Artagnes-Herakles-Ares
Commagene royal syncretic cult · deity · hellenistic commagene royal cult · Recorded classification
Artagnes-Herakles-Ares is the warrior god of Antiochus I's pantheon, fusing the Greek hero Herakles and the war-god Ares with the Iranian Vərəθraγna (later Bahram), whose Avestan name means 'smiting of resistance' and who personifies victory as an emanation of Ahura Mazda. He occupies the third place in the cult-law inscription, embodying the martial function in the tri-functional ordering of the Commagenian gods. In the dexiosis reliefs he is rendered through Greek iconography as a nude, bearded, club-bearing Herakles clasping the hand of the king, so that the Iranian victory-god and the Greek strongman are presented as a single divine guarantor of royal strength and triumph.
Domains
- war victory
- martial strength
Powers
- to smite all resistance and grant victory in battle
- to embody invincible heroic strength
Epithets
- Ἀρτάγνης Ἡρακλῆς ἌρηςDittenberger, Wilhelm. Orientis Graeci Inscriptiones Selectae (OGIS), no. 383, lines 54ff. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1903-1905. (secondary)
Relations
- companion: Antiochus I Theos of CommageneAntiochus I is shown clasping the right hand of the nude club-bearing Artagnes-Herakles-Ares in a dexiosis relief, associating the king with the god's victorious heroic power.Sanders, Donald H. (ed.). Nemrud Dağı: The Hierothesion of Antiochus I of Commagene, 2 vols. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 1996. (secondary)
- subordinate to: Zeus-OromasdesWithin the tri-functional ordering of the Commagenian gods the warrior Verethragna (Artagnes) stands beneath the supreme Ahura Mazda (Zeus-Oromasdes), to whom the victory-god is theologically an emanation.Schmitt, Rüdiger. 'Nemrud Daği.' Encyclopaedia Iranica (online edition). (secondary)
Sources
- Artagnes-Herakles-Ares is the warrior god of Commagene, fusing Greek Herakles and Ares with the Iranian victory-god Verethragna, named third in Antiochus I's cult law and represented by colossal statues and dexiosis reliefs in which he appears as a club-bearing Herakles.: Schmitt, Rüdiger. 'Nemrud Daği.' Encyclopaedia Iranica (online edition). (secondary); Boyce, Mary. 'Bahrām (Vərəθraγna) i. In Old and Middle Iranian Texts.' Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. III/5, pp. 510-513. (secondary)