In an interview to Mehr News on Wednesday, Mohammad Ali Uloumi, author of several books on Iranian folktales and mythology, said that the ancient Iranians had been devising stories for entertainment, and they eternalized these stories of entertainment as myths; “however, myths are different by origin; some have origins in and been strong influence of Babylonian myths and folktales of Shusha well before the advent of Aryans to Iranian plateau,” he said. “Other parts of myths are shared among Iranians, Egyptians, and Anatolians, which have been shaped by relations fostered by Achaemenid Empire; a third category of myths are Zoroastrian by origin, as manifest in Avesta,” he said.
“In Iranian stories, myths have three distinct gods; Anahita, or the goddess of fresh waters; Tishtar, which is the god of rain, and Bahram, which is the god of war and warfare; it is surprising enough that after introduction of Islam to Iran, mythological gods retained their original functions in literature, but their names changed,” Uloumi told Mehr Culture Service.
“This is exactly the same period we notice a change in myths in folk stories; Jamshid is rendered Abraham; Shahrbanou is rendered Fatima, which are religious versions of the mythological characters,” he asserted.
On adaptations by Continental authors of Iranian culture and literature, Uloumi believed that Cinderella was an Indo-European adaptation of Fatima Khatoun, which was originally Iranian; “Myths and folktales are closely interrelated; from a different view, myths are ethnic tales reincarnated in other forms; that is, they have seen a metamorphosis from pure narrative form to a universalistic form and then into popular culture,” Uloumi detailed. “For example, in the story of Kayoumars, it was first an ethnic and local tale, which found a universal aspect in Iranian culture,” he said.
In response to Mehr News question why in recent years, the nature of literary creation had been relegated to research into the sphere of popular culture, Uloumi lamented the large gap in research into the popular culture and folktales; “I feel a significant gap in works of merit in Persian mythology; research in culture and art is a serious preoccupation for me,” he said.
He severely criticized the general lack of resources of research works in the country; “the sheer political and social struggles have set aside the research gradually; once Jean Paul Sartre had told that the profession of literature is ‘vainglorious chivalry;’ I would adopt his words here to define the profession of literature in Third World countries as ‘lunaticism,’” he asserted.
Your Comment