Abstract:
The dogmatic ascetic work by Saint John Climacus „Ladder of
Divine Ascent, composed at the request of John, Abbot of Raithu“ has
been created at the monastery on Mount Sinai in the 7th Century. Several
translations into Georgian have been made, including one by Gareji
Monastery c. 1160 (H-1669, National Centre of Manuscripts, Tbilisi).
The calligrapher of this manuscript was Nikoloz Nikray.
In the marginalia of this manuscript, the reader finds illustrations of
supernatural beings: snake, eagle, deer etc. The most interesting figure is
presented in a form of a man with the horns and goat’s feet. This form of
drawing is not commonly found in Georgian theological manuscripts.
The atypical pictures in this dogmatic ascetic work are joined together
with the fairy tale form. Through an examination of the Georgian sources
(folktales, mythological tales, beliefs, ethnographical describes), it can be
shown that the figure of the „goat-man“ in the 12th century manuscript
contains anthropomorphic and zoomorphic markers of the demon beings,
according to the Georgian folk beliefs and tales.
