out when the sun rises, but he too sweeps across the sky as though carried round by the same sphere, and he sets like them, in the west. Has he a fixed place on the sphere, keeping always the same position relatively to the stars? No, for in the place where he has just set we do not always see the same stars. Night after night those which were clear in the western sky as soon as it was dark enough to see them, grow closer to him, till at last they are lost in his twilight beams.

Thus the sun, though sharhig in the daily east to west movement, has a slow movement of his own on the sky-sphere, slipping back from west to east, until in a year he has accom- plished the whole round, and sets again among the same stars. Moreover, this peculiar movement of the sun is not a mere lagging behind the stars, for his west to east motion is combined with a north and south motion. If we note the star-groups which are just behind him when he sets or just before him when he rises , we shall find that they form a great circle round the globe, half of which lies north and half south of the celestial equator.

The Greeks named this circle the Zodiac, or "Path of the Animals," because the star-groups forming it were mostly called by the names of animals the Ram, Lion, Fishes, etc. This north and south motion of the sun may be noted more directly in another way. Seen from any given place on the earth, each star rises and sets at the same points of the horizon always, and has the same course in the sky; but the rising and setting points of the sun, which on about the 21st of March Fig. The Sun's path in the sky at different seasons. The dates vary slightly owing to Leap Year.

The dates on which the sun reaches his furthest north and furthest south points in this yearly journey are called the "solstices," because his motion seems to be checked, and he pauses or "stands" before 12 APPARENT MOVEMENTS OF reversing his direction ; the dates on which he passes the midway point are the " equinoxes," because at those points he is on the equator, and makes day and night equal all over the earth. The time taken by the sun to pass from one vernal spring equinox to another is days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 45 seconds.

These are very elementary facts, but they are the fundamental facts of astronomy, and without recollect- ing and holding them clearly in mind we cannot understand Dante's allusions, nor see the fitness of any astronomical system, ancient or modern. To those who have only read about astronomy in books, and have not watched the skies, they may be puzzling, and I would beg these readers to make a few simple obser- vations for themselves, as this will help them more than any written explanation can ever do to see the heavens with Dante's eyes.

To appreciate the con- nected movement of the whole sky, some bright stars near the Pole should first be watched, such as the Great Bear and Cassiopeia, or for those in the southern hemisphere the Southern Cross, Canopus, Achernar. Their motions should be compared with those of bright stars near the equator, such as Orion, Virgo, or Aquila. The constellations of the zodiac should be studied, and notes made of the seasons at which each disappears in the rays of the sun.

This device, in one form or another, was probably the first astronomical instrument invented, and by its means ancient astro- nomers in many lands solved important problems. It is not necessary to explain that the daily apparent movements are caused in reality by the earth's rotation on her axis, and the yearly apparent movements by her revolution round the sun.

These are the book-learned facts which for the most part obscure our perception of the very things on which they are based. I would ask the reader to do his best, for the moment, to forget them. The movements of the moon among the stars are much more easily observed than those of the sun, since we can see the stars at the same time, and her revolution is much more rapid.

She also is apparently carried round with the daily east to west movement, and she also has a west to east motion of her own, but so fast that it takes her round the star-sphere in one month, instead of one year. This revolution also takes place in the zodiac. A pole set up in order to show the length of shadow thrown by the sun.

After this, she begins to wane, and, still travelling in the same direction,. The Moon at Sunset. Then for a short time she is lost in his rays, till she emerges as a new moon on the sunset side The moon completes a revolution among the stars in 27 days, 8 hours; but it takes her a little longer to come up with the sun again, since he has meanwhile been moving in the same direction along his yearly THE HEAVENLY BODIES.

As well as the moving sun and the moving moon, there are five other bodies, visible to the naked eye, which move among the stars. They look like stars, but their movements would lead us rather to class them with sun and moon. They also are in the zodiac, and they also, while carried round with the universal movement from east to west, revolve slowly, each in its own period, from west to east. But their motions are more complicated than those of sun and moon. Two, which we call Venus and Mercury, are never seen very far from the sun, and they oscillate from side to side, sometimes appearing before him near sunrise, and sometimes after him at sunset.

Mercury keeps closest to the sun, and is not so bright, and therefore less easy to see; but Venus is a brilliant object when she gradually swings out further from the sun, remaining longer each evening after sunset in the western sky. Then she gradually draws back, closer to the sun, is lost in his rays, and a few days after begins to appear on his other side, as a Morning Star, visible in the east before sunrise. Here she swings out again, like a pendulum, to her furthest distance west, and then draws in again, just as she did on the sunset side of the sun.

In this way, swinging slowly from side to side of the sun. Mercury and Venus make with him the circuit of the zodiac, completing a revolution from west to east in about a year. They may be seen at any distance from him, even exactly opposite, so that they rise as he sets. The Path of Mars among the Stars, Periodically they slacken speed, stop, and go back a little distance among the stars, then they slacken, stop, and advance again.

These changes are technically called direct motion, stations or stationary points, and retrograde motion. This name was originally given to Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and also to sun and moon, for it indicated all the known heavenly bodies which changed their places among the stars. In modern usage it is not applied to the sun, but only to his satellites, of which many more are now known. In these days, by means of an almanac and some knowledge of the constellations, they may easily be found and traced. Mars and Venus move quickly during part of the time they are visible, and if sketches be made of their positions among the stars, and their paths marked for a few weeks, a very good idea may be gained of the motions of planets as seen in the skies.

Once again, it is not necessary to explain here that these movements of the planets are due partly to their revolution round the sun, and partly to the Earth's motion. Nor need we, for our present purpose, consider them in any detail: The distances, and therefore the sizes, of all the heavenly bodies are completely beyond measurement, except with instruments and refined methods; their physical nature could only be guessed at before the discoveries of universal gravitation and spectrum analysis, in the 17th and 19th centuries of our era.

All that can be observed by naked-eye astronomy is difference of brightness and colour ; as for instance the contrast between ruddy Mars and white Jupiter; the steadier light of all the planets as compared with stars ; and the interesting fact that the moon shines by reflected sunlight, which is made evident by the connection between her phases and her position with regard to the sun. Her surface, too, is clearly seen to be diversified by dark markings of definite shape, but on no other body in all the sky can we make out the least detail without a telescope.

The first of these is from east to west, and is by far the most rapid. The axis of revolution passes through two points which we call the celestial poles, and the motion is parallel to the celestial equator. All the others are in the main from west to east, though the progress of the planets is complicated by periodical retrograde movements.

All take place in the zodiac, which is a series of constellations forming a great band round the heavens. The path of the sun is a great circle through this, called the Ecliptic because eclipses can only happen when the moon is also on it ; and the paths of moon and planets are slightly and variously inclined to it. Thus the daily path of a star is affected only by the simple uniform movement of the entire heaven in reality the rotation of the Earth but the daily path of a planet, or of the sun or moon, results from a combination of this general movement with its own peculiar movement, which is generally in the opposite direction.

If it is difficult to conceive a body moving simultane- ously in two different directions, an earthly analogy will make it easy. These are like the fixed stars on the apparently revolving sphere. But human beings are free to add their own movements to that given them by the platform on which they stand. A woman walks as he does, but much more quickly, so that she rapidly passes many posts, although all the time she is being carried backwards with them: Children run backwards and forwards: It is in this fashion that the movements of the skies present themselves to careful observers on this seem- ingly stationary earth ; and in the youth of the world these apparent movements were believed to be real.

The ancients thought that the sky was actually revolving round a steadfast earth, while the sun and moon and certain other " wandering stars " had in addition various motions peculiar to themselves. The table of periods which follows see pp. Some of the terms used will be explained later. Diagram illustrating Synodic and Sidereal Periods. The arrows show the direction of the Moon's monthly and the Sun's yearly revolutions in the zodiac, as seen from Earth. When the Moon is opposite the Sun, for instance in Libra while he is in Aries, she is full.

As these pages are passing through the press, a letter rroiu Mr. Maunder appears in I'he Observatory for August on "The Origin of the Constellations," and this should be consulted by anyone interested in the subject. Maunder points out that Ptolemy gives us much more pre- cise information than Aratus regarding the southern limits of the ancient constellations, and that the changes which he says he ventured to make in their traditional forms are extremely insignificant.

Maunder further observes that the celestial equator of Aratus cannot give any clue to the origin of the constellations as R. Brown suggested , but only to the date of the work from which Aratus copied, when some astronomer had drawn the equator through the constellations. A slight alteration of the text, Mr. Maunder says, would give a correct equator for the date B. The sky appears to us like an arch, embracing all our lives, Dante says.

The consciousness expressed itself in many ways: Thus, long before astronomy became an exact science, and was studied simply for its own sake, patient observers had laid the foundations, and were familiar with many of the movements we have been describing. These are of great importance to primitive man. Sun, moon, and stars are invaluable as guides, especi- ally at sea, and we know that the ancient Greek mariners used to steer their ships by observations of the Great Bear, while the Phoenicians preferred to use the Little Bear for this purpose.

