Shahnameh and Narts epic of Ossetians: an experience of comparative study of the symbol

Abstract

A comparative study of two epic monuments of peoples that are genetically related to each other, Shahnameh and the Nart Ossetian epic, is an interesting and difficult task, because common features can also be typological in nature. The study of the similarity and differences between these multilevel epic monuments dates back more than a hundred years (V. F. Miller, A. B. Kubalov, B. A. Alborov, M. Ishtvanovich, H. G Korogly, D. S. Raevsky, L. A. Chibirov, A. V. Darchiev, E. B. Sattsaev, Yu. A. Dzizzoyty, K. Yu. Rakhno and others); nevertheless, no detailed comparative work was carried out to identify correspondences in particular symbols. The study of the Narts epic of the Ossetians (primary folk text) and Shahnameh (secondary, literary epic) using comparative historical and structural-semantic methods allowed us to reconstruct the Iranian elements of the artistic system at all levels, in particular, at the symbol level. Variants of the functioning of the “feather” in the Narts epic of Ossetians, the literary version of Shahnameh by Firdousi, and folk fairy tales are considered. Attracting the tales of the Iranian peoples revealed the extent to which the symbol under study is spread. A comparison of the wonderful feather/wing object in the two Iranian epics showed the following result: the use of the wonderful feather in Shakhnameh and the Narts Ossetian epic is not the same; its purpose in these works differs in a number of ways. The archetypal scheme underlying the functional similarity of the “feather” in two Iranian epic monuments is revealed – this is the division of the mythological space of the literary text, manifested in the situation with the feather of a wonderful bird, into three vertical zones; zoomorphic and anthropomorphic marking of these three zones with a bird, a person (an epic hero) and an aquatic creature. The variability of the mythological element, the feather/wing, in the Shahnameh and the Nart Ossetian epic does not exclude the long-standing historical and genetic connection between the Ossetian Alans and the rest of the Iranians. The undertaken study opens the prospect of considering other elements of the pan-Iranian mythological picture of the world, in particular, the objects of the water world, tied to the center of the mythological space.

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