Religious Transformations in BC Era

It is believed that Armenians for the first time changed their religion in 301 AD, when our ancestors became Christian. This is a clear disinformation. Nevertheless, we continue to see it repeat everywhere. The first time that we changed our belief was in 190 BC (or at the end of the rule of Orontid Dynasty, in Armenian Ervanduni Dynasty) when from ancient Urartian religion we transformed to Hellenism which was a Greek belief. It happened because of the invasions of Alexander the Great, when he put brutal efforts to make his enemies turn into Hellenism. It continued after his death too.

Even now, there is a wide belief that BC era religions were all alike or somewhat alike. This is simply not true. In reality, they all were unique, and we can follow it if we observe ancient cultures. So, before Hellenism, Urartians had another religious system with various gods. All of them had absolutely different roles in ordinary lives of Urartians compared to Hellenist Gods. However, some Gods from both beliefs had similar jobs but different positions. For example, in Urartian religion the main God Haldi was the God of War, while in Hellenism the God of War was Vahagn, who was one of the favorites but did not have the same powers which Haldi had.

We can observe religious changes if we follow the locals’ lifestyle, way of governing and overall behavior. For illustration, before Hellenism when Urartians conquered territories, enslaving part of the locals, they tried to move them to different parts of the country and made them part of the larger economy. However, after Hellenism, Armenians started to brutally kill enemies or enslaved them. This was a common behavior for Hellenist nations.