Gusans

Gusans (Armenian: գուսան; Parthian for poet-musician or minstrel) were creative and performing artists - singers, instrumentalists, dancers, storytellers, and professional folk actors in public theaters of Parthia and ancient and medieval Armenia.

However, in the 19th century Kerovbe Patkanian identified it as a common word possibly meaning "musician" and suggested that it was an obsolete Persian term, currently found in a form of a loanword in Armenian.

[6] Music and poetry constituted an essential part of Parthian culture, serving as an important indicator of belonging in the secular society of ancient Parthia.

Songs arise from various expressions of Armenian folk art such as rituals, religious practices and mythological performances in the form of music, poetry, dance and theatre.

In ancient Armenia, musicians that were referred to as "vipasans”(storytellers) appeared in historical sources as early as the first millennium BC.

Over time, the vipasans were replaced by "govasans" which later became known as "gusans.” The art of the latter is one of the most important manifestations of medieval Armenian culture, which left indelible traces in the consciousness and spiritual life of people.

Gusans, cultivating this particular art form, created monumental works in both lyric and epic genres, thus enriching both national and international cultural heritage (such examples are the heroic epic “David of Sasun” and a series of lyric poems -hairens)[6] In the early Middle Ages the word gusan was used as an equivalent to the classical Greek word mimos (mime).