Aram

Haykazuni patriarch and conqueror-king from whose name the exonym "Armenia" derives per Khorenatsi (1.14). The Aram-Armenia exonym complements the Hayk-Hayastan endonym in Khorenatsi's dual-naming framework: foreign peoples (Greeks, Persians, Syrians) call the country "Armenia" / "Land of Aram" after Aram's conquests, while Armenians themselves call it Hayk' / Hayastan after the founder Hayk. The territorial-expansion campaigns in all four directions establish the conventional geographic extent of the Haykazuni Armenian polity. The Khorenatsi-genealogical chain from Aramayis through Amasya, Gegham, Harma, to Aram is here materialized as a chain of linked figures: Aramayis → Amasia → Gegham → Harma → Aram.

Parentage

• paternal: Harma

Children

• Ara the Beautiful

Powers

• Defeats the Median chief Nyukar Madēs in the east
• Expands Armenian territory in all four directions
• Overthrows the Titan Payapis Kaalea in the west
• Subdues the giant Barsham on the Assyrian plain

Relations

• father of: Ara the Beautiful

Sources

• existence: Movses Khorenatsi, Patmutyun Hayots 1.13-14 (primary)
• eponymous-derivation-of-Armenia: Khorenatsi 1.14 (primary); Thomson trans. (1978) commentary on the Aram-Armenia derivation (secondary)