But the strongest and most universal incentive to careful and prolonged study of the skies is our complete dependence upon them for the measurement of time. In the earliest period of their history, the Jews, the Greeks, and probably every other nation, divided the day simply into morning, noon, and evening, according as the sun was rising, or apparently stationary, or 1 Conv. But at a very early period the first of all astronomical instruments was invented, by which the sun's varying height can be measured: The gnomon in its simplest form is a pole set up vertically on a smooth level surface, on which its shadow as cast by the sun can be observed.

The moment of shortest shadow marks the middle of the day, the shortest midday shadow marks the summer solstice, the longest the winter solstice, the equinoxes falling between. The instrument also indicates the points of the compass, for the sun is always due south in northern latitudes at midday: The gnomon was said to have been introduced into Greece by Anaximander about B. The Chinese certainly observed the length of the shadow more than two thousand years B.

They set up a post about 6 ft. It was also the beginning of the sundial. The course followed by the moving end of the shadow was traced on the ground, and divided into equal parts: This is known as the system of "temporary hours. The skill and knowledge of the Greeks enabled them, later on, to construct dials of different kinds, which marked "equal hours," such as we use now; but the system of "temporary hours" did not altogether die out till after the invention of pendulum clocks in the 17th century of our era. Clepsydras, or water-clocks, were also used in Egypt and Babylonia, and ancient Greece ; and there is still a large one in Canton, where a reservoir is placed in a tower, and the water falling, drop by drop, into a receiver whose depth is marked in figures on the wall, 1 Dr.

Hose, in " Trarel and Exploration," for Feb. These clocks cannot have kept very good time, however, or they would have been more used by the Babylonian and Greek astronomers who took pains to ascertain the exact positions of the stars. Owing to the diurnal revolution of the skies, the time at which any celestial body rises or crosses the meridian after another is an index of their distance apart, east and west on the sphere, and this is how it is reckoned by modern astronomers.

But the ancients seem to have been never able to trust their clepsydras sufficiently to use this method, and only referred to them for approximate time. The gnomon, valuable as it is for marking the sun's daily course, and the north and south part of his yearly motion, is a limited instrument.

It cannot show his westerly motion on the sphere, nor is it of any use for the planets. To trace these motions, and the monthly journey of the moon, the first step is to distinguish the stars, by grouping and naming them, especially those which lie in the path of sun, moon, and planets. The invention of some kind of zodiac is probably older even than the invention of the gnomon, and also originated independently among different races. The germ of the idea may be found to-day among races low in the scale of civilization. The Australian aborigines are familiar with that unique star-cluster wliich we call the Pleiades, and know that its appearances and disappearances are periodical and coincide with the seasons.

Sir Norman Lockyer has shown that the mysterious alignments of stones found at Stonehenge, Carnac, and other places, may have been so arranged in order to show the direction, some of the sun at his rising on certain dates, notably the morning of the summer solstice, and some of the Pleiades or other striking stars, whose rising just before the sun would enable ancient astromomers to fix the dates of important festivals.

Such observations as these, of which many instances might be drawn from many parts of the world, are first steps towards studying the whole path of the sun through the stars, and of forming a calendar with a name or number for every day in the year. Until the stars are known, and a calendar fixed, the motions of sun and moon cannot be learned in detail, the planets can scarcely be distinguished from the stars and from one another, and there are no settled dates from which to calculate their periods. The first zodiac of which we have written record is a lunar one of 28 constellations, which is referred to in the " Canon of the Emperor Yaou," a Chinese emperor who began to reign in B.

One astronomer was commanded by the Emperor to " reside at Nankeaou and arrange the transformations of the summer, and respectfully to observe the extreme limit of the shadow. The day, he said, is at its longest, and the star is Ho: The star of the winter solstice, when ''the day is at its shortest " was Maou, which is the Pleiades. Directions are also given for observing the spring and autumn equinoxes, when day and night are of medium length, and certain other stars are to be observed.

But her synodical period i. From this custom arose another, that of counting the beginning of the day from sunset, but in various times and places other starting-points have been chosen — sunrise, midday, or midnight. These animals were widely adopted by other nations — the Koreans and the Japanese, the Mongols of Tibet, the Tartars, and the Turks. Another zodiac, however, was destined to have an even wider popularity, spreading, in the course of centuries, from Greece to Arabia, Persia, India, and China, where it finally superseded the native constel- lations ; it crossed the Mediterranean into Africa, conquered the whole of Europe, and is used to-day over the whole civilised world.

Strange to say, we cannot tell with any certainty where, when, or by whom, this ancient series of constellations was devised and named. The earliest full description which we possess is by a Greek poet of the 4th century B. Paul in his address to the Athenians on Mars' Hill. Since he himself hath fixed in heaven these signs, The stars dividing ; and throughout the year Stars he provides to indicate to men The seasons' course, that all things duly grow. For men could not Or tell or learn the separate names of all.

Since everywhere are many, size and tint Of multitudes the same, but all are drawn around. So thought he good to make the stellar groups, That each by other lying orderly, They might display their forms. And thus the stars At once took names and rise familiar now. Some of these figures are very strange and suggestive. We have a maiden with wings, a centaur shooting arrows, a flying horse, a water-snake with a crow and a cup on its back, a charioteer with a goat on his shoulder, a man strangling a serpent, another pouring water into the mouth of a fish, and a strange beast like a goat with a fish's tail.

All had their meaning, doubtless, to their originators, but to us they are cryptic characters, hard to decipher. Among the zodiacal constellations only one is obvious. Libra the Scales, the sign in which the sun is when days and nights are perfectly balanced in -length ; but this is comparatively recent, for Aratus and his contemporaries give in its place the Claws of the Scorpion, the latter being an enormous monster extending over the space of two asterisms.

The figures may have been religious symbols, or an illustration of some myth concerning the sun's yearly course, or each of the twelve may have indicated the weather or the occupation suitable to the month it represented. The ear of corn in the hand of the Virgin, and the juxtaposition of three watery figures in Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, suggest the latter explanation. Many dififerent ideas probably played a part in the origin of these mysterious constellation-forms.

Thus, the kneeling figure with his foot upon a dragon, became and remains the hero Hercules, although Aratus only describes him as a man toiling at some unknown task, and says he is called simply the Kneeler. Successive generations of astronomers altered some of the figures, but probably only to a slight extent. He was not an astronomer, however, and the poem is only a popular paraphrase of a lost work by Eudoxus. This Greek astronomer had lived a hundred years earlier, and it is thought that he himself copied from an older source.

The attempt to discover this source has been the object of many ingenious conjectures, and much research among ancient monuments and writings. Some of the old constellations are met with in Isaiah and Job, in Homer, on tablets found at Nineveh, and an immense antiquity is sometimes claimed for them. Dupuis, writing at the end of the eighteenth century, thought he had conclusively proved that the figures of the zodiac were designed in Egypt 15, years ago!

An ingenious theory, suggested independently by Schwartz and Proctor, and developed by Mr. Delambre, Ilistoire de V Astronomie Ancimne, ii. The Old Constellation Figures. AuntraUs are aihhd to tinse. For the centre of the circular patch seems to lie near the star Delta Hydri, which was the South Pole star at that time. This movement of the Pole among the stars, due to "precession," will be explained later.

This date does not differ much from that found by Robert Brown, from the position of the celestial equator among the stars, as described by Aratus ; he says B. Maunder, from additional considerations of the positions of various constellation - figures, says that they must all have been originally designed about B. Unfortunately the descriptions of Aratus are neither very precise nor consistent wdth one another, and he is our oldest and our main authority for the forms and positions of the ancient constellations. It changed its bed like the Euphrates, of which it is perhaps the heavenly counterpart , and now has left the Sea- Monster high and dry, while on its ancient banks a chemist'.

Orion and the Pleiades, the Great Bear and Arcturus, and perhaps many others, were familiarly known in the Levant as early as the tenth century before Christ ; and we find traces of our zodiac, or its beginnings, in Babylonia at least as early as the eleventh. It is always to Egyptians and Babylonians that the Greeks referred as their predecessors and teachers in astronomy, but the native constellations of Egypt seem to have been different, and so far as we know at present the Babylonians began earlier and made greater progress in star-lore than any other nation before Greece.

The latest results of expert investiga- tion of astronomical tablets discovered in the ancient clay libraries of Babylonia and Assyria, tend to show that astronomy was of native growth there, and developed very slowly. This star-worship and star-study seems to have been learned by the Semitic Babylonians, and their descend- ants and rivals the Assyrians, from a race with whom they met and mingled in the grey dawn of history, but whose existence was unknown to us before the middle of last century. Much the same may be said about tlie tropical circles.

Either Aratus was careless, or the globe from which he took his descrip- tions was incorrect: Schia- parelli's two monographs on Babylonian Astronomy, from which much of the information here given is derived, are chiefly based on these works. The Mijon Gud of Ur. From a cylinder-seal in the British Museum, dated about b. Reproduced by permission of the Trustees. The triple star-sign of the Babylonians.

This, we learn from the inscriptions, stood for three great deities, the Moon-god, the Sun-god, and the goddess of the planet Venus. Our illustration shows an inscription in early Babylonian script, and a scene which represents the vassal of a king of Ur Abraham's " Ur of the Chaldees " being led into the presence of the Moon-god. The Babylonians were an intensely super- stitious people, and a large part of their omens were drawn from observations of the skies. It is not certain what purposes were served by these towers, but the successive platforms may well have been the observatories from which the Babylonian priests, gazing through the clear air and over the level plains, watched, year after year, and century after century, eclipses of sun and moon, risings and settings of stars and planets, and all the changing pageant of the skies, which to them were eloquent of peace and prosperity, or of war and misfortunes in their land.

