The Eloquence of the Heroes of Shahnameh Based on Iranian Ancient Literature

The "eloquence" of mythical and epic characters has a long history in Iranian literature. Ferdowsi has introduced many characters of Shahnameh as "speaker", "eloquent", "smooth-tongued", and "sweet-mouthed" and praised them with these epithets. Some literary terms such as "Sokhan Shirin" and "Zaban Shiva" have been used in Avesta, Pahlavi texts, and have been continued in Persian, and some, such as viiāxana "eloquent", the epithet of Mitra in Mehr Yash, has not been continued but were used as an obsolete form of Gyāxan in Rudaki's poetry, and some Persian lexicons, such as Asadī’s Loḡat-e fors, in spite of this, it has continued as a heroic epithet in epic texts among native and foreign heroes. This article examines the semantic range of "Eloquence" that is a common quality of Mithra, the prophet Zarathustra, heroes such as Garshasb, Sam, Rostam and Giv, and even Turanian heroes in Iranian texts from Gahan to Shahnameh.