Cjss second Issue: cjss second Issue qxd

cred wine-vessel, dug deep into the ground on the right side (i.e. on the sacred
side) of the special building for storing wine, called in  Georgian - maran-i.
The religious ritual performed there (which had preserved the sequence of
religious activities cited above) is considered to be analogous to the Greek
anaphora (i.e. the central prayer in the Eucharistic liturgy. 
In the term maran-i, to my mind, can be traced the Aramaic words
maran-atha ( i.e. the recurring words in the Eucharistic prayer and the last
words in the Bible – “come Lord to us”) which in the course of time might lose
the  incomprehensible –atha, and could transform into quite a local form –
maran-i. In this case the name of the building implies in itself the essence and
the meaning of the performed cult. The mentioned name implies the informa-
tion about its bearer. (The name in such cases also comprises the predicate).
The refrain of the prayer explains the meaning of the cult acts. Thus as I have
assumed, since early-Christian times maran-i has been the meeting place with
the Lord; it has been His representative place. Consequently the symbolism
of maran-i and the concept of the Christian God are closely connected to each
other. These ideas can also be traced in the mythology and sacred folk poetry
associated with the wine store- house, which is cultic by its nature and can be
interpreted according to the principle of sacred. They include the contents of
the knowledge, which had been gathered, remade and codified in the public
consciousness.
One of such well-known cultic songs attested in Eastern Georgia  unfolds
the following iconic picture:
“In the Ruby wine storehouse
Where wine and ruby sparkle,
There grows the  poplar tree,
It is young and its stem is branched,
The nightingale sits on top of it,
Opening its wings ready to flight” (Bardavelidze. 1957. p. 80) 
The mythological image of the tree which was associated with the wine
store-house was first analyzed and defined as one of the variants of the Tree
of Life by Prof. V.Bardavelidze (ibid. pp.78-81).
On the current level of the knowledge, the condensed form of the cited
verse can be interpreted according to the principle of sacred in the following
way:
Some kind of spiritual landscape which emanates from the verse and
which is  specifically characteristic of icons belongs to the higher spheres of
the reality than the every day life of humans.
Marani safely enclosed in different cases with trees, fence or building,
constitutes a sacred territory in which the divine power is present. In short,
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences

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in this iconic constellation the cultic amphorae is the visible sign of the pres-
ence of the Lord in marani.. The implicit sequence of its content is following:
a). Red wine – ruby (precious stone comp. with the symbolism of the Apoca-
lyptic mineralogy) – sacrifice- Jesus. b). Poplar tree – in this concrete case is
associated with the Father’s principle, and the trunk - with the Son’s. c). As for
the nightingale – it might be the local revelation of the Holy Spirit. The above
said gives the opportunity to the supposition that  in this icon the allegorical
prefiguration of the Trinity is revealed (Abakelia. 2001.pp.7-12).
Thus  “the bread of God” himself, who comes down from Heaven” and
who is born in Bethlehem (i.e. in the House of Bread) has been worshipped
in Georgia from the early Christian period in the House of Wine – maran-i,
which in the course of time has transformed into the traditional norm and
still continues its life alongside the Church. Marani had both: household and
cultic functions. It served as a subsidiary farm-house while there various
kinds of viticulture and wine-making implements were kept. It was cultic as
various religious rituals were performed over the consecrated wine vessels
dug in the right part of it (e.g. at childbirth, baptizing, wedding and so forth)
during the year. These facts also were attested by the 17th century Italian
Missioner Archangelo Lamberti(1939), according to whose information in
the villages of Samegrelo where  churches  were destroyed or did not exist,
wedding rituals were performed in Marani i.e. in the wine storehouse, which
was  considered to be one of  the holy places, worshipped similarly as church.
But as ethnographic data attests, even then when the wedding took place in
a church, after the ceremony, married couple was met by the master of the
house and led to Marani to be blessed over the consecrated wine vessel on the
purpose to incorporate the bride into the new family.The place of the am-
phora where it is dug is consecrated and is the holy of holies for Georgians. It
cannot be simply approached. Women and children generally are not admit-
ted to it. A lot of miracles are associated with it. e.g. once the lit (brightened)
with candles amphora ascended from the ground  and then descended back
in the presence of the master and nearby  angels in white attires walked to
and fro.
In the customs performed over amphora one of the main inventories is
a clay vial, in which holy drink was poured and carried around (passed over)
the participants of the ritual, from where they drank the wine and blessed
the family. The ritual which was a statute throughout generations and was
strictly preserved at Easter convocation had lost its initial meaning.  And still
there arises a question: what does the performed ritual reveal? Proceeding
from the above said, all that has to be associated with the Christian sacra-
mental mystic, Christian sacramental metaphor. The ritual performed over
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Caucasus Journal of Social Sciences

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