The Analysis of Kayumarth Myth in Ferdowsi’s Shāh-nāme and Persian Mythology Based on Mythological Criticism

جستارهای نوین ادبی

Article 3, Volume 45, Issue 1 - Serial Number 176, June 2013, Pages 37-64   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/jls.v45i1.15989

Author

Farzad Ghaemi^*

Abstract

Kayumarth is one of the fundamental figures in the mythological history of Iran. Although he does not figure in Zoroaster’s Gathas and the Hindu Rig Veda, he plays an important role as the prototype of the human beings in the Sassanid Zoroastrian culture. In the Khodāy-nāmes, the Shāh-name and the historical texts of the Islamic era, Kayumarth is referred to as the first king. Drawing on the mythological approach, this paper tries to analyze and compare the structural pattern of Kayumarth mythical functions in mythology with the corresponding narratives in different cultures in order to shed further light on the archetypal dimension of these accounts. To that end, the mythological functions of Kayumarth have been classified under three categories: Kayumarth as the archetype of the first human; the primordial couple and Kayumarth as the first cultural hero. Examining the patterns of philosophical and pre-historical origins of the narratives and their relationships with the Zurvānic prototype have revealed that in the Zurvānic-Zoroastrian branch of the Sassanid period and the sects such as “Zurvānyeh” and “Kayumarthyeh” which had a profound impact on deterministic and astronomical beliefs of this era, Kayumarth narrative is simply the repetition of the ancient pattern of the collapse of the first giant god in Zurvānic culture, a personality who can be deemed as the "microcosm" resulting from the repetition of the “Macrocosmic” prototype (i.e. Zurvan).

Keywords

Kayumarth; Zurvan; Ferdowsi’s Shāh-name; Persian mythology; the archetype; the first human