Although this illusory art chiefly occupied the early Babylonian astronomers, they made some observations of real value, and gradually acquired true knowledge concerning the movements of the heavenly bodies. Tablets a few centuries older than the Chinese Canon of Yaou containing lists of the Sumerian names of twelve months, show that this people had established a luni-solar year. Fortunately for the progress of astro- nomy the year does not contain an exact number of months, or even of days: Therefore the first rough approximation had to be constantly corrected if calendar festivals were to recur at the same seasons ; and thus the priests, who in early times were usually the calendar makers and keepers, became gradually better and better acquainted with the movements of sun and moon, and the appear- ance of star-groups.

It is interesting to compare the diff'erent ways in which various races have solved the problem of calendar-formation. The written character for "intercalary" in both Chinese and Japanese is a compound of the characters for " gate " and " Emperor," because in ancient days the Emperor used to perform the ceremonies proper to each of the twelve months in the special room of his palace dedicated to that month, but in the intercalary month he performed them in the doorway of the palace.

The Egyptians and the Arabs seem to have given up the attempt to harmonize the two periods, though both of these nations reckoned twelve months in their years. The Egyptians counted thirty days to each month, and added five days more at the end of the twelfth, so that the months carr have had no connection with the moon: This " heliacal rising " of Sirius heralded the great event of their year, the overflow of the Nile. The Arab year, on the contrary, was purely lunar, for it consisted of twelve months which were alternately of twenty- nine and thirty days: The Mahomedans still use this lunar year.

The new moon festivals of the Hebrews prove that the moon was important to their calendar, but the three chief feasts of First-fruits, of Ingathering, and of the Passover, were so closely connected with the seasons that their year must have been luni -solar. Some think, that as an offering of first-fruits was to be made on a certain day of a certain month, the month preceding it was doubled in every year in which it was evident that the crops would not be far enough advanced for the first-fruits to be gathered so soon: At first an extra month seems to have been added to the usual twelve, in an irregular way, whenever found necessary, judging by a tablet of the great king Hammurabi, who united all the cities of southern Babylonia under one rule, and gave them the famous Code of Laws, communicated to him by the Sun-god.

The tablet runs as follows: And instead of the payment of taxes being made on the 25th day of Tasritsu, let it be made on the 25th day of Ululu the second. A thousand years or more after this, we find that royal decrees for correcting the calendar were never necessary, for the astronomers had invented more than one system for keeping the year right. One of these was to observe, like the Egyptians, the heliacal rising of certain stars.

The little group of three stars in the head of the Ram, which we call Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Arietis, was found very convenient for this purpose. This is the meaning of the directions given on a tablet now in the British Museum: Whenever this asterism remains invisible, let its month be forgotten," that is, let it be taken over again, as if it had not already been counted. Similar directions are given for some other asterisms and their corresponding months. From to he continued his studies at the Milan conservatoire, an experience that had a profound influence on him and would later result in his composing the first operas and a comic opera in Armenian.

Some of these works were staged during his lifetime - quite a challenge in a city like Constantinople, which at that time had no symphony orchestra and no professional opera singers - and enjoyed great success. It was not until that his opera ArshakII was premiered at Yerevan Tchukhadjian died in poverty in His work demands to be seen in the context of the extraordinary rise of Armenian culture in the 19th century.

A contemporary of the political strife and struggles waged between the empires of the period, he fought for the affirmation of a new national identity. At Contantinople and Tbilisi, intellectuals who had studied at European universities drew on their national heritage, enhancing it with their own creative genius. Alongside the prestigious literary publications, which provided a platform for the Romantic, Realist and then Symbolist poets, a number of music reviews also began to appear.

Inspired by their common pedagogical mission, both composers transcribed and adapted Armenian melodies to Western musical notation and set poems by their contemporaries. Other anonymous musicians followed in their path, immortalising the texts of M. A teacher and organizer of lectures, as well as the founder of two music magazines, he was one of the first composers to establish links between the musical heritage of his people and Western culture.

A number of his songs were harmonised and taken up again at the end of the century by the choirs that had sprung up in all the towns and cities where Armenians lived, as well as being performed by renowned soloists. Sayat Nova is the most emblematic as well as the best-loved ashik of the Caucasus. Born in the Lori province, he was, according to his own written testimony, the son of a Sanahin mother and a pilgrim from Syria who was visiting a famous monastery in the region. He sang at the court of the Georgian King Irakli II, who sent him into exile on the Caspian Sea in for reasons as mysterious as those which separated Ovid from Augustus His poetry creates a highly individual language that is rich in references and metaphors, at times concrete and at others erudite and symbolic.

Komitas It is no coincidence that the present recording devotes so much space to his work: He was educated at Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Patriarch of all the Armenians, where he taught music to the seminarists and was ordained a priest in From to furthered his musical culture in Berlin before embarking single-mindedly on his chosen mission: He systematically and scrupulously gathered songs on his tours of the provinces.

He classified, analysed, compared and published them in reviews, as well as presenting them in lectures before a wide variety of audiences in Tbilisi, Berlin, Paris and Geneva. In he settled in Constantinople, where he played an active part in the rich cultural life of the city and made friends with writers and intellectuals. This talented musicologist survived them, thanks to the intervention of diplomats who demanded his right to return, but his work was left unfinished.

He was moved to Paris, where he was hospitalised after the war, but he never regained his mental health, which had been dealt a fateful blow by the tragic suffering of his people. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it is indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it is indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it is indifference. Elie Wiesel For the Armenian people, whether in their homeland or in the diaspora, the 24th April marks a long day of mourning in remembrance of the anniversary of the beginning of the genocide suffered in at the hands of Turkish officials of the Ottoman Empire, a still painful national trauma that has not been given sufficient recognition by the international community.

The official figures and the atrocities perpetrated during that tragic attempt at systematic extermination are as spine-chilling as they are widely unknown: The result was that, in just a few years, two thirds of the Armenian population living in the great Ottoman Empire at that time were wiped out. The modern Republic of Turkey does not deny the massacres, but it rejects all responsibility for them and does not accept the term genocide', it attributes the horrors to the previous regime, the sultanate, and condescendingly frames them in the context of the hostilities with Russia during the First World War.

The Turkish authorities feared that the Armenian population, who were Christians like the Russian enemy, would side with the invaders and open up a new rearguard front in the war. The truth is that the Armenian people had good reason to side with the Russians and throw off the oppression they suffered under the sultanate: The Armenians, who lobbied for the modernisation of Ottoman institutions and the recognition of their identity, were cruelly punished: One million Armenians were expropriated and many were forced to convert to Islam.

The region around Lake Van, the very heart of the historical Armenian nation, was devastated, its churches razed to the ground or turned into mosques, and more than villages were wiped off the map. Aware of the slow and inevitable break-up of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks sought to impose by force a political vision which at the very least would make the region of Anatolia a racially homogeneous Turkish nation, one in which the Armenians would naturally be the first people to be crushed; from 14th to 27th April , between 15, and 30, Armenians from the southern region of Adana, in what had been the medieval kingdom of Lesser Armenia, or Cilicia, were brutally massacred, and the bloodbath spilled over into other cities such as Aleppo in Syria.

The episode has gone down in history as the Cilician Massacres. Subjected to constant threats and violence by the Turkish government, dins the events and hostilities of the First World War between the Turkish and Russian armies, on 7th April , the Armenians of the region of Van, in eastern Turkey, revolted and proclaimed an independent Armenian government.

Armenian soldiers in the Turkish army were accused of treason against the empire, imprisoned and executed when in fact many more Turks deserted than Armenian soldiers , all Armenian functionaries were dismissed from public office, and the Armenian population of the seven eastern provinces of Turkey were deported with the excuse of moving them away from the theatre of the military operations in the war with Russia.

All functionaries or officials of the regime who refused to carry out the deportation or execution orders were threatened with legal action and dismissal. The Temporary Deportation Act of 29th May, , established the terms of the deportation and dispossession of the Armenian population: The documents and eye witness accounts of the events relate countless atrocities: Many young women were raped, sold as slaves and then forcibly converted. In recent years there has been some controversy in Turkey because many Turks have discovered to their amazement that they descend from Armenian Christian women who converted in the aftermath of those events.

The concentration camps to which the weak, exhausted Armenians deportees were herded were dotted along two axes towards the south: Despite the coverage of these events in the international press, war-tom Europe was in no position to give serious attention to the Armenian question. They were tried and sentenced to death in absentia, because they had fled the Empire after the First World War.

The Treaty of Sevres of signed by the victorious powers of the First World War and the new government of the Ottoman Empire stipulated that those responsible for the massacres should be extradited and tried. Only a handful of Turkish officials and politicians were transferred to Malta and interned for three years while investigators tracked down documentary material for the prosecution in the archives of Istanbul, London, Paris and Washington.

