David of Sassoun
Central hero of the Sasna Tsřer (Daredevils of Sassoun); the most-narratively-developed Armenian heroic figure; third-generation Sassoun hero. Son of Mher the Elder by Khandut Khatun; half-brother of Misra Melik (king of Egypt) via shared father; killed Misra Melik in single combat at the climactic Cycle-3 battle. Wielder of the lightning-sword tour-keatsakar (the Sassoun-dynasty heirloom inherited from Sanasar through Mher the Elder); rider of the immortal magical horse Kourkik Jalali. The Davidic name links him to the Old Testament giant-slayer-king typology, structurally paralleling the Misra Melik figure to Goliath. David of Sassoun is the central national-cultural-heroic figure of modern Armenia: the Sasuntsi Davit statue in Yerevan (Yervand Kochar 1959) is the national-iconic monument; the 1959 Soviet-Armenian commemoration of the 1500-year anniversary of the epic established its modern cultural-political centrality. His death — by his own daughter's hand in some recensions, by foreign attackers in others — completes the third-generation hero arc and inaugurates the Mher the Younger (fourth-generation) cycle of the sealed-cave waiting-for-the-end.
Parentage
- paternal: Mher the Elder
Children
Powers
- Exert superhuman strength
- Wield the lightning-sword
Epithets
- Sasuntsi Davit David of Sassoun; the giant-hero who defends his land in the Armenian national epicSasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoun) (primary)
Relations
- half sibling: Misra Melik
- killer of: Misra Melik
- spouse: Khandut Khatun (the Younger), Armenian noblewoman; mother of Mher the Younger; same name as David's mother per the Sasna Tsřer maternal-spousal name-coincidence convention · Armenian
- father of: Mher the Younger
Sources
- existence: Sasna Tsřer ed. Manuk Abeghian (1936-1951) Vol. II-III Cycle 3 (primary); Srvandzteants, Mokats Mirza (1873) (primary); Hovhannes Tumanyan, Davit Sasuntsi (1902, the literary-poetic recasting) (primary); Surmelian, Daredevils of Sassoun (1964 trans.) (primary)