ABSTRACT
The Armenian national chronicle attributed to Moses of Khorene tells the story of Queen Semiramis of Assyria, and her fruitless passion for the Armenian prince Ara the Fair, for love of whom Semiramis invaded Armenia with a countless army. The early political history of Urartu can best be followed in the annals of Assyria, which provide us with a fund of dynastic and chronological data on the Vannic kingdom. Moses of Khorene was one of the first Armenian writers to become known to Western scholars. Karmir-Blur means ‘Red hill’ in Armenian; the original Urartian name Teishebaini means ‘city of the god Teisheba’. The survival into modern times of a substantial number of Urartian place names provides strong evidence for the continuity of the Urartian and early Armenian monarchies and civilizations generally. The Armenian chronicler Moses of Khorene regards the Urartian king Aramu as the eponymous ancestor of the Armenian nation.
