Stories from Mount Kazbek

In honour of my impending journey to Georgia I thought I'd write about the most famous of the Caucasus Mountains - Mount Kazbek. In the Kazbegi region of Georgia this mountain is a place of legend not only in Georgian culture. It is locally believed that at the summit of the mountain rests Abraham's tent (or an inaccessible citadel) within which sleeps a child in a cradle held up by unseen hands. There is also thought to be a sacred tree surrounded by treasure at its base that allows only certain people to see it. But the mountain's mythic quality stretches to further reaches of the world as this was where Prometheus was chained by Zeus to have his liver plucked out daily by an eagle. However there is a Georgian legend with similarities to the tale of Prometheus - the legend of Amirani, and it is this wonderfully bizarre tale within which one can see a lot of the foundations for the Georgian psyche that I would like to tell here. This summary is copied from Peter Nasmyth's wonderful book "Georgia - in the mountains of poetry":

"Amirani was born in a dark forest, the son of Dali, goddess of the hunt. He grew up displaying prodigious strengths and the capacity to outdrink and outeat three ordinary men. During his first quest for treasure he encountered a three-headed monster who, just before Amirani slayed him, begged the hero not to kill the three worms that would come from his mouth on his death. Amirani agreed. After he'd dispatched the monster, the worms grew and were transformed into three dragons: white, red and black. Amirani killed the first two but was swallowed by the black dragon, leaving his brothers to cut him out from its stomach.

Amirani then began his quest for a beautiful maiden called Qamari - 'covered in silk as gold as sunbeams,' and 'so beautiful even the sun daren't look at her.' He found her in a magnificent celestial castle suspended from the sky by a chain. Cutting the chain, he entered to find Qamari in the middle of her domestic chores. Begging her to run away with him, she agreed - but only when the dishes had been cleaned. Amirani stared to help her but quickly lost his temper with a dish that refused to stand upright and smashed it with his heel. At this point all the other dishes cried out in alarm and rushed up into the sky to alert Qamari's father.

A terrible pursuit and battle ensued. At one point, hearing of the deaths of his two brothers, Amirani committed suicide (by cutting his little finger), only to be bought back to life by Qamari, who discovered a magic herb after listening to the advice of a mouse.

After Amirani had rid the world of nearly all its dragons, monsters and wild animals, he finally threw down the gauntlet to God himself. God warned him of its futility, that it constituted a punishable offence, but Amirani stuck doggedly to this quest for omnipotence. So answering the challenge, God plunged a stick into the ground and asked Amirani if he were man enough to pull it out. Amirani wrenched and wrenched but the stick had secretly sunk roots deep into the world and refused to budge. For punishment Amirani was chained to a pole sunk into the side of Mt Kazbek. As he struggled to free himself, each day God sent a raven to feed him a piece of bread and a glass of wine. In his fury Amirani would hurl a stone at the raven, miss and knock in his pole ever more firmly."