These and other good intentions designed to bring to justice those who had been responsible for the massacres came to nought due to internal upheavals in Turkey and regime change when Mustafa Kemal Ataturk came to power, culminating in the abolition of the sultanate and the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey The inter-allied tribunal, which was to have tried and finally brought the matter to a conclusion under the terms of the Treaty of Sevres dissolved in , ceased to act and the detainees were returned to Turkey in exchange for a certain number of British subjects who had been held by the forces of Kemal Ataturk.

After drawing up a blacklist of more than two hundred names, between and the Nemesis guerrillas killed several politicians and officials belonging to the Young Turks movement who had been heavily implicated in the persecution and extermination of Armenians. The German authorities tried Tehlirian for murder, but absolved him on grounds of the trauma he had experienced. Ahmed Jamal Pasha, the former Navy minister, was also killed in Tbilisi in However, apart from these isolated acts of retribution and revenge carried out by Armenians themselves, the world at large washed its hands of the Armenian question.

Russia, the United States, France, Iran, Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, Lebanon and Argentina are the countries with the largest communities, and it was here in the s that international public awareness gradually began to refocus on the tragic events of the genocide. The European country with the largest number of survivors of the massacres is France, where the Annenian community currently numbers about , It was there that the first initiatives were launched to officially recognize the genocide: There have also been various attempts in France to introduce laws penalizing the denial of genocide: However, in February the Constitutional Council ruled that the bill was unconstitutional.

Serbia and Iceland have tabled bills in their respective parliaments with a view to securing official recognition. In Canada, Quebec led the way in recognizing the genocide in Similarly, the State of Israel has refused officially to recognize the genocide. The first direct and frank discussion on the subject was held in the Knesset in , and a committee has been set up to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the matter before coming to a decision about the use of the term genocide. Bauer is also of the opinion that the so-called Armenian genocide began not in , but at an earlier date, with the massacres carried out in during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II and the Cilician Massacres of However, in the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity issued a letter signed by 53 Nobel Laureates in which the Genocide Scholars concluded that the killings constituted a clear case of genocide..

In Turkey, the Armenian question is still an open wound and the government continues to devote much academic, diplomatic, political and legal energy to discrediting the term genocide in describing the massacres perpetrated against the Armenian population. A number of ENGLISH 77 intellectuals who have dared to speak out against the atrocities committed in the past against the Armenians have been the victims of threats and attempts on their lives.

One recent example is the hate campaign waged against the Turkish Nobel Prize for Literature, Orhan Pamuk, who was forced to leave the country following his statements in reported in the German weekly Das Magazin in February , in which he criticised the Turkish govermnent for having imposed silence on this question. In Turkey, despite the difficulty that persists in taking responsibility for such a tragic and shameful episode as the Armenian genocide, in December a group of Turkish intellectuals posted a personal apology on the Internet.

Having said that, however, another group opposing the initiative also posted a document which attracted an even greater number of signatures, as well as the support of the Prime Minister, thus giving rise to profound debate on the issue within Turkey. When something is talked about, it exists. Every 24th April at Yerevan, in the ever-awesome presence of majestic Mount Ararat, the memorial around the perpetual flame, which burns in memory of all the innocent victims of the genocide, is heaped with floral tributes.

The music on this CD is one more tribute. Balakian, R, The Burning Tigris: Un genocide exemplaire, Paris, Flammarion, Oxford, Berghahn Books, Reedited in the anthology Fragments d'Armenie, Paris, Omnibus, , pp. A Complete History, Londres, I. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, disembark and repopulate the earth. The Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi AD writes a great three-volume History of Armenia, in which he recounts the legend of Hayk, the patriarch of the Armenian nation.

According to Khorenatsi, Hayk flees from Babylonia when the tyrant Bel also called Nimrod proclaims himself king, and emigrates to the mountain region of Ararat. There, with a group of some people, he founds the city of Haikashen. Bel demands fealty, but Hayk refuses. In the ensuing legendary battle, Hayk shoots an arrow from his great bow and kills the tyrant. The year of this victory is considered year one in the Armenian calendar. Possible arrival, with the invasion of the Sea Peoples 13th century BC , of a tribe from western Anatolia called the Arman, who spread throughout the region.

The Assyrian threat to the Annenian plains leads the kings of Nairi to unite and create the kingdom of Urartu 9th - 6th century BC , which extends to the west and south of Lake Van and has its capital at Tushpa. The Kingdom of Urartu falls as a result of attacks by Scythian tribes in the north and Persians in the south.

The Thracio-Phrygian tribes of Armenians finally settle in Urartu territory and intermingle with the original inhabitants, although they impose their own language. Annenian rebellion against the occupying Persians. Darius I crushes the revolt, as recounted in the famous Behistun Trilingual Inscription. Classical times BC. Adoption of Hellenistic culture. Creation of the Armenian kingdom of Tsokp. Conquest of the Kingdom of Dsokp by the Seleucid Empire. Independence of the Armenian territories of the Seleucid Empire.

King Artashes I founds a Hellenistic- Armenian kingdom, expanding its borders and establishing a new capital at Artashat. Tigran II the Great makes Armenia a great regional power. He founds the new capital at Tigranocerta. Uneasy at the power of Tigran, Rome goes to war with him. General Luculus conquers Tigranocerta, forcing Tigran II to relinquish most of his conquests and to ally himself with the Romans against the Parthians. He is finally deposed and exiled in Egypt, where he is later executed. Armenia becomes a Roman protectorate. Romans and Parthians divide up the Armenian territories.

Armenia is to be ruled by a king belonging to the Parthian royal dynasty, but will be an ally of Rome. Tiridates I is crowned king of Armenia by Nero. Armenia is intermittently ruled by princes of the Arsacid or Arshakuni dynasty. Armenia becomes the first nation officially to adopt Christianity. Armenia is partitioned between Rome and Persia. The monk Mesrop Masthots creates the Armenian alphabet.

Persian Armenia becomes a satrapy: Attempts to forcibly convert the Armenians to Mazdaism. Led by Vartan and Vahan Mamikonian, the Armenians resist and struggle against Persian oppression and religious persecution. Second division of Armenia between Persia and the Byzantine Empire. Arabs, Byzantines, Seljuks, Mamelukes and Mongols Arab invasion of Armenia. The capital, Dvin, falls to the Arabs. The Arab conquest leads to the severing of ties with the Byzantine Empire and a distancing of the theological postulates of the Armenian Church from the official Church of Constantinople.

Arab-Armenian Treaty between Theodores Rshtuni and the Ummayad Caliph Muawiya, leading to some measure of independence under the Arabs which lasts until the 8th century. Revolts against Arab oppression. The caliphate appoints Ashot Bagratuni governor of Armenia. Ashot Bagratuni is crowned king of Armenia. Beginning of the Bagratuni dynasty, which will last until The mystic poet, theologian and philosopher Gregory of Narek writes his Book of Lamentations.

The Byzantine Empire takes Ani and annexes Armenia. The Seljuk Turks sieze Ani from the Byzantines. Attempts to unify the Greek and the Armenian Church. The bishop of Tarsus is Nerses Lambronatsi, one of the great Armenian writers and translators. The Zakarian princes take up arms against the Seljuks in Eastern Armenia under the protection of the independent kingdom of Georgia. He lends his support to the European Christian knights of the Third Crusade. Arrival of the Mongol invaders. Alliance between Cilicia and the Mongol invaders.

King Hetum I travels to Caracorum. Marco Polo travels through Lesser and Greater Armenia. After Mongol rule, Armenia falls into the hands of Tamerlane.

The Mamelukes of Egypt conquer the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia. From Ottomans, to Persians, to Russians The Ottoman Empire dominates the Transcaucasian region in a bid to curb the expansionist aspirations of the Persian Saphavid dynasty. First printed edition of an Armenian book in Venice, Urbatagirk, by Hakob Meghapart, a compendium of prayers, myths, cures for illnesses and quotations from historical books.

Shah Abbas of Persia deports 50, Armenians to Isfahan, where a thriving community of merchants is established. First Armenian printing press in Isfahan. Second partition of Annenia between Turkey and Persia. First Armenian Bible printed in Amsterdam. Armenian revolt against Persian rule, led by David Bek.

The Ekhmiatsin publishing house, the first in Armenia, is founded. Publication of Vorogait Parats, a draft Constitution for an independent Armenia. Publication oiAzdarar in Madras India , the first daily newspaper in Armenian. The Russians take over Persian Armenia. First Russo-Turkish war over the Armenian territories. Khachatur Abovian, the father of modern Armenian literature, writes the novel Woundsof Armenia.

Russia takes the region of Kars. The Armenian political party Armenakan is founded in Van. Creation of revolutionary political parties: The Hamidian massacres of Armenians. However, they continue to be persecuted. The Adana massacres in Cilicia: Outbreak of the First World War. Armenia becomes a battlefield between Russians and Turks. The defeats suffered by the Ottomans exacerbate their resentment against the Armenians, whom they believe to be in league with the Russians.

Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The Ottomans advance towards the Caucasus. The treaty is rejected by the Armenians. Battles of Sardarapat, Bash-Aparan and Karakilisa. Annenia declares independence on 28th May: Yerevan is the capital. Free elections are held and women win the right to vote. Annenia sees some of its tenitorial aspirations realised with the future annexation of much of what is now eastern Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal Attaturk rejects the Treaty of Sevres. The Bolsheviks occupy Yerevan. Russia carves up the Armenian territory, ceding the tenitories ofNagomo Karabakh and Nakhitchevan in Azerbaijan. Revolts against the Bolsheviks. The members of the Dashnak party Armenian Revolutionary Federation are forced to seek refuge in Persia. Soviet Republic of Armenia. Persecution of the Armenian Church. The Armenians of the diaspora are repatriated to Soviet Armenia. Massive demonstrations in Yerevan mark the 50th anniversary of the Genocide. Building of the Memorial to the Victims of the Genocide in Yerevan.

Mass exodus of Armenians. Nagomo Karabakh decides to seek unification with the Republic of Armenia. Mass exodus of the Armenian population of Azerbaijan. Northern Armenia suffers a devastating earthquake. Armenia decides to unite with the region of Nagomo Karabakh. Attacks on the Armenian community of Baku. The new independence The region of Nagomo Karabakh, in Azerbaijan territory but with a majority Armenian population, declares itself independent and proclaims itself a Republic.

The Republic of Armenia is admitted to membership of the United Nations. The Armenian army liberates Shushi, the capital of Nagomo Karabakh. A new Armenian Constitution is adopted by referendum. Robert Kocharian, 2nd President of the Republic of Armenia. Official opening of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline.

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Serzh Sargsyan, 3rd President of the Republic of Armenia. Evangile de peint par Toros Taronatsi au monastere de Gladsor, en Siunik Matenataran Figurines marginales detail. Desde su fundacion se encuentra situada, en terminos politicos y geograficos, en medio de otras grandes culturas en las que predominan las creencias orientales y musulmanas; y ha experimentado una historia muy dolorosa, salpicada por guerras y matanzas extremas cuyas consecuencias han sido la desaparicion de mas de la mitad de sus habitantes, el exilio de muchos otros y la perdida de grandes partes del territorio.

A pesar de todo ello, ha sabido conservar la esencia de sus particularidades nacionales a lo largo de los siglos, empezando por la creation de un alfabeto propio en por el monje Mesrop Mashtots y siguiendo por el rico patrimonio arquitectonico que hoy se encuentra disperso mas alia de sus territorios actuales. Y, si ese patrimonio tangible es un testimonio de lo mas asombroso, tambien ha conservado un rico patrimonio intangible en el ambito musical: En todas las culturas desarrolladas, la musica -representada por ciertos instrumentos y los modos de cantar y tocar que pueden concretizarla- se convierte en el reflejo espiritual mas ficl del alma y la historia de los pueblos.

De entre todos los instrumentos utilizados en sus antiguas tradiciones musicales, Armenia ha concedido una preferencia particular a un instrumento unico, el duduk , hasta el punto dc que cabe afirmar que dicho instrumento la define de un modo casi absoluto. La musica se convierte en un verdadero balsamo, sensual y espiritual a la vez, capaz de llegarnos directamente al alma y, acariciandola, curar todas las heridas y pesadumbres. Montserrat Figueras sentia una profunda simpatia y una gran fascination por esos instrumentos armenios en especial, por el duduk y la kamancha y tambien una gran admiration por las extraordinarias cualidades musicales de nuestros amigos musicos de Armenia.

Tras su muerte, halle un gran consuelo con la escucha de esos maravillosos lamentos para dos duduks y kamanchas, y por eso les pedi que vinieran a las ceremonias que organizamos para despedir a nuestra querida Montserrat. Sus intervenciones musicales llenaron los lugares con los sonidos de otro mundo, pero tambien con una bclleza y una espiritualidad conmovedoras. Tras esos momentos de una emotion tan intensa y bajo el impacto del profundo consuelo que su musica me aportaba, se me ocurrio dedicar este singular proyecto a la memoria de Montserrat Figueras y rendir nuestro homenaje personal a un pueblo que tanto ha sufrido en su historia un sufrimiento que dista hoy de ser plenamente reconocido y un pueblo que, a pesar de tanto dolor, ha inspirado unas musicas muy llenas de amor y portadoras de paz y armonia.

Al mismo tiempo, tambien quiere ser un sincere homenaje a esos musicos extraordinarios que dedican su vida a mantener viva la memoria de esa antigua culture. Como por un maravilloso azar, el queridisimo amigo y gran maestro de la kamancha Gaguik Mouradian, me habia ofrecido ya, en el diversas antologias de musicas armenias, entre las cuales se encontraba el portentoso Tesauro de melodias armenias publicado en en Erevan por el musicologo Nigoghos Tahmizian, donde que encontre los mas hermosos ejemplos de ese repertorio, completados luego con las piezas para kamancha y otras para dos duduks propuestas por los amigos musicos armenios.

Durante estos ultimos meses no ha habido noche que no concluyera sin unas horas maravillosas estudiando y disfrutando de la interpretation de esas melodias dotadas de tan poderoso encanto. A continuation y gracias la elaboration de Lise Nazarian, otra querida amiga de Armenia, nos dcdicamos a la busqueda y el estudio de los elementos complementarios de la musica para la realization del libreto del disco: Mahe para la presentation de un resumen basico sobre el arte y la historia del pals. De forma complementaria, Manuel Forcano aporto textos sobre la memoria del Genocidio y la cronologla de su historia: Sin Emotion no hay Memoria, sin Memoria no hay Justicia, sin Justicia no hay Civilization, y sin Civilization el ser humano no tiene futuro.

Armenia es esa region montanosa, el antiguo Urartu, donde el aliento divino seco las aguas del diluvio e hizo renacer una nueva creation. Atestado en las tabletas mesopotamicas y mas antiguo que la propia Biblia, el mito del Diluvio no ha dejado de obsesionar la conciencia armenia hasta nuestros dlas. En , evocando la diversidad de saberes adquiridos de pequeno en su pueblo natal, el novelista Hrant Matevosian escribio: En efecto, Armenia murio y resucito no solo con ocasion del genocidio de -como si la proximidad del aliento divino faera a la vez temible y salvadora-, sino en multiples ocasiones en el curso de las catastrofes, las invasiones y las guerras que han marcado sus tres mil alios de historia.

Situadas en la intersection de varias placas tectonicas, las tierras de Ararat son asoladas periodicamente por seismos tan devastadores como el dc diciembre de Sin embargo, a la inestabilidad geologica se anaden las turbulencias geopollticas: Ha sido dominada intermitentemente por asirios y cimerios, escitas y medos, persas y macedonios romanos y bizantinos, arabes y seleucidas, mongoles y turcomanos, otomanos y safavidas. Unas gigantescas serpientes de nubes negras desenrollan en el cielo sus monstruosos anillos, se precipitan desde las cumbres enfrentadas y se acometen furiosamente. Rugen con voz atronadora y nublan por completo la claridad del sol.

Entonces el dios ofendido les asesta unos formidables golpes con su espada de rayo. Las corta en pequenos pedazos y libera en forma de trombas de agua todo el ratio de la tierra, toda la humedad dc los rios, que han engullido glotonamente durante las horas de calor. Es el lugar donde reposa el apuesto heroe del que se encapricho antano Chamiram, la voluptuosa reina Semiramis. Y fue justamente una cancion celebrando los encantos de Ara, el hermoso rey de Armenia, lo que le dio a conocer el nombre y el retrato de ese desconocido al que se propuso seducir.

Sin embargo, el, fiel a su esposa Nevart, rechazo las apremiantes proposiciones de la reina. Los ejercitos asirios invadieron Armenia y, a pesar de las instrucciones de Chamiram, mataron a Ara, que combatia a la cabeza de sus tropas. La moral cristiana lo prohlbe, pero la mitologla pagana es mas permisiva. En todo caso, durante la Edad Media, todavla se confiaban los heroes muertos a la benevolencia de esos genios; y, en pleno siglo XX, el novelista Shahan Shahnur, superviviente del genocidio, publico en su exilio parisino una recopilacion titulada La traicion de los aralez.

Esta tierra de leyendas, en la encrucijada entre Asia Menor, Iran y Siria, acogio de buen grado las divinidades extranjeras. Sin embargo, el centro y el norte del pals, la llanura del Aras, permanecieron obstinadamente cerradas al anuncio del Evangelio. En vano se esforzaban los predicadores en expulsar a los demonios de la idolatrla: Hizo falta un espectacular milagro para arrancar al rey Tirldates de las tinieblas de su error. El monarca acababa de ordenar la decapitacion de cuarenta religiosas, companeras de la bella Hripsime, que se le habla negado, cuando sintio que su espalda se erizaba de pelos de cerdo.

Liberado de la fosa, Gregorio enterro a las vlrgenes martires y predico en la ciudad real de Vagharshapat una catequesis de setenta dlas. Tirldates fue recuperando poco a poco la position vertical y el uso de las manos. Este partio entonces para Cesarea de Capadocia, donde fue consagrado obispo. A su regreso, el rey se hizo bautizar junto con todo su pueblo y su ejercito. Armenia se convirtio asl, en los initios del siglo IV, en el primer Estado cristiano del mundo.

