History of Vardan and the Armenian War

In the eighth Yeghanak, Eghishe places similar feelings into the mouth of Ghevond: "Are they not all filled with maladies? Some are internal, and some are external: cold and heat, hunger and thirst, and every poverty of need. Externally: injustice, extortion, base filth through vain attacks. Internally: impiety, apostasy, ignorance, irrevocable wandering from voluntary freedom."

Finally, when the tribunal in the desert is closed and the executioners prepare to rage, in that last terrible moment, Ghevond also appears to us as a leader and commander of the work of martyrdom. He, a priest, commands the Catholicos: "Approach, go forward against the sword, for you are higher in rank than everyone."

How much the unshakeable and indomitable zeal of Ghevond differs from the vrapet commander and prudent conduct of Sahak Rshtuni.

Every reader of Eghishe knows Aranzar, the sepuh noble/prince of the Amatuni, who has been the subject of one of the beautiful Tagher Odes/Poems by the priest Alishan, and for whom our author has allocated only eight or ten small lines. There is a magical power in those lines, even though if we examine them one by one, we do not find anything out of the ordinary. I saw an ancient Athena engraved on a small emerald of a ring, which descends from the air into battle with a shield in her hand; if you examine each part of the carving, they cannot satisfy your curiosity in their smallness. But the anonymous artist has given such strength, such a soul to the whole, that it astonishes your mind, and it seems that you see in the distance, among the air, the angry goddess who slides and comes down to earth.

A few lines are again sufficient to introduce two other people: Garegin and the merchant of Khojhotants.

Eghishe is as ignited by his subject as any epic poet could require. The writing contains such continuous zeal, lively imagination, noble and beautiful meanings, as are necessary for a metrical poem. Even the Christian and Mog doctrines, exhortations, and struggles, which seem less poetic to us today, were the most notable, important, and enjoyable issues of that time.