Kartlos (Georgian: ქართლოსი) is the legendary progenitor and "father of all Georgians"[2] in the Georgian mythology, more specifically of the nation of Kartli, known as the Kingdom of Iberia in the classical antiquity. Kartlos is a legendary figure originating in Georgian Judeo-Christian mythology, recounted in the medieval Georgian Chronicles. He was a descendant of Japheth, second son of Targamos (i.e. Togarmah), the common ancestor of the Caucasians, and Kartlos, himself becoming the patriarch of the Georgians. According to the myth, he controlled a large territory in the Caucasus and participated, with his brothers, in a war to free himself from the domination of a giant and Titan king[3] Nebrot (i.e. Nimrod).[4]
While Kartlos is only a mythological figure, his story has been explained by modern historiography for many reasons, whether political, ethnological, or religious. Even though, Kartlos is not styled as mepe (i.e. king), his activities and powers anticipate those of the first pre-Christian Georgian kings.[5] According to a chronicle, Kartlos would establish Kartli prior to the foundation of Rome,[6] a polity, that will dominate and define the national Georgian experience, tracing its ascendancy in the early Hellenistic age, soon after the death of Alexander the Great.[7]
The Moktsevay Kartlisay chronicle and an early medieval Georgian Church clerics, notably, Arsen of Iqalto, would actively ignore and omit Kartlos, alongside Ancient Hebrews.[8]