Dependiente por entero de la persona del rey, esa conversion, que los armenios consideran hoy como su herencia mas valiosay cuyo decimoseptimo centenario celebraron enel , se encontro expuesta durante mucho tiempo a todo tipo de amenazas, interiores y exteriores. Las mentalidades, las costumbres y los ritos paganos estaban profundamente arraigados, no solo en las zonas rurales, sino tambien entre la mas alta aristocracia. Arrastrados por sus esposas y concubinas, los prlncipes rechazaron los usos cristianos que deseaba instaurar el rey.

Se cuenta que Tirldates, empujado a la abdication en , murio envenenado poco tiempo despues. Improvisadas a partir del griego o el sirlaco para la celebration de los oficios, las interpretaciones orales dc los libros sagrados no tardaban en olvidarse. El armenio no se escribla. Tuvieron que pasar cien anos para que un alto funcionario de la cancillerla real, san Mesrop Mashtots, que se consagro a la vida religiosa, decidio crear un alfabeto especial de treinta y seis letras para anotar la lengua national, hasta entonces agrafa.

De pronto, el armenio se elevo al nivel de las lenguas de cultura capaces de expresar las ideas mas sutiles y todo el acervo de la ciencia y la sabidurla antigua. Del mismo modo que la brisa soplada por Dios habla secado las aguas del Diluvio, la Palabra inspirada disipo las nieblas de la mitologla. A imitation de los escribas de Israel, los clerigos adquirieron la costumbre de anotar su historia nacional, que se convirtio en tan valiosa como la del pueblo elegido.

Tal es el origen de las numerosas cronicas que figuran en los miles de manuscritos, a menudo suntuosamente iluminados, del Matenadaran de Erevan, templo de la memoria. A1 hilo las conquistas y las anexiones, el antiguo reino de Armenia, que se extendio antano hacia el este desde Anatolia, del Caucaso al Kurdistan, entre el mar Negro y el Caspio, ha quedado reducido a una decima parte de su territorio. Sin embargo, conserva el recuerdo de los lugares, los siglos y las personas. Mientras Mashtots desplegaba su actividad, una tormenta se cernia sobre los cristianos de Armenia.

Tambien los romanos, aliados y protectores del reino, habian adoptado el cristianismo; pero, al otro lado de sus fronteras, los persas sasanidas pretendian imponer la religion de Zoroastro, el culto al fuego sagrado de Ormuz, desde el Oriente Proximo hasta los confines de Asia. En , los reveses del ejercito romano conllevaron una primera partition de Armenia. En los dos tercios restantes, los persas nombraron reyes armenios leales. No obstante, en la monarquia quedo abolida, y en el soberano persa exigio la apostasia de los principes armenios.

De vuelta a su tierra, los renegados, que habian escapado por poco de la deportation a Asia central, tuvieron que hacer penitencia. El catolicos los absolvio, pero les impuso encabezar una insurrection popular. Se trato de un combate desesperado dcbido a la superioridad militar de los persas y sus elefantes de guerra. Bajo la direction de su caudillo Vardan Mamikonian, la flor de la nobleza fire aplastada en la batalla de Avarair en Aunque el enemigo resulto victorioso, la lucha fire tan encamizada y sanguinaria que se abandonaron todos los planes de conversion forzosa.

Los companeros de Vardan fueron canonizados como martires. Otras dos guerras estallaron a continuation, en y , pero la fe armenia permanecio inquebrantable. Sin duda por esa razon resistio a las diversas dominaciones musulmanas que se sucedieron, con algunas interrupciones sobre todo, entre y desde el siglo VII hasta el siglo XIX. El catolicos se hizo portavoz de su pueblo ante los califas, los emires, los sultanes y los janes. Entre y , unnuevo reino se constituyo en Cilicia, al amparodc los montes TauroyAmanos.

Aldisponer de una fachada maritima, la Armenia cilicia pudo relacionarse con las republicas comerciales de Genova y Venecia. Vecinos de los Estados cruzados, los principes armenios casaron a sus hijas con los barones francos establecidos en Oriente. Credo entonces el entusiasmo por el amor cortes, la teologia escolastica, las ciencias y las tecnicas occidentales; se tradujo el derecho feudal, que pasaba por ser en esa epoca el riltimo grito del buen gobierno.

En su intento de defenderse de los mamelucos y sus sucesores, los ayubidas de Egipto y Siria, los reyes cilicios se aliaron con los mogoles que, antes de , todavia no se habian convertido al islam. Deseaban sorprender al Anticristo por la espalda utilizando a los jinetes de las estepas. Desgraciadamente, los cruzados no comprendieron esa estrategia. Los mogoles se unieron al bando musulman, y todos los principados francos cayeron uno tras otro.

Aislado, los armenios tambien acabaron por sucumbir. En , en un momenta en que toda Armenia estaba en manos de las hordas turcomanas seguidoras de Tamerlan, un pequeno grupo de principes y prelados decidieron repatriar el catolicado a la ciudad santa de Vagharshapat, al amparo de la catedral de Ejmiatsin. Ese regreso a las fuentes en las horas oscuras de la historia triunfo sobre todos los obstaculos e inauguro una larga espera, la de la brisa primaveral que fundiria las escarchas: La esperanza no se ha visto frustrada.

Hace veinte anos que Armenia goza de una independencia obtenida sin violencia. Superando el cataclismo del derrumbe sovietico, los armenios han edificado su Estado, instituido su moneda, asegurado los suministros energeticos y emprendido valerosamente la reconstruction de su economla. Es cierto que todavia no han encontrado solution para algunos asuntos graves. Los habitantes armenios de los montes Karabaj, enclavados en territorio azeri, reclaman el derecho a la seguridad y la autodeterminacion; como represalia, Turquia y Azerbayan han impuesto un bloqueo a Armenia.

Semejante busqucda de la armonla es una obra de largo aliento. Al contrario de la education pagana, que hacla del tiro con arco el primer ejercicio de habilidad y reflexion, el santo traductor Mashtots elegla a los disclpulos por la calidad de su aliento. Querla cantantes robustos, capaces de salmodiar sin flaquear de principio a fin del oficio.

La costumbre no se ha perdido. El camino es negro, el camino es noche, vamos sin descanso en sombras sin dia, por siglos y siglos seguimos subiendo los asperos montes, los montes de Armenia. De lejos cargamos tesoros sin precio, el mar de tesoros que en tiempos remotos nuestra alma alumbro en las altas cumbres, los montes de Armenia.

Y luego aterrada nuestra caravana, forzada, expoliada y despedazada, reanuda su marcha cargada de heridas por montes de luto, los montes de Armenia. Fijamos los ojos, llenos de nostalgia, en astros lejanos del confin del cielo y les preguntamos cuando vendra el dia en que seran verdes los montes de Armenia. Que esa recopilacion de simples melodias, que considera como un tesoro de la cultura de su pueblo -y a la que da una forma manuscrita original para que recuerde un pequeiio camet de notas personales tomadas por un musico-, pueda ser una base de trabajo para logros futures.

Como la interpretation de las melodias elegidas es instrumental, quiza sean de utilidad algunas consideraciones los textos y los contextos de este repertorio. La musica de tradition oral de un pueblo que ha carecido de Estado durante siglos no puede tener un caracter homogeneo. Sin embargo, cuando a finales del siglo XIX Komitas decidio estudiarla en profundidad llevando a cabo clasificaciones rigurosas segun criterios de genera, region, circunstancia de ejecucion, acabo por sacar a la luz elementos comunes de caracter intemporal. Es evidente que todos esos cantos acompanan una historia: Ahora bien, en los ecos heroicos como en el lamento del exiliado o en el homenaje rendido a la belleza de la tierra como en el juego amoroso, el oido atento reconocera algunas constantes.

Las escuchamos aqui como otros tantos elementos de una identidad musical fuerte: Solo ha sido armonizada tardiamente por compositores de los siglos XIX y XX como Chujayan 1, 5 y Komitas 8, 9,10,16,18 , quienes adquirieron la categoria de compositores mediante el contacto con las escuela occidentales. Esa evolution es contemporanea a la eclosion de un renacimiento literario y artistico en ciudades como Constantinopla y Tiflis. Convencidos del valor dc la cultura popular, los poetas y los musicos encuentran en ella una inspiration nueva; y es ante todo a las zonas rurales donde acude Komitas para recopilar respetuosamente las melodias que estudiara y dara a conocer.

De la matriz religiosa medieval, solo tenemos aqui un ejemplo. El instrumento que ocupa el lugar dc la palabra ausentes es, de modo natural, el duduk. Las particulares vibraciones de la lengueta de caha de esa flauta de madera de albaricoquero tienen como caracteristica la sorprendente imitation de la voz humana que grita, canta o llora. Parte integrante del ritual, la musica asocia en los cantos de boda 9 elementos sacros muy antiguos, algunos de los cuales son sin duda anteriores al periodo cristiano, asi como elementos profanos que van desde la danza hasta la description humoristica dc los invitados.

La elevada meseta annenia es una tierra de paso. Objeto de multiples invasiones, los reinos y las ciudades siempre intentaron resistir. Aunque hay pocos cantos guerreros propiamente dichos, abundan los de lucha o resistencia: El amor por la tierra, tenido a menudo de nostalgia, es versificado por los poetas y luego se le pone musica: Y es que el exilio siempre es tragico. Lo recuerda desde la Edad Media todo un repertorio de lamentos desgarradores. A menudo, ese dolor es abordado por medio de simbolos. El pan del exilio es amargo, y su agua, turbia La musica popular acompana la vida cotidiana de un mundo esencialmente rural.

