iii. 414) that Athenogenes was a heathen god of the chase, converted

in comparatively remote times into a Christian martyr. A local cult of this nature seems to have attached to Herakles in certain countries; therefore it might quite well have been natural for Gregory to supplant the worship of his Armenian counterpart, Vahagn, at Astishat with that of Athenogenes, the saint corresponding to the god of the chase. This is ingenious but not convincing. The hunting features in the cult of Athenogenes may surely have been derived from his worship at Astishat in place of Vahagn (Herakles).

[219] I adopt the Greek version of Agathangelus in this passage in preference to the Armenian text, which has "he laid the foundations of the church and erected an altar to the glory of Christ. It was here that he first commenced to build churches, and erected an altar in the name of the Holy Trinity and added a baptistery." See Gelzer (Die Anfänge, etc., p. 129).

[220] After a second perusal of the passages in Agathangelus and Faustus (in Langlois: Agathangelus, cxiv. and cxv.; Faustus, iii. and