Batraz
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Batraz, Batradz, or Pataraz ( Ossetian: ) is a central character in the North Caucasian myths known as the
Nart saga The Nart sagas ( Abkhaz: Нарҭаа ражәабжьқәа; ''Nartaa raƶuabƶkua''; ady, Нарт тхыдэжъхэр, translit=Nart txıdəĵxər; os, Нарты кадджытæ; ''Narty kaddžytæ''; ''Nartı kadjıtæ'') are a series of ...
s. The Narts were the central figures of the
folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
of peoples of the North Caucasus.


Myth

Batraz (''Батрадз'', or ''Батраз'') in the Ossetian
Nart saga The Nart sagas ( Abkhaz: Нарҭаа ражәабжьқәа; ''Nartaa raƶuabƶkua''; ady, Нарт тхыдэжъхэр, translit=Nart txıdəĵxər; os, Нарты кадджытæ; ''Narty kaddžytæ''; ''Nartı kadjıtæ'') are a series of ...
s is son of Khami(t)s (''Хамыца''). Khamis was married to a sea-nymph or water-sprite, in Ossetian variants a daughter (named sometimes as Bisenon of the Bisenta clan) of the Ossetian sea-god
Donbettyr Donbettyr ( os, Донбеттыр) is the god of all waters, and the protector of fish and fishermen in Ossetian mythology. He is related to a Scythian deity of the same name. His name is possibly derived from ''don'', meaning 'river', derived fr ...
and in Circassian versions the frog-like Lady Isp. Whilst at a meeting of the Narts (see :ru:Ныхас) the Nart Syrdon (see :ru:Сырдон) ridiculed Khamis's wife, who had taken the form of a frog which he put in his pocket. As a result, Khamis's wife left, but before going she breathed (spat?) the embryo of her son upon her husband's back, creating a type of womb-like cyst from which Batraz is later delivered, glowing hot. After being born from his father's back, still on fire, Syrdon throws Batraz into the sea, where he dwells during his childhood. Batraz gained his powers by visiting the god-blacksmith
Kurdalægon Kurdalægon ( os, Куырдалӕгон), also spelled and known as Kuịrdalägon, Kurd-Alägon, Aläugon, Kurd-Alä-Uärgon, is the heavenly deity of blacksmiths in Ossetian mythology. His epithet is "the heavenly one"; he shoes the dead man's ...
(''Курдалазону'') – the smith heats Batraz to white heat, then using tongs, throws him into the sea. From then on Batraz's great feats begin – he lives in the sky and is able to summon lightning bolts to aid the Narts. In one variant Batraz demands a huge amount of charcoal from the Narts, then with two dozen bellows the charcoal is heated, and Batraz is heated to white hot, he then jumps into the sea, and next kills many Narts. In a variant of this mythic motif Batraz becomes so hot - in order to avenge his father's death at the hands of certain other Narts - that he plunges, burning, through successive floors of a tower into a cauldron placed beneath it by Syrdon, and then goes on to kill the guilty Narts in revenge. His feats include wreaking vengeance on a 'crooked giant' (''кривого великана'') in retribution for violence against the young people of the Narts; and also upon Sainag-Aldar ("the owner of the black mountain", see :ru:Сайнаг-Алдар), the killer of his father Xamyc. Batraz also appears in tales in which the Narts compete for a prize by boasting – often he is the winner in the boasting games. Ultimately it is vengeance for his father that leads to his death - his father had a magic tooth than when shown allowed him to sleep with any woman of the Narts - his (mis-)use of this led to Xamyc being killed in an ambush by other Narts who sought revenge for this. However Batraz takes revenge, and he starts killing and persecuting other Narts in cruel ways, then he begins to blame the heavenly spirits for his father's death. Eventually god has to intervene and put Batraz to death.


Batraz's sword

One aspect of Batraz's aspect is his representation of iron. Often is the tales his physical presence itself is used as a weapon, such as him smashing through the walls of a fortress. The tales where his hot self is plunged into water have been taken as a reference to the
quenching In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, oil, polymer, air, or other fluids to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as pha ...
of steel to make it harder. In other aspects of his myth it is his sword that creates lightning, produced when it is swung to dispel evil spirits. In one version of the legend Batraz could only die when his sword was thrown into the
Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...
.


Ossetian aspects

Most of the stories of Batraz were collected in Ossetia. According to legend the three main sanctuaries (shrines) of Ossetia - Реком (Rekom), Таранджелоз (Tarandzhelos) and Мыкалгабырта (Mikalgabirta) - were formed by the three tears wept by God upon the death of Batraz. Additionally the Ossetians associated Batraz's name with thunderstorms in some local folklore. However, since Christianization, as a storm god he contends with the Christian figures of 'St. Wacilla' (see '' :ru:Уацилла'').


Etymology

Russian linguist and historian
Nikolai Trubetzkoy Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Trubetzkoy ( rus, Никола́й Серге́евич Трубецко́й, p=trʊbʲɪtsˈkoj; 16 April 1890 – 25 June 1938) was a Russian linguist and historian whose teachings formed a nucleus of the Prague School ...
proposed that the name Batraz was borrowed into
Ossetic Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...
via a Kabardian source, as the phonology is impossible for a native Ossetic name. Trubetsky proposed that the name was borrowed by the Kabardians from an earlier, non-Ossetic, Iranian people who once lived in the region, and reconstructs the
Old Iranian The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian plateau, Iranian Pl ...
form as ''*Pitari-za'', meaning "given birth to by the father" (a reference to the legend of Battaz's birth, in which he was born from a hump on his father Xamyc's back). Another plausible explanation is that his name is a rendering of the Scythian Papaios, from Proto-Indo-European ''*Ph₂tḗr dyḗus''.


Comparative mythology

As a 'god' who contends against the other gods Batraz takes a similar role as the Armenian Artavazd (son of Artashes), and the Georgian
Amirani Amirani or Amiran ( ka, ამირანი) is the name of a culture hero of a Georgian epic who resembles the Classical Prometheus. Various versions of the myth reveal a process through which the myth was transformed over time, but the legend ...
. He has also been identified as corresponding to
Prometheus In Greek mythology, Prometheus (; , , possibly meaning "forethought")Smith"Prometheus". is a Titan god of fire. Prometheus is best known for defying the gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity in the form of technology, know ...
in
Greek Myth A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...
. Dumézil also sees parallels between Batraz's unusual birth, and the Indian deity
Indra Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war.  volumes/ref> I ...
. He is sometimes seen as a possible precursor to
King Arthur King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
.


In popular culture

*In the anime
Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora is a Japanese manga created by Kaishaku which was first serialized in the Japanese shōnen manga magazine ''Monthly Dragon Age'' in May 2006. A 12-episode anime, adapted from the manga, aired in Japan from January 5 to March 23, 2007. The s ...
, Batraz is the name of one of the ''Absolute Angels''.


References


Sources

* * * , se
e-text based on the work
{{refend European mythology Ossetian mythology