Mi liigado y mis pulmones son llagas ardientes heladas por el viento frio, tan frio Cuando el canto no pone directamente ritmo a las tareas del campo, las integra: La espera inquieta de su mujer 6 expresa el temor a que los trabajos lo agoten Y tambien se lo honra en preludio a la danza que sigue a su evocacion. La musica popular y aldeana no recurre a interpretes profesionales. Sin embargo, desde la Antigiiedad los gusans , poetas musicos itinerantes o establecidos en la corte han desempenado un papel equivalente al de los aedos y los bardos antiguos dcdicados a cantar las gestas epicas.

Esta tradition, que ha evolucionado mucho en el curso de los siglos, se sigue reivindicado en Armenia 11 , donde se confunde a menudo con la de los ashiks, poetas musicos cuyas obras, esencialmente liricas, celebran el amor. El mas celebre de ellos, Sayat Nova, foe apreciado en todo el Caucaso 3.

Sayat Nova era muy aficionado a la kamancha , instrumento de cuerda frotada que emplea un arco de tension manual y se sujeta verticalmente, apoyado en el muslo. Y es que esa escritura nueva permitio la traduction de las obras importantes de las grandes civilizaciones de la epoca y, al mismo tiempo, la eclosion de talentos literarios. La musica, en cambio, no tuvo su Mashtots. En la liturgia antigua o en los himnos y canticos que la puntuan, la transmision oral es la encargada de garantizar la fidelidad del chantre a los codigos fijados por las autoridades religiosas que clasifican los modos ocho en un principio en funcion del calendario liturgico y sus fiestas: Son, mas bien, ayudas mnemotecnicas.

Y el aprendizaje prolongado con un maestro es la fuente del saber musical del giisan o del ashik , interpretes profesionales de la musica profana que reunen en su arte la inspiration poetica y la invention melodica o ritmica. Tigran Chujayan nacio en en Bolis o Polis el unico nombre que las obras armenias dan a la antigua Constantinopla convertida en Estambul , en el seno de una rica familia de artesanos, y conto entre sus maestros en los inicios de su vocation musical a Gabriel Yeranian. Se formo durante tres anos en el conservatorio de Milan: Sin embargo, fiieron vanos todos sus esfiierzos por convencer a los mecenas de la oportunidad de interpretar las demas enBolis, Paris o Esmirna.

Hubo que esperara para que su opera Arshak II serepresentaa por primera vez en Erevan Chujayan murio en la miseria en Su obra debe ponerse en perspectiva con el autentico auge de la cultura armenia en el siglo XIX. Contemporaneo de las luchas y los combates politicos entablados por los imperios de la epoca, Chujayan tiene como objetivo la afirmacion de una idcntidad nacional nueva. Tanto en Constantinopla como en Tiflis los intelectuales que han estudiando en universidades europeas se apropian entonces de todo un patrimonio y lo marcan con el sello de su propia creation.

Junto a las prestigiosas publicaciones literarias donde se expresan los poetas romanticos, realistas y luego simbolistas, empiezan a aparecer revistas musicales. A ambos los anima un impulso pedagogico y quieren transcribir y adaptai' en notation occidental las melodlas que componen para los poemas de sus contemporaneos.

Otros musicos, cuyo nombre no ha sido retenido por la historia, se inscriben en la misma perspectiva e inmortalizan los textos de M. Gabriel Yeranian , primer maestro de Chujayan no vivio lo suficiente para dejar una obra destacada. Pedagogo organizador de conferencias, creador de dos revistas musicales, fonna parte de esos precursores que quisieron establecer lazos entre el patrimonio musical de su pueblo y la cultura occidental. Algunos de sus cantos seran annonizados y retomados a fmales del siglo XIX por las corales que se crearon en todas las ciudades donde vivlan armenios o interpretados por solistas de renombre.

Sayat Nova es el mas emblematico y querido de todos los ashiks del Caucaso. Tras unos initios como aprendiz de tejedor, enseguida renuncia a ese oficio y se perfecciona en el arte musical en Tiflis, ciudad cosmopolita donde aprende diversas lenguas y se fonna con el contacto de varias tradiciones poeticas. Canta en la corte del rey georgiano Irakli II, quien lo enviara al exilio a orillas del mar Caspio en por razones tan misteriosas como las que alejaron a Ovidio de Augusto Su obra, muy caracteristica del lirismo oriental, esta dedicada ante todo al amor 3.

Su poesla crea una lengua propia, tejida de references y rica en metaforas que son concretas o tambien conceptistas y simbolicas. No es casualidad que a Komitas la presente grabacion le otorgue un lugar tin destacado 8,9,10,16,18 , porque es mucho lo que le debe la musica armenia. Recibio las bases de su formation en Ejmiatsin, sede del patriarca de todos los annenios.

Residio en Berlin entre y con el fin de perfeccionar su cultura musical antes de emprender a la mision a la que quiso dedicarse: Recogio de fonna sistematica y rigurosa los cantos de las provincias que recorrio. Los clasifico, analizo, compare y publico en revistas o los presento en conferencias dictadas ante publicos muy diversos Tiflis, Berlin, Paris, Ginebra.

Se establecio en Constantinopla en y participo activamente en la rica vida cultural de la ciudad, donde entablo amistad con escritores e intelectuales. En fue deportado al mismo tiempo que ellos. Ese teorico de reconocido talento musical sobrevivira gracias a la intervention de algunos diplomaticos, que exigieron su regreso. Sin embargo, su obra permanecera inacabada. Llevado a Paris, donde fire intemado despues de la guerra, no volvera a recuperar la salud mental, definitivamente quebrada como consecuencia de la tragedia vivida por su pueblo.

Full text of "Dante and the early astronomers"

Lo contrario del arte no es la felicidad, es la indiferencia. Lo contrario de la fe no es la herejia, es la indiferencia. Y lo contrario de la vida no es la muerte, es la indiferencia. Elie Wiesel Todos los 24 de abril el pueblo armenio conmemora con un largo dla de duelo en su propio pals y en la diaspora el aniversario del genocidio sufrido a partir de a manos de los oficiales turcos del Imperio otomano, un trauma nacional que todavla no se ha curado ni ha obtenido el suficiente reconocimiento por parte de la comunidad intemacional. Las cifras oficiales y las atrocidades padecidas en aquel tragico intento de exterminio sistematico son tan espantosas como desconocidas: El resultado lire la desaparicion en pocos anos de dos tercios de la poblacion armenia que residla en aquella epoca en el gran Imperio otomano.

La actual Republica de Turqula no niega las matanzas, pero rechaza toda responsabilidad y no acepta el termino genocidio'. Las autoridades turcas temlan que la poblacion armenia, cristiana como sus adversarios rusos, se aliara con los invasores y abriera un nuevo frente de guerra en la retaguardia del imperio. El pueblo armenio tenia razones mas que justificadas para aliarse con los msos y librarse de la opresion ejercida por las autoridades del sultanato: Los armenios, que pedlan la modernization de las instituciones y el reconocimiento de su identidad, fueron castigados duramente: La region del lago Van, en el corazon de la nation historica de Armenia, quedo devastada, sus iglesias quemadas o convertidas en mezquitas, y mas de poblados desaparecieron por completo dc los mapas.

Esos hechos de finales del siglo XIX fueron precursores de la gran matanza que llegarla despues, cuando los oficiales ultranacionalistas del movimiento de los Jovenes Turcos, tras dar un golpe de Estado y derrocar a Abdul Hamid II en , consiguieron imponer su ideologla, el turanismo, que buscaba la creation de una nueva gran potencia asiatica, la Gran Turqula, la union de todos los pueblos de lengua turca desde las costas del Egeo hasta las estepas del centre de Asia y China.

Conscientes del lento e irremediable desmembramiento del Imperio otomano, los Jovenes Turcos intentaron imponer por la fuerza una politica que al menos convirtiera el territorio de Anatolia en un territorio turco racialmente homogeneo y para lo cual los armenios constitulan el primer pueblo que debla eliminarse: Ese episodio es conocido como las matanzas de Cilicia. Ante esa amenaza constante y la violencia ejercida contra cllos por parte del gobierno turco, el 7 de abril de , en el marco de los acontecimientos y los combates de la Primera Guerra Mundial entre los ejercitos turco y ruso, los armenios de la region oriental de Van se sublevaron y proclamaron un gobierno armenio independiente.

Los Jovenes Turcos y, en concreto, el gran visir del sultanato, Taalat Pacha, aprovecharon entonces ese pretexto para llevar a cabo una operation de represalia a gran escala iniciada el 24 de abril de con la orden de deportation y ejecucion de entre y intelectuales y proceres de las elites armenias de Estambul, el denominado Domingo Rojo. El gobierno turco amenazo con sanciones y destituyo a los fiincionarios u oficiales del regimen que se negaron a cumplir las ordenes de deportation o ejecucion.

La Ley Provisional de Deportation del 29 de mayo de fijo las pautas de dicha deportation y tambien del expolio de la poblacion armenia: Los documentos y los testigos directos de los hechos relatan un cumulo de atrocidades: Muchas mujeres fueron violadas, vendidas como esclavas y despues convertidas a la fuerza.

