Iranian Studies

From Zopyrus to the Christian Torturing King; The Motif of Deception in Four Historical and Literary Narratives

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Mahmoud Fazilat 1
Abdolreza Seif 2
Arad Gholami 3

1 Professor of Persian Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor of the Department of Persian Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD student in Persian Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22059/jis.2023.361312.1205
Abstract
The roots of many literary stories can be found in historical narratives. In this research, we focus on four historical and literary narratives that have a special type of deception as their motif. At first, we give a summary of each of these four narratives (descriptive level) and then we explain their commonalities and differences (analytical level). The first narrative is about a Persian man named Zopyrus, who helped Darius the Great to conquer Babylon. The second narrative tells the story of a man from the companions of the ruler of the Hephthalites, who led to the defeat of the Sassanid army by gaining the trust of Peroz I. The third narrative depicts the conflict between crows and owls which ends in favor of the first group with the cleverness and cunning of a crow. The fourth narrative is the story of a Jewish king who, with the trick of his minister, causes internal conflict and mass killing of Christians. In all these narratives, gaining the enemy’s trust by harming oneself is used as a motif, but the method of processing this motif is different in the aforementioned stories. This research, according to its topic and method, is conducted as library research. The findings of this research show that the main plot is the same in these four narratives, but their processing is different. In addition, the historical narrative of Zopyrus can be considered an ancient source for three other narratives; a source that has been neglected until now.

Keywords

Comparative analysis
Deception
Kelileh va Demneh
Masnavi
Motif
Zopyrus
Subjects
البخاری، م. (1369). داستان­های بیدپای. تصحیح پرویز ناتل خانلری و محمد روشن. چاپ دوم. تهران: خوارزمی.
بلخی، ج. (1304). مثنوی معنوی. تصحیح رینولد الین نیکلسون. لیدن: بریل.
پیرنیا، ح. (1391). تاریخ ایران باستان (تاریخ مفصل ایران قدیم). ج 1. چاپ هشتم. تهران: نگاه.
تفضلی، ا. (1376). تاریخ ادبیات پیش از اسلام. به کوشش دکتر ژاله آموزگار. تهران: سخن.
دهخدا، ع.، و همکاران (1373). لغت­نامۀ دهخدا. ج 8. تهران: دانشگاه تهران و روزنه.
زرین­کوب، ع. (1398). بحر در کوزه: نقد و تفسیر قصه­ها و تمثیلات مثنوی. چاپ هفدهم. تهران: علمی.
شمیسا، س. (1383). انواع ادبی. چاپ دهم. تهران: فردوس.
طبری، م. (1357). تاریخ طبری یا تاریخ الرسل و­الملوک. ترجمۀ ابو­القاسم پاینده. ج 2، چاپ پنجم. تهران: اساطیر.
طبری، م. (1378). تاریخنامۀ طبری/ پیش از اسلام. گردانیدۀ منسوب به بلعمی. تصحیح محمد روشن. ج 1. تهران: سروش.
فروزانفر، ب. (1387). احادیث و قصص مثنوی. ترجمه و تنظیم حسین داودی. تهران: امیرکبیر.
فضیلت، م. (1385). دیرینۀ پژوهشی تأثیر اسب تروا بر ادبیات داستانی ایران. مطالعات ایرانی، سال پنجم، شمارۀ نهم، 160-151.
نصرالله منشی، ا. (1392). کلیله و دمنه. تصحیح و توضیح مجتبی مینوی. چاپ دوم. تهران: ثالث.
Daemmrich, H. S. (1985). Themes and Motifs in Literature: Approaches-Trends-Definition. The German Quarterly, Vol. 58, No. 4, 566-575.
Fowler, R. (1993). Literature. In Coyle, M., Garside, P., & Peck, J. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of Literature and Critisism. London: Routledge, 3-26.
Morgan, J. M. (2015). How do motifs endure and perform? Motif theory for the study of biblical narratives. Revue Biblique, 122(2), 194-216.
Iranian Studies
Volume 14, Issue 2
Summer 2024
Pages 43-58