Pkharmat


Pkharmat is a legendary hero of the Vainakh people who brought fire to mankind and was chained to the Mount Kazbek. This allowed them to forge metal, cook and illuminate their houses. As a result of this, the people united and became a nation. Pkharmat is the Vainakh equivalent of the Greek hero Prometheus and the Georgian mythology hero Amirani, among others.

Tale

Pkharmat was a demi-god, or Nart, who loved and pitied his people, for they had no fire. The fire was kept by the cruel god Sela in his realm to show the Narts his strength and power and to suppress them. Sela, the god of the stars, thunder and lightning, drove his fire-chariot about the heavens and criss-crossed the Sky, making a terrible noise. With his bow he fired bolts of lightning down to earth.
Because they had no fire, Narts ate raw food and cold milk, and had no agriculture. For a long time the Narts led a miserable life. Sela knew it and was glad to see them so miserable as all the other gods were except Sela's wife Sata. Sata cared for Narts, but she was afraid of her husband.
One day, there appeared a brave hero, Pkharmat. Pkharmat knew of the fire in hell on the top of Mount Bashlam, thought to be a volcano. One day he decided to steal it. He forged without heat for his journey a coat, a sword and a shield out of bronze. He mounted his horse Turpal and began his journey.
Sata took bird's form and alighted upon the mount's summit. She spoke to Pkharmat with a human voice: "O powerful Nart, you have not reached the summit of Bashlam by chance. You have come to fetch Fire." Pkharmat answered "The people are in need of heat, of light. I shall only return to Earth to bring back Fire!". Having seen how strong the Nart and his horse were, Sata promised to help him in his quest for Fire. She advised him how to go about obtaining some, and warned him of the possible danger and of Sela's cruelty.
Pkharmat also received help from his older brother, who Pkharmat informed of his quest. He gave his dear younger brother the carz, a reed-like plant with a soft-inner core, with a piece of coal in it. The coal was very much attracted to the fire, and it burned, and with its sparks boring into the carz, eventually boring eight holes of different length. Finally, the carz had been made into the reedpipe, which could make music, formerly unknown to the Narts. It was eventually given to the Narts.
Pkharmat leaped over hell and seized a burning piece of wood. Sela was angered that a Nart acted against his will and tried to catch him. Because he was unable to reach him, he untied his skein in which he kept night. Pkharmat quickly lost his way in the darkness, but Sata came to help, guiding him in bird form. Sela saw Pkharmat escaping and untied two skeins in which he kept storm and terrible cold. Pkharmat overcome these difficulties and struggled to the great cave in all Narts were gathered together for protection from cold, storm and darkness. He gave them the fire and told "Here is Fire for you! Multiply and become a great tribe. Warm yourselves; illuminate your homes, the caves, the towers; cook, prepare food from now on. Rejoice!"
After that Sela sent his servant cyclops Uja to punish the unfaithful Pkharmat. Uja chained Pkharmat to the peak of Mount Bashlam with chains of bronze. The falcon Ida comes to Pkharmat every morning. According to the will of Sela, it sits upon Pkharmat's knees and tears at his liver with his beak.

Helping Characters

Turpal

Turpal was a legendary horse capable of outrunning lightning, which always roamed free, grazing among seven mountains, and drinking sea-water. Pkharmat wanted Turpal as his horse. Not even Sela's lightning bolts allowed Pkharmat to catch Turpal, which forced him to untie his skeins. Another miracle of Turpal's miracles was leaping over burning hell on Bashlam's peak when Pkharmat took fire. Turpal means Hero in Nakh languages and is used as a male name.

Goddess Sata

Pkharmat's brother

Mount Bashlam

Bashlam is known to most of the world as Mount Kazbek. Nowadays frozen Mount Bashlam is the place on top of which Sela's burning hell was placed. Bashlam is a dormant stratovolcano and one of the chief mountains of the Caucasus located in Georgia. Bashlam's last eruption was circa 750 BC. Events occurring in the legend may be memories of the chaos reigned in those days. Bashlam is the Nakh name of the Mount Kazbek, translated as Molten Mount. Bashlam has always been a sacred site for the Nakh and home of the Akkhi and Nart-Orsxtoi Tukkhums.

