“Lavnana, Vardo nana, Iavnaninao,

The lords have arrived, Iavnaniao”

The soul and the body have been considered as one whole, for the entire history of humanity. It was believed, that disease was brought upon a human by the supernatural powers and the treatment was ritual. Science, of course, had a huge impact on medicine, but there still are some diseases which are attempted to be treated with rituals. Georgia is not an exception: Some diseases are still considered to be caused by supernatural powers. The common name of such contagious infectious diseases is “Batonebi” (“The Lords”): chickenpox, scarlet fever, mumps. In the proto christian period of Georgia, “The Lords”, or sometimes called “The Angels”, were mythical creatures and the virus was the result of their visit to the family.

The Lords were the children of the Georgian goddess of fertility, Nana. A person who would get the disease was believed to be blessed by angels. People would bring their children to the diseased person, so the child would also get the virus and be blessed. It can be rationally explained: the treatment of the disease is much easier in childhood than in adult years, which might yield many complications later. A person can get the virus anytime in his/her life, but if you get it once in childhood, your body develops immunity against the virus, antibodies are created, and the virus can’t be transmitted to you anymore.