has the hands placed, one above the other, on his
where even after Christianisation vestiges of the
chest (fig 118) 67 The repetition of the motif above
Zoroastrian faith – in which this was a well-
the northwestern port-hole window (“oculus”) of
known form of imagery – continued to survive In
the church underlines the importance accorded
later Zoroastrian Pahlawī/Middle Persian sources
to this iconography Here, instead of a full-length
(which were written down in the ninth century
figure a frontally presented human bust flanked
but incorporated material from third century
by giant looped serpents is portrayed (fig 119) 68
ad writings and before), the formidable Avestan
Several interpretations have been proposed for
dragon Azhi Dahāka is transformed into an early
the enigmatic reliefs The portrayals are particu-
Iranian historicised foreign king, Azhdahāk, or,
larly puzzling since as decoration on a church
as he is named in New Persian or Arabic narra-
façade they can be assumed to represent overall
tives, Ẓaḥḥāk (al-Ḍaḥḥāk/Dahāk) According to
propitious and apotropaic motifs yet the read-
an account in the Shāh-nāma, the dragon-king
ings of the figure flanked by serpents, in par-
Ẓaḥḥāk was not originally evil but when Ahriman
ticular, have only multiplied the mystery One
(Av Angra Mainyu), the demonic half of ancient
explanation identifies the figure as Saint Gregory
Zoroastrian dualist myth, tempted him, kissing
the Illuminator during his imprisonment in the
his shoulders, a pair of serpents sprang from the
snake-infested Khor Virap (“deep dungeon”) 69
place the Spirit of Evil had touched These ser-
Another tentative suggestion is that the represen-
pents, a reminiscence of Ẓaḥḥāk’s original reptil-
tation preserves an echo of the ancient myth of the
ian nature, had to be fed the brains of young men
Armenian dragon-fighter Hruden (the Avestan
every day, binding him to the perpetual sacrifice
Thraētaona) who chained Azhi Dahāka 70
of humans, who eventually rebelled and over-
On the cathedral of the Holy Apostles in Kars,
threw him 71 An early example of the motif of a
the figure is shown flanked by two serpents An
human figure with snakes growing out of each
iconographical schema involving two serpents
shoulder may be sought in greater Mesopotamia,
that grow out of the shoulders of a human figure
where it is expressed in the figure of the chtho-
was perhaps still known in medieval Armenia,
nian god Nergal72 whose iconography may per-
67 Idem, pl V 1 and 1987, p 154, pl 62; Russell, 2004,
ing snouts are turned towards his head Copied in Shiraz,
pp 1167–168, and p 1180, pl 2 See also the depiction of
dated 752/1352 Present location unknown Ferrier, ed ,
a stylised figure with hands similarly placed, one above the
1990, p 202, fig 7 An earlier known occurrence of the same
other, on the body and flanked by a pair of crosses on a
scene in a miniature from the Great Mongol Shāh-nāma
relief from Samtavro (probably twelfth century), recorded by
(“Demotte”; Washington, DC, Freer Gallery of Art, Ms 23,
Baltrušaitis, 1929, pl LXXXV, fig 144
5), probably copied in Tabriz and often dated to around
68 Jean Michel Thierry (1978, p 54, fig 30 (line drawing),
735/1335, shows Ẓaḥḥāk with undulant serpents in asym-
pl VIII, 2) identifies also the bust as that of Saint Gregory
metrical arrangement featured with elongated, wrinkled and
See also Gierlichs, 1996, p 96
fleshy snouts, slightly agape, which exhibit more East and
69 Russell, 2004, pp 1168–9 and ns 3 and 4, pp 1178,
Central Asian characteristics Grabar and Blair, 1980, p 59
1288 Russell (2004, p 631) tentatively perceives the figure to
72 It is possible that the motif with the serpents was
be Judas Iscariot fused with Azhdahāk and suggests that these
inspired by sculptural images of the Semitic Underworld
figures are apotropaic symbols of evil Another interpretation
God, Heracles-Nergal-Ahriman, as depicted on the bas-relief
is given by Thierry (1978, p 49 and idem, 1987, pp 154, 544)
