The myth of the birth of the hero : a psychological interpretation of mythology / by Otto Rank ; authorized translation by Drs. F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe.

  • Otto Rank
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The myth of the birth of the hero : a psychological interpretation of mythology / by Otto Rank ; authorized translation by Drs. F. Robbins and Smith Ely Jelliffe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    harmlessness, the Sah dismisses him to his mother, Feringis. Finally, Kaikhosvrav is crowned as king by his grandfather, Kaikaus. After prolonged, complicated, and tedious combats, Afrasiab is at last taken prisoner, with divine assistance. Kaik- hosvrav strikes his head off, and also causes Garsivaz to be decapitated. A certain resemblance, although more remote, to the preceding saga, is presented by the Iranese myth of Feridun, as told by Firdusi in his Persian Hero-Myths (translated by Schack). Zohdk,^^ the king of Iran, once sees in a dream three men of royal tribe. Two of them are bent with age, but between them is a younger man who holds a club, with a bull's head, in his right hand; this man steps up to him, and fells him with his club to the ground. The dream interpreters declared to the king that the young hero who will dethrone him is Feridun, a scion of the tribe of Dschemschid. Zohak at once sets out to look for the tracks of his dreaded enemy. Feridun is the son of Abtin, a grandson of Dschemschid. His father hides from the pursuit of the tyrant, but he is seized and killed. Feridun himself, a boy of tender age, is saved by his mother Firdnek, who escapes with Chapter VIII.) Attention is also directed to the story of David, as it is told in the books of Samuel. Here again, the royal scion, David, is made a shepherd, who gradually rises in the social scale up to the royal throne. He likewise is given the king's (Saul's) daughter in marriage, and the king seeks his life, but David is always saved by miraculous means from the greatest perils. He also evades persecution by simulating dementia and playing the fool. The relationship between the Hamlet saga and the David saga has already been pointed out by Jiriczek and Lessmann. The bibHcal character of this entire mythical cycle is also emphasized by Jiriczek, who finds in the tale of Siavaksh's death certain features from the Passion of the Savior. **The name Zohak is a mutilation of the original Zend expression Ashi-dahaka [Azis-dahaka], meaning pernicious serpent. (See The Myth of Feridun in India and Iran, by Dr. R. Roth, in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen MorgenVdndischen Gesellschaft, II, p. 216.) To the Iranese Feridutn corresponds the Hindoo Trita, whose Avestian double is Thrae- taona. The last named form is the most predominantly authenticated; from it was formed, by transition of the aspirated sounds, first Phreduna, then Frediin or Afredun; Feridun is a more recent corruption. Compare F. Spiegel's Eranische Altertumskunde, I, p. 537 et seq.