Equivalents of Pkharmat in other traditions and their significance

Pkharmat is usually identified as the Vainakh equivalent of similar figures in various other traditions.

Comparisons

There are notable differences between the different versions of the so-called "Prometheus".

Nature of god opposed by hero

In all versions, the "Prometheus" figure fights against a powerful god who has denied humanity fire. However, other characteristics of this god vary:
Greek version- Prometheus and Zeus
In the Greek version, the god Prometheus confronts is in fact the main head of the patriarchal pantheon, Zeus, who is almost always viewed in a positive light, as the loving All-Father, as the wise ruler of all, etc. The tale of Prometheus is one of the few instances where he is viewed negatively. Zeus guards the fire to keep humanity down, because he knows that once humanity has fire, it can make weapons, and progress, leading eventually to an ability to overthrow his rule. In some versions he also reasons that humanity is better off in ignorance and backwardness, without fire, often symbolized by its destructive nature contrasting its use for industry.
Greek version- Kronos and Ouranos
In another Greek tale, Ouranos, Zeus' grandfather was originally the ruler of the universe. He ruled with an iron fist and had a paranoid fear of being overthrown, leading him to oppress his own children, the First Generation Titans. This tale did not involve any stealing of fire, but, rather, the overthrow of Ouranos by Kronos brought the knowledge of agriculture to humankind. For Greeks and other Indo-Europeans, agriculture did not require fire, so the tales of how humankind acquired them are separate.
Vainakh version
For the most part, the Vainakh version is extremely similar to the Greek version of Prometheus. However, rather than the head of the pantheon, as Zeus is, Sela is a major god, but he is not the head of the pantheon. Like Zeus, Sela owns thunder and lightning and uses lightning as a weapon. However, he shares certain characteristics with the Greek Uranus: he is the god of stars and the sky. Sela's personality also resembles that of Uranus.

Nature of Pkharmat/hero

The Pkharmat-character is variously a god, a demigod or a mortal.

Gifts given to man and significance

Vainakh Version
Humankind attains both fire and agriculture as a result of the conflict between Pkharmat and Sela. Humankind also attains its first instrument- the reedpipe - from the affair, and with it, music, which in Vainakh culture is considered very important and was thought to have mystical properties. In addition to fire, agriculture, the reedpipe, and music, the origin of coal and how man obtains it is also explained.
Greek Version
Humankind is only given fire- with which it can make tools. This exemplifies the importance of the forge in Indo-European culture.

Pkharmat-character's Punishment (or lack of)

People saved by Pkharmat-character

Relevance to the debate about the homeland of the Indo-European language family

All the indigenous religious traditions with a figure equivalent to Pkharmat were practiced by peoples of the Caucasus and some Indo-European peoples. This seems to support the hypothesis that the original homeland of the Indo-European peoples lay to the immediate north of the Caucasus touching both the Black and Caspian Seas and possibly extending north along the Volga some length as well as somewhat west into Ukraine. This hypothesis is now the most widely accepted, rather than the hypotheses that the Indo-European languages originated in the Anatolian plains, in the Armenian highland, India, Balkans or the ancestral Slavic homelands, or that they were a sprachbund. Comparison of the various versions of the stories also support that the original Indo-Europeans probably had more intense cultural exchange with the North Caucasus than the South Caucasus- the forms most close to the Indo-European versions of the tale are, in fact, the Circassian version and the Vainakh version. The Circassian and Abkhaz name for the hero is Pataraz, which shows very noticeable similarity to the Greek name Prometheus, which is similar to most other Indo-European versions; comparing these two, it is also possible to note Pkharmat's similarity. It is possible that Pataraz, Prometheus, Pkharmat and possibly others are all roots from the same original name.

Pkharmat in popular culture