En estos ultimos anos ha estallado en Turqula cierta polemica porque muchos turcos han descubierto con estupor que descienden de mujeres cristianas armenias obligadas a convertirse al islamismo durante esos acontecimientos. Los campos de concentration, a los que llegaban exhaustos y al llmite de sus fuerzas los deportados, se encontraban repartidos a lo largo de dos ejes en direction al sur: De los dos millones y medio de armenios del Imperio otomano, alrededor de un millon y medio desaparecio y el resto huyo y se disperso por el mundo en lo que hoy constituye la diaspora armenia.

A pesar dc la cobertura dc la prensa international, una Europa enzarzada en los combates de la Primera Guerra Mundial no tuvo energlas para ocuparse seriamente de la cuestion armenia. Fueron juzgados y condenados a muerte in absentia, puesto que huyeron del Imperio al concluir la guerra. El tratado de Sevres firmado en entre las potencias vencedoras y el nuevo gobiemo del Imperio previo la extradition de los responsables de las matanzas para que fueran juzgados; pero solo algunos oficiales y politicos turcos fueron transferidos y retenidos en Malta durante tres anos mientras los investigadores buscaban la documentation incriminatoria en los archivos de Estambul, Londres, Paris y Washington.

Estas y otras medidas encaminadas a castigar a los responsables de las matanzas quedaron paralizadas como consecuencia de los conflictos internos turcos y el cambio de regimen provocado por la llegada al poder de Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, que culminarla con la abolition del sultanato y la proclamation de la Republica de Turqula El tribunal interaliado encargado de juzgar y zanjar definitivamente la cuestion segun lo estipulado por las clausulas del tratado de Sevres anulado en dejo de actuar, y los detenidos fueron devueltos a Turqula en un intercambio de prisioneros en el que fueron liberados diversos ciudadanos de britanicos retenidos por las fuerzas kemalistas.

La impunidad implicita en la anulacion del tribunal interaliado previsto por el tratado de Sevres hizo reaccionar a la Federation Revolucionaria Armenia, que activo la Operation Nemesis por el nombre de la antigua diosa griega, la retribution divina , la creation de una celula guerrillera para asesinar a los responsables turcos del genocidio armenio all! Tras la elaboration de una lista negra de mas de dos centenares de nombres, los guerrilleros de Nemesis acabaron entre y con algunos de los politicos y oficiales dc los Jovenes Turcos que mas se hablan destacado en la persecution y el exterminio de armenios.

Las autoridades alemanas juzgaron a Tehlirian bajo la acusacion de asesinato, pero lo absolvieron por razones del trauma vivido. La Republica de Armenia, cuya capital es Erevan, ya no forma parte de la orbita del Caucaso sovietico, y cuenta en la actualidad con una poblacion de tres millones y medio de habitantes; la diaspora armenia, consecuencia directa del genocidio, se reparte por todo el planeta y en ella destacan nombres como los de los cantantes Charles Aznavour y Cher, el del campeon de ajedrez Gari Kasparov, el del tenista Andre Agassi, el del actor Fran?

Rusia, los Estados Unidos, Francia, Iran, Ucrania, Georgia, Siria, Libano y Argentina cuentan con las comunidades mas numerosas, y es en esos palses donde, a partir dc la decada de y con mucha lentitud, la opinion publica international ha empezado a tomar conciencia de los tragicos hechos del genocidio. En Europa, el pals con mas supervivientes de las matanzas es Francia, donde soy son una comunidad que ronda el medio millon de personas.

Es ahl donde aparecen las iniciativas para reconocer oficialmente el genocidio. El Parlamento Europeo lo hizo el 18 dc junio de ; y Francia cuenta desde el con una ley que lo reconoce y tambien ha realizado diversos intentos legislatives para penalizar su negation: Serbia e Islandia han presentado proyectos dc ley en sus respectivos parlamentos para reconocerlo oficialmente. De todos modos, en el , diputados finnaron una motion para reconocer el genocidio armenio. Tampoco el Estado de Israel lo ha reconocido oficialmente como genocidio. En el tuvo lugar en la Kneset la primera discusion directa y franca sobre este tema, y se encargo a una comision que profundizara sobre el asunto antes de tomar una decision acerca del termino genocidio.

El profesor Bauer tambien opina que el llamado genocidio armenio no empezo en , sino antes, en la epoca del sultan Abdul Hamid II, con las matanzas de y de Cilicia en Sin embargo, la Fundacion Elie Wiesel para la Humanidad hizo publica en el una carta firmada por 53 premios Nobel reafirmando la conclusion de la Asociacion Internacional de Investigadores sobre Genocidios, que establecio que las matanzas de constituyeron claramente un genocidio.

En Turqula, la cuestion armenia no esta resuelta ni mucho menos, y el gobiemo no escatima esfuerzos en el piano academico, diplomatico, politico y judicial para eliminar el termino genocidio de las descripciones de las matanzas padecidas por la poblacion armenia.

A pesar de ello, en ese mismo , el presidente de Turqula Recep Tayyip Erdogan propuso al gobiemo de la Republica de Armenia la creation de una comision oficial encargada de establecer la verdad de las matanzas de , forzado seguramente por la exigencia europea del reconocimiento del genocidio armenio como paso previo a una posible adhesion a la Union Europea. A pesar de las dificultades que supone todavla asumir la responsabilidad de un episodio tan tragico y terrible como el genocidio armenio, un grupo de intelectuales turcos colgo en la Red en diciembre del una petition de disculpa a tltulo personal: Tambien hay que decir que, como respuesta, otro grupo colgo en la Red un documento opuesto que consiguio un numero mas elevado de firmas, asl como la adhesion del primer ministro, con lo que se produjo abiertamente en el pals un prolimdo debate sobre la cuestion.

Todo aquello de lo que se habla existe. En Erevan, todos los 24 de abril, ante la presencia siempre imponente del monte Ararat, el monumento que rodea la llama etema en recuerdo de todas las vlctimas inocentes del genocidio se llena de flores. Que la musica de este disco sea una mas. Reeditado en la antologia Fragments d'Armenie, Paris, Omnibus, , pp. Miniature anonyme perse, Noe y sus tres hijos Sem, Cam y Jafet desembarcan y repueblan la tierra. El historiador Movses Jorenatsi o Moises de Jorene escribe en tres volumenes su gran Historia de Armenia , donde cuenta la leyenda de Haik, padre de la nacion armenia.

En ella lo presenta como hijo de Togarma, hijo de Gomer, hijo de Jafet, hijo de Noe. Segun Jorenatsi, Haik huye de Babilonia cuando el tirano Bel tambien llamado Nemrod es proclamado rey; emigra entonces hasta la region del monte Ararat donde, con un grapo de personas, fundo la ciudad de Haikashen. Bel le exige vasallaje, pero Haik se niega y entablan un combate. En el curso de una batalla mltica, Haik dispara una flecha con su gran arco y mata al tirano. La region de la victoria de Haik tomara su nombre, el Hayastan.

El ano de esa victoria se considera el primer aho del calendario armenio. Los historiadores annenios medievales situaron esa efemerides el 11 de agosto de a. Tiempos antiguos Las fuentes hititas del siglo XV a. Posible llegada, con la invasion de los pueblos del mar siglo XIII a. Estela asiria de Tiglat Pileser I a. Fundacion de la fortaleza de Erebuni Erevan por parte del rey Argishti I. Campanas del emperador asirio Sargon II contra el reino de Urartu.

Desaparicion de reino de Urartu a causa de los ataques de las tribus escitas por el norte y los persas por el sur. Las tribus tracio-frigias de los armenios se instalan definitivamente en el territorio de Urartu y se fiisionan con los habitantes originales, aunque imponiendo su propia lengua. Rebelion de los armenios contra los ocupantes persas. Dario I aplasta la revuelta y da testimonio de ello en la celebre inscription trilingue de Behistun. El geografo e historiador griego Hecateo de Mileto a. Tiempos clasicos a. Los diez mil soldados griegos de Jenofonte en retirada hacia el mar Negro cruzan el territorio de la satrapla armenia de Orontes.

Adoption de la cultura helenlstica. Creation del reino armenio de Tsopk. Conquista del reino de Tsopk por parte del Imperio seleucida. Independencia de los territories armenios del Imperio seleucida. El rey Artaxias I funda un reino armenio-helenlstico que amplla sus fronteras y establece una nueva capital en Artashat. Tigranes II el Grande convierte Armenia en una gran potencia regional. Sus conquistas reunen dentro de Armenia las costas del mar Caspio con las del Mcditerraneo, domina Cilicia, la alta Mesopotamia, el noreste de Iran, Siria y Llbano.

Funda Tigranocerta, la nueva capital. Los romanos se inquietan ante el poder de Tigranes y lo combaten. El general Luculo conquista Tigranocerta y obliga a Tigranes II a renunciar a la mayor parte de sus conquistas y aliarse con los romanos contra los partos. Campanas de Pompeyo en Armenia.

Finalmente es depuesto y exiliado a Egipto, donde sera ejecutado. Armenia se convierte en protectorado romano.