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One ofthe important stages in the journey of the heroes in myths, legends or folk and fairy tales, according to Joseph Campbell, is separation. The separation usually happens with a secret call, a vocation or a dream, which includes some archetypal symbols. The summon or requestof a Prophet, a master or a father, or falling in love with an image of a beautiful girl who sometimes happens to be a fairy, along with yearning for wealth or power are oftenthe reasons of this ritualistic journey of the hero in the stories.In this article, besides surveying the different “callings”in the stories their psychologicalcauses are discussed.According to Sigmund Freud and his student Bruno Bettelheim, some defects or desires make the hero to start the journey and on passing this stage he has the honor to reach the stage of initiation. Freud and Rank believe this development happens in the first period of the individual’s life, whereas the unity of the conscious and the unconscious for Jung belongs to the second stage of the hero’s life, which is also confirmed by Campbell.

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Zarrin-gabā Nāmeh is one of the unknown epic poems, which has been named Asadi’s Shāhnameh, Rostam and Soleymān and Zarrin-gabāye Haft Lashkar in three different manuscripts. Its Shiite poet is unknown and probably wrote the poem in the Safavid period. The events of the story happen during Keykhosrow’s reign in Iran and the life of Soleyman the Prophet. It begins with the arrival of Zarrin-gabā, Soleyman’s messenger, to Iran to call the Iranians to accept the religion of Soleyman. Zarrin-gabā Nāmehis written in 23533 lines and it is mainly about Rostam and his sons including his grandchild Zarrin-gabā. The structure of these verses is narrative and folkloric.

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The flags of the Kings and Heroes in Shahnameh and other epic texts are of important symbolic and ritual significance. The Symbolic signs and their characteristics on flags are important in the analysis of their owners’ personal, public and psychological characteristics. This archetypal approach to signs reflects Ferdowsi’s intention in expressing the function of some epic instruments, such as weapons, flags, horses and tents. In Shahnameh the matching of these signs and their implied cultural significance reflect their semiotic an archetypical power. So each of these signs and images like sun, moon, stars and animals—dragon, lion, wolf, tiger, and eagle—and colors such as black and purple show the complex texture of anthropological feature. This research is both descriptive and analytical and the researchers have consulted different dictionaries of symbols and highlighted the function of each image in its epic space considering the change of its meaning in time

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The Jungian evaluation theory has not been fully used as a standard in analyzing the subject of the seven adventures (or Haft Khan) in Shahnameh. The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the psychological theory in the seven adventures of Rostam and of Esfandiar. By using it, we have attempted to find out the hidden aspects of the evolution of the hero’s personality in his adventures and consequently know the nature of the Jungian archetypes in the Persian epic. Therefore, the article tries to find out the relationship between the supreme Persian subject matters and Jungian theory. Moreover, the research has analyzed each of the basic Jungian elements (i.e. archetype, shadow, anima and animus, persona, etc.) in the seven adventures of Rostam and of Esfandiar, and then each of the elementary concepts in the two adventures have been decoded on the basis of the Jungian theory. It is concluded that all of the elements of the theory can be fully seen in the seven adventures of Rostam, repeatedly in some cases. The hero meets all of the Jungian archetypes in his seven adventures, and after winning them, he finally reaches the stage of individuation. On the contrary, the pattern does not have a regular order in the adventures of Esfandiar and there is no a clear reference to the archetype “Animus” in this adventure. Therefore, the seven adventures of Rostam, in comparison to that of Esfandiar, reflects the entire archetypes of Jungian theory.

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Heroism is one of the main themes in popular Persian prose stories. The hero in these stories has characteristics that generally belong to the mythical beliefs and traditions of pre-Islamic and post-Islamic Iran. Many historical and social factors are important in the transmission of these traditions and beliefs but one of the most important ones is Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. In many cases, the actions and characteristics of the hero in the Shahnameh can be considered to be the prototype of the hero in popular Persian prose stories.
In this study, by examining four heroic prose works of Persian folklore, each belonging to a specific era, we identify and compare the heroic, political, and social characteristics of the hero-pahlavan and his comparison with the Shahnameh. The results of this research are as follows: Despite the formation of these works in the historical centuries, the hero has retained many of the mythical and epic features of the Shahnameh. Some of these actions and features are perfectly in line with the mythical and epic examples of the Shahnameh, and the narrators and writers have attempted to match the Pahlavans of popular literature with the Shahnameh. In some cases, despite similarities, there are differences between these actions and characteristics. The differences have often been due to the heroic ethics and some of the heroic and social political and social practices that result from the intellectual and cultural situation of the era of popular literature and the changes and transformations of the Ayyari system. Most of similarities can be seen in terms of appearance, combat power, type of birth, upbringing, growth stages, and the ideal years of the heroic.
 

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One of the modern theories of literary criticism, which is based on psychological knowledge, is the Archetypal criticism. This theory is based on the views of Carl Gustav Jung and deals with the quality of the absorption of archetypes in the mind of the poet or writer. According to studies, a heroic journey in each person’s life is possible to achieve individual perfection. Fereydoun’s story is important because of the ups and downs of his life and the important characteristics that directly affect his personality during events at every stage of his story. The purpose of this article is to study the story of Fereydoun from the perspective of an archetypal criticism based on the intellectual foundations of Carol S. Pearson and Hugh Marr on the twelvearchetypesforawakening the hero within.Adopting a descriptive-analytical approach,the authors try to portray the manifestations of prominent archetypes in Fereydoun’s story.
 

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The study of mythological and epic works, which narrate the thoughts and ideas of the predecessors and express the history and culture of people’s lives, from the perspective of practical wisdom is a strong evidence to prove the existence of moral principles and customs in ancient Iranian society that continued after Islam. In this research, Banugoshasb-nameh poemswere studied with the aim of analyzing the position of women in practical wisdom. The library research method was used, and the approach of the paper is descriptive-analytical. The results show that Banugoshasb’s actions and behavior are consistent with the components of practical wisdom and she can be called the model of a successful woman in the culture of Iranian ethnic groups who has transmitted moral virtues in a heroic manner. From the point of view of practical wisdom in the field of personal morality, the lady is the wise, brave, chaste, believing and committed daughter of Rostam, the representative of the lady heroines who has become a model of virtue through her behavior and actions. In the field of house management and civil policy, the high position of the lady in the family represents the value of women in the original Iranian culture. Regardless of the attitude of the patriarchal society, she has an independent and militant personality whose femininity has not caused her to be weak in doing things, irresolute and incapable, compared to men. In the family, she is a righteous, brave, and responsible child who acts at father’s discretion (the house manager).