Mytho-Mystic Literature
Year:2012 | Volume:8 | Issue:27|Papers Count:16

Based on Vladimir Propp’s morphology, the present article tries to study the plot components of Suhrawardi’s Persian tales. At first, the functions of a tale are extracted from Propp’s book, Morphology of the Folk Tale. Then, after studying Suhrawardi’s Persian Tales, we have tried to show their main functions, such as absentation, departure, guidance, aim, difficult task, and solution.

There are many similarities between Iranian and Indian religious and epic thoughts which indicate that they may have common roots. The majority of these similarities are found between Mahabharata and Shahnameh. Even there are some similarities in certain details, like eating Haoma (the sacred plant) and sacrificing, between Zoroastrianism and Hinduism.Based on Mahabharata and Shahn a meh, in the present article, the creations of the world, earth, and man are studied. In the myths of creation, creation of the world begins with the confrontation of good and evil and it is well illustrated in Mahabharata and Shahn a meh.

Shahnameh, as a mythological and epic book, has influenced Iranian contemporary fictions and short stories. It has given a Persian identity to the stories. For instance, the night of killing Sohrab, by Bijan Najdi (1941), Iranian writer and poet, is influenced by the myth of Rostam and Sohrab. In this book, the characters, their point of view, places and events of the myth are illustrated. Esfandiyar, Siyavash, Tahmineh and the author, Ferdowsi, are characters of the story.The present article tries to analysis the night of killing Sohrab with respect to the myth of Rostam and Sohrab.

The imagination of man, while encountering the nature, animals and plants, has created hybrids. Hybrids are mythic characters, a combination of two or more animals, like the Centaur (a combination of a man and horse), the Minotaur (a combination of a man and bull), and the Mermaid (half woman and half fish).One Thousand and One Nightsor Arabian Nights, a collection of stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Age, is a valuable source for knowing the hybrids.Based on the psychology of the stories, the aim of the present article is categorizing and identifying these mythic characters in One Thousand and One Nights.

In Masnavi-e Manavi, Mowlana Jalal al-Din Balkhi has considered language. According to his mystical thoughts, the nature of language doesn’t come from terms or words but from meanings and ideas that are rooted in “the voice of God”.The present article, by taking into account the problems of philosophy of language, tries to show that for Mowlana, contrary to many Muslim thinkers, language isn’t conventional.

Discovering iron in the late of the second millennium of BC changed the style of life for Persians. It reflects itself in their rituals and battles.The present article tries to show the effects of such a discovery on Iranian mythology. In order to do so, First Gathas and then the late Avesta and Islamic texts are studied. Finally, based on the ancient Iranian outlook considering the myths, the role of man and Hormozd, the supreme deity, are studied.

Richard David Bach (born 1936), American writer, is widely known as the author of the symbolic book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Using the symbols of bird, journey and death by Bach is a reminder of Attar and his mystic book Manteq ol-Teyr (The Conference of the Birds). In both books, one from Iranian and Islamic mystic tradition and the other from the Western and Christian tradition, certain symbolic terms are employed that are rooted in the unconscious.The present article tries to show that in spite of their different structure and form, the books have common elements that stem from the unique nature in all human beings.

Myths are about the human struggle to make sense of the Nature and cosmos. They are images of cosmic forces and representatives of sanctity that are manifested in cosmic creation, characters of athletics, rituals, and totemism.Forough Farrokhzad (1935- 1967), Persian contemporary poet, has used mythic elements in her poems. The present article tries to show these elements in her poems.