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{{Short description|Georgian mythical figure}}
{{For|the volcano on Io|Amirani (volcano)}}[[Image:So 1956.jpg|thumb|200px|Monument to Amirani in Georgia.]]
'''Amirani''' or '''Amiran''' ({{lang-ka|ამირანი}}) is the name of a [[culture hero]] of a [[Georgians|Georgian]] [[epic (genre)|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 itself is traced between 3,000 and 2,000 years BC at the beginning of the first [[Iron Age]]. In the myth a [[Demiurge]] figure - Amirani - defies God by introducing the use of metal to humanity. Like [[Prometheus]], he is punished and chained in the [[Caucasus Mountains]] with his cursed dog [[Q'ursha]]. Similar to the [[Prometheus]] myth, an eagle eats his liver in the day, but it heals itself every night.

==History==
Amirani was the son of [[Dali (goddess)|Dali]], a Caucasian goddess of the [[Hunting|hunt]], but he was removed prematurely from her [[womb]] and raised by a [[hunter]] [[Sulkalmah]] and his wife [[Darejan]], alongside the latter's two natural sons Badri and [[Usup]]. Together, they fought [[evil spirits]] and defeated a three-headed [[Giant (mythology)|giant]] whose several heads metamorphosed into [[snakes]].  Amirani battles with [[dragons]]. He is swallowed by the Black [[Dragon]]. Amirani cuts the dragon's belly and comes out.

While battling other evil spirits in his search for a [[bride]], his two mortal brothers were killed, and Amirani attempted [[suicide]], but discovered to his dismay that he returned to life. Thereafter, Amirani abandoned his search for a bride, and empowered by the highest God, [[Ghmerti]] (the [[Georgian language|Georgian]] word for God), he took on another giant, and then Ghmerti (or God) himself. In response for this insolence, God punished him in three stages: he fastened Amirani to a post driven deep in the earth; second, he buried him in chains under a mountain pass, which formed a [[cave]]-like dome over him; and third, for one night each year, the mountain opened to reveal Amirani suspended in air where a human attempted in vain to release him, and the mountain closed again.

In some parts of [[Caucasian Iberia]], the alternative account as reflected in the [[Greek mythology|Greek myth]], in which the hero is attacked daily by an [[eagle]] sent by the [[deity]], was for a long time commemorated by the destruction of eagles [[nest]]s, as the enemies of Amirani. The [[Svan people|Svan]] (from the [[Kingdom of Georgia]]) version of the myth represents Amirani's story most precisely and clearly {{Citation needed|reason=According to what group or research?|date=February 2023}}.

Amirani gave its name to the extraterrestrial volcano [[Amirani (volcano)|Amirani]].

==See also==
*[[Georgian mythology]]
*''[[Amiran-Darejaniani]]''

==References==
{{commonscat}}
* {{cite book | author=Braund, David | title=Georgia in Antiquity | location=Oxford | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1994 }}
* {{Cite book|title=Prométhée ou le Caucase|last=Charachidzé|first=Georges|publisher=Flammarion|year=1986|location=Paris|language=fr}}
* {{Cite book|title=Narodnyj gruzinskij èpos o prikovannom Amirani|last=Chikovani|first=Mikheil|publisher=Nauka, Glavnaja redakcija vostochnoj literatury|year=1966|location=Moscow|language=ru}}
* Shorena Kurtsikidze & Vakhtang Chikovani, ''Ethnography and Folklore of the Georgia-Chechnya Border: Images, Customs, Myths & Folk Tales of the Peripheries'', Munich: Lincom Europa, 2008.
* {{Cite journal|last=Tuite|first=K.
|date=1998|title=Achilles and the Caucasus|journal=Journal of Indo-European Studies|volume=26|issue=3-4|pages=289-344}}


{{Georgian mythology}}
[[Category:Georgian mythology]]
[[Category:Georgian words and phrases]]
[[Category:Heroes in mythology and legend]]