“Chants to the Mother God of Vardzia” (Old Georgian Poetry, V-XII cc. comp. by S. Tsaishvili, Tbilisi 1979)

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Author	Ioane Shavteli
Epoch	XI-XII cc.
Work	“Chants to the Mother God of Vardzia” (Old Georgian Poetry, V-XII cc. comp. by S. Tsaishvili, Tbilisi 1979)
Type	Poetry
Quote	“We were awarded Olympian victory Enemies spears and shields were crashed Reindeer made their feet stronger by running in forests, recalcitrant Etnians caught flames and the temples of faithless collapsed by wrath” (pp. 199-200)
Term	Olympian ( )

Nike. Vani. II-I BC, Bronze, 22 x19 cm. The Georgian National Museum.

Comment	“We were awarded Olympian victory” – means Georgian victory symbolically, which is corroborated by the follow-up lines too; it is mentioned that enemies spears and shields got crashed, reindeer made their feet stronger by running in forests, that recalcitrant Etnians caught on flames, that the wrath toppled faithless’ temples, the enemy got defeated, of course by the instrumentality of Mother God and Okh. We cannot but mention here the data of historical writing of this epoch; namely Ioane Shavtheli’s contemporary author of “Stories and Laudations of the Monarches” considers “Olympian Brilliance” the trait of kings. He accords the personalities of Georgi III and Queen Tamar the “Olympian Brilliance”, which is perceived as the manifestation of the supreme, superior, Olympian glory. “Olympian Brilliance denotes power and it seems to be very widespread in Christian literature” (Nestan Sulava, Georgian Hymnography of XII-XIII Centuries, Tbilisi, 2003, p. 145).

Comment

“We were awarded Olympian victory” – means Georgian victory symbolically, which is corroborated by the follow-up lines too; it is mentioned that enemies spears and shields got crashed, reindeer made their feet stronger by running in forests, that recalcitrant Etnians caught on flames, that the wrath toppled faithless’ temples, the enemy got defeated, of course by the instrumentality of Mother God and Okh. We cannot but mention here the data of historical writing of this epoch; namely Ioane Shavtheli’s contemporary author of “Stories and Laudations of the Monarches” considers “Olympian Brilliance” the trait of kings. He accords the personalities of Georgi III and Queen Tamar the “Olympian Brilliance”, which is perceived as the manifestation of the supreme, superior, Olympian glory. “Olympian Brilliance denotes power and it seems to be very widespread in Christian literature” (Nestan Sulava, Georgian Hymnography of XII-XIII Centuries, Tbilisi, 2003, p. 145).

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