Analysis of Metamorphosis and Initiation Rules in Shahnama through Illustrations

Metamorphosis is one of the important literary elements especially in mythological and epic literature. One of these forms is initiative metamorphosis which is highlighted differently in Shahnama. The story of “King Fereydoon putting his sons on trial” is a distinguished example of this kind in which Fereydoon is transformed into a dragon. The current paper analyzes this story from a comparative literature perspective, i.e. poetic conjunction and painting. Illustration of metamorphosis initiation is one of the outstanding examples of creative design based on Shahnama. In order to analyze the selected figurative content, after focusing on the verbal narrative text and the reason why Fereydoon is temporarily transformed into a dragon, the paper examines the visual contexts of morphological analysis in different schools of painting as well as the interference of painters in transferring the verbal context into visual ones. This essay deals with the paintings through a trans-semiotic approach, and the methodology is based on descriptive-analytic and comparative approaches as well as data collected from libraries. The result indicates that the metamorphosis in the proposed paintings have a trial effect to reach the status of kingship, chivalry, and marriage. They are reflected in the theme of dragon-killing as a representation of initiation ritual which is illustrated by the symbols of imaginary dragon as well as the ritual itself. However, the metamorphosis is understood by verbal pre-texts alone.