Religions
Old Armenian Religion
Religions
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The pre-Christian religion of Armenia before the kingdom's adoption of Christianity as state religion in the early fourth century CE, a layered system built on an older Urartian and Anatolian substrate, given its classical pantheon of named gods largely under centuries of Zoroastrian Iranian influence during Achaemenid and Parthian-era Armenian rule, and further overlaid with Hellenistic Greek identifications once Armenia entered the Greek cultural sphere.
Facts
Disputed
Origin PeriodOld Armenian religion layers a classical pantheon over an older Urartian and Anatolian substrate with no clean single founding point; its historically attested, named form took shape under centuries of Achaemenid and Parthian-era Iranian influence, beginning when the Achaemenid Empire's rise around 550 BCE brought Armenia into its cultural orbit. That date marks the start of the Iranian influence that gave the religion its classical shape, not the origin of Armenian religious practice itself. Correspondences & Relations
Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
1. Zoroastrianism in Armenia (Russell)
James R. Russell, Harvard University Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard Iranian Series vol. 5, 1987Russell's comprehensive study of the pre-Christian Armenian pantheon and its Zoroastrian layer
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