from a small house-temple in Parthian Hatra in northern
who sees the figure as part of an ascension theme common
Mesopotamia (which was an integral part of Iran in Parthian
in Byzantine art representing the Virgin; the paired serpents
and Sasanian times) The composite figure shows the god of
are explained as an artistic mishap which occurred when the
the realm of death and the underworld, who can be at once
artist copied the Byzantine model and mistakenly interpreted
life- and death-giving (see Dhorme, 1949, pp 40–3, 51), clad
the wavy edges of the Virgin’s maphorion as serpents
in Parthian garb The god’s attribute is the serpent, a pair of
70 Russell, 2004, p 560 and n 21
which springs from his shoulders and rise from either side of
71 Ṭabarī describes these as excrescences that resembled
his waist, while another serpent rests at his feet Ghirshman,
the heads of serpents which to Ẓaḥḥāk seemed like dragon
1962, p 87, fig 98; Bivar, 1975a, vol 2, pl 4a See also
heads each time he was taking off his clothes The mon-
pp 36–7 Cf Drijvers, 1978, p 172 Comparable characteris-
strous outgrowths were extremely painful but the application
tics are likewise shared by the Palmyrene healing warrior god
of brains appears to have assuaged the pain See Balʿamī’s
Shadrafa, distinguished by serpents and scorpions springing
Persian translation of Ṭabarī’s History; Tarjumat-i tārīkh-i
from his shoulders On a beam from the peristylium of Bēl’s
Ṭabarī, tr Zotenberg, vol 1, pp 115–7; the story is recorded
temple at Palmyra (dated c 32 ad) Shadrafa is portrayed as
in greater detail in al-Thaʿālibī, Taʾrīkh Ghurar al-siyar, tr
one of the gods on foot, horseback and chariot who fight a
and ed Zotenberg, 1900, pp 19–27 In a manuscript of the
snake-tailed female monster; significantly the combat scene
Shāh-nāma (fol 8r) featuring the enthronement scene of
is surmounted by a pair of winged creatures with human
Ẓaḥḥāk, the tyrant is depicted with a pair of “Saljuq-style”
torso and serpentine coils as legs that probably represent
serpent protomes springing from his shoulders in bilaterally
beneficial beings Seyrig, 1934, pp 165–8, pl 20 See also
symmetrical fashion whose gaping mouths with long curv-
Drijvers, 1978, pp 176–7; Bonner, 1950, pp 124–5
the dragon in relation to royal or heroic figures
119
haps have been appropriated for the depiction
one he dies and goes down to live in a happy
of yima, the Indo-Iranian “first man,”73 who in
underground abode, while in the other version,
the Iranian tradition becomes the ruler of the
he commits sin, wanders unhappy and dies [ Shāh-
underworld after his death,74 as well as in much
nāma] ”81 He therefore proposes that the motif
earlier Mesopotamian75 and Bronze Age Central
of “Azhi Dahāka in the epic is contaminated by
Asian deities 76 It also appears in archaic Greek
an image of yima [the Jamshīd of the much later
literature as shown by Hesiod’s anthropomor-
Shāh-nāma] appropriated from Nergal ([related
phic drakōn Typhaon/Typhon who is described
by inference to] Ẓaḥḥāk [who] succeeds Jamshīd
as having a hundred snake heads growing from
in the Shāh-nāma) ”82
his shoulders ( Theogony 825–626) Material evi-
It is interesting that a closely related motif was
dence of this visual expression is found mainly
chosen in the anonymous fifth-century Arme-
in Western Central Asia and the Caucasus 77 A
nian Buzandaran Patmutʿiwnkʿ which portrays
large terracotta figure, probably made in seventh-
the unfortunate Armenian king Pap (369–374)
or eighth-century Sogdia, thus before Islam had
as having serpents that sprang from his breasts
become firmly entrenched as the principal faith
(though not from his shoulders) and wove them-
in the region, shows an enthroned crowned man,
selves around his shoulders (IV 44) 83 According
large-headed and with grinning mouth, from the
base of whose neck a pair of serpents grow, curv-
to the historian this was because the king was
ing upwards and around his ears before descend-
possessed by demons The choice of symbolism
