The Ritual Conflict of Life and Death and Its Symbolic Reflection in Iranian Fairytales
Document Type : پژوهشی اصیل
Authors
1
PhD Graduate in Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Iranian fairytales symbolically reflect the eternal conflict between good and evil, or in mythological terms, Ahura and Ahriman. These tales, in both structure and content, represent a ritual and ontological conflict that extends from the beginning of creation to its end. The present study aims to analyze the symbols of life and death in these tales and to explain their relationship with the cultural, religious, and mythological systems of Iran, thereby exploring the symbolic structure of these narratives. The analyses are based on The Morphology of Magical Tales by Pegah Khadish, since all the tales in this book fall under the category of fairytales according to the Aarne–Thompson classification, and Khadish has remained faithful to the original versions of the tales during compilation. The method of data analysis is descriptive-analytical and relies on library sources. The findings indicate that recurring elements such as the bottle of life, demons, fairies, the sacred fruit, and heroes all contribute to the depiction of a dual structure of life and death. These elements are interwoven with pre-texts from religious and mythological sources; thus, magical tales possess a ritual dimension that reflects ancient cultural and cosmological foundations.
Keywords
Subjects
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