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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2016

Sasanian Fantastic Creature “Pasku(n)č” in Material Culture of Christian Georgia

Helen Giunashvili
Irma Matiashvili
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Résumé

Historical accounts of pre-Islamic Persia and East Georgia, attested in classical sources as Iberian kingdom (IIIc BC-IV c AD) and known later as state of Kartli, reveal the most ancient tradition. The geographical position of both countries has supported the existence of practically uninterrupted interrelations of these neighboring regions from the remotest past. The dissemination of Iranian culture in Georgia has already been clearly distinguished from the Achaemenid period (VI-IV cc. BC), when firm foundations of Iranian statehood were laid. Iranian beneficial influences became more intensive in later periods, such as the Hellenistic (IV-III cc BC), Parthian (III c BC – III c AD) and, particularly, Sasanian (III-VII cc AD) periods. Sasanian dominance on Georgia was deep and strong from the very beginning, including all the spheres of social and cultural life of the country, affecting therefore different sides of pre- and Christian Georgian culture throughout the whole Sasanian era. Traces of influences exerted by Sasanians were mostly revealed in Medieval Georgian culture. Rich archaeological materials, epigraphic monuments, historical sources and distinguished artifacts reached to us attest to the diversity of Iranian-Georgian cultural ties. The present paper aims to investigate a representative and philosophic-symbolic significance of ancient Iranian fantastic creature “pasku(n)č”-“griffin”, “supernatural bird”, integrated in Christian Georgian art, being an essential attribute of reliefs on Medieval Georgian architectural monuments. Ornamental carving and, particularly zoomorphic figure, which was rather characteristic facet of the Georgian art from Early Christian times, reflected ancient Iranian cultural influences, but these zoomorphic reliefs were created by Georgian craftsmen with national compositional art forms, incarnating the main traits of Christian symbolic thought. This aspect presents the most distinctive, original feature of the Georgian art, differentiating it from Western and Eastern Roman Christian culture. New representative trends of zoomorphic beings (such as a winged lion, a winged hoarse), including paskunč , were established in the second half of Xth century and has remained as the topical theme in the Georgian art during several decades (cf. ornamental reliefs of Medieval Georgian monuments- Khakhuli, Oshki, Martvili, Bagrati, Nikortzminda, Samtavisi, Ruisi). During the above-mentioned period the fantastic creature pasku(n)č was depicted according to the canons of Ancient Christian art: it is directed to the center, represented in pairs, having royal attributes. At the same time, new features are also revealed in its depiction: connection to high architectural areas and location on façade’s upper level. In this respect, pasku(n)č’s symbolic content refers to sacral area. Georgian Medieval sources, historical chronicle “Conversion of Kartli” and some liturgical texts composed by the Georgian clergyman Nikoloz Gulamberidze permit to interpret pasku(n)č as a symbol belonging to the highest spiritual sphere. It should be noted that Middle Persian designation of this fantastic being is symbolically related to supernatural sphere. Thus, according to the recent studies, the following etymology was suggested: *pasku(n)č from either Old Iranian *sku(n)- “to be wise, prophetic, supernatural, having magic power” or from Old Iranian *skap “to be wonderful, extraordinary, astonishing” (D. Buyaner). This term denoting a mythological bird or griffin is attested in Old Georgian literary monuments- the Georgian translations of the Scripture (Vc AD) (cf. Georgian p’ask’unji, p’ask’uji, paskuji), and the Georgian translations of Greek liturgical texts. This term is also frequently attested in Georgian folk tales. Corresponding to Georgian p’ask’unj forms are revealed in other Kartvelian languages-Svanian, as well as in Ossetic and Armenian. It is clear, that the most ancient fantastic image, penetrated in Georgian culture through Iranian, retained its functional attribute, acquiring new distinctive features, which resulted in a different cultural context.
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hal-04252757 , version 1 (02-11-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04252757 , version 1

Citer

Helen Giunashvili, Irma Matiashvili. Sasanian Fantastic Creature “Pasku(n)č” in Material Culture of Christian Georgia. Trinks, Jürgen (Hg.): Chancen und Schwierigkeiten des interkulturellen Dialogs über ästhetische Fragen. Wien: LIT 2016, Jun 2014, Tbilisi, Georgia. ⟨hal-04252757⟩
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