ing down to his cheeks The man’s left hand is
may also be associated with the fact that the king,
clasped to his chest while his raised right hand
who was later assassinated by the Romans, had
clenches a now lost object, perhaps a staff 78 As
antagonised the Christian clergy and, in addi-
James Russell notes, it is unlikely that the figure
tion, had been accused of homosexuality 84 The
represented an epic monster Rather is it a super-
description of king Pap with serpents may per-
natural figure that probably fulfil ed an apotropaic
haps reflect the reformulation of the beneficial
function 79 The symbolism of an anthropomorphic
aspect of the dragon when it acquired an overall
figure with serpents springing from the shoulders
symbolic meaning as a satanic force in Christian
is thus characterised by an element of ambigu-
imagery 85 The inversion of the beneficial asso-
ity that allows for a multilayered interpretation 80
ciation is graphically articulated in the later so-
Russel remarks upon this ambiguity when he dis-
called “revenge miniatures” of the eleventh- or
cusses the role of yima about whom “Zoroastrian
early twelfth-century Byzantine Metaphrastian
tradition preserves two separate narratives ; in
Menologion volumes, in which persecuting pagan
73 yasht 13 130; Christensen, 1931, tr 1993, p 15;
Qazwīnī in Āthār al-bilād wa-akhbār al-ʿibād (“Monu-
Zaehner, 1961, p 134
ments of the Countries and History of their Inhabitants”),
74 Russell, 1987, p 44
437, 9–10, which states that serpents grew from the shoulders
75 Nergal’s iconographic characteristics link him with
of the ṣūfī Sheikh al-Kammūnī (from whom al-Qazwīnī
the ancient Sumerian Mesopotamian chthonic vegetation
traces direct descent through five generations) in order
and healing god, Ningizzida, whose attribute is the horned
to overturn the power of an unjust ruler See von Hees,
dragon; when represented in anthropomorphic form two
2002, pp 36–7, 45
serpent heads grow from the god’s shoulders Cf Edzard,
81 Russell, 1987, p 44 See Zaehner, 1961, pp 134–7,
“Ningizzida,” WdM I, pp 112–3; Drijvers, 1978, pp 151–86,
esp p 140; Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, pp 92–5 and n 69
esp pp 171–80
82 Russell, 1987, p 44
76 See Aruz, 1998, figs 3c and 3e; Francfort, 2002, p 132,
83 Buzandaran Patmutʿiwnkʿ, tr Garsoïan, 1989, p 202;
fig 28; Kuehn, 2009, pp 43–67
Russell, 2004, p 62, n 36, and p 130
77 It is interesting to observe further that the symbolic
84 According to the Buzandaran, once when the king was
concept of serpents growing from Dahāk’s shoulders have a
young his mother entered his room [whilst he was engaged
point of resemblance with the motif of the serpent crest that
in sodomy] and saw that white snakes had twisted them-
generally issues from the point of juncture between the neck
selves around him (V 22); tr Garsoïan, 1989, p 165 Cf
and the shoulders of the anthropomorphic representation of
Russell, 2004, pp 341–2
the Indian nāga s that were frequently found in the Buddhist
85 In the Christian apocalypse, Satan as the Devil is
material culture of Central Asia; cf Vogel, 1926, p 40
called the “great dragon” and “ancient serpent” (Revela-
78 Height 61 5 cm The State Hermitage Museum, inv
tion 12 9 and 20 2) The use of the serpent as a symbol of
no GA 3053 D’yakonova, 1940, pp 195–200, fig 1 See also
Evil is exemplified, for instance, by a homily on the Arme-
Russell, 1987, p 441 Grand Exhibition of Silkroad Buddhist
nian martyr Saint Sergios by Severus of Antioch, delivered
Art, 1996, p 37, cat no 22 The bust of a man with snakes
at Chalcis on 1 October 514: “We must be watchful against
growing from his shoulders is also featured on the wall paint-
Satan, the snake who with sleepless eye fixed on our heels
ings of Sogdian Panjikent; Belenitskii, 1980, p 203
lies waiting to push us into the pit of sin by our love for plea-
79 Russell, 1987, p 44
sure, such as stuffing one’s belly,” as cited in Fowden, 1999,
80 In this context it is interesting to consider a note by al-
p 23
120