Exploring Anima of Daye (Nursemaid) in Persian Folktales (With an Emphasis on Samak-e Ayyar, Abu Muslimnāmeh, and Hossein-e Kurd)

Coexistence with a female or male principle in the body and soul of a man and woman has long been considered. Although this view persists in some cases, some scholars such as Jung, in the terms of Anima and Animus, have tried to apply these two principles to human sciences. In folk tales and ancient fictional texts, these two principles appear in the form of romances. One of these old represent of Archetype is the presence of some of the characters in the shadow, which is referred to as "Daye" (nursemaid). His presence in the early stages of the growth of the heroes of the stories, as well as some of his positive and negative actions, expresses the old path of Anima's model in the minds and minds of the storyteller. This research tried to present a paradigmatic interpretation of the sense of nursemaid by representation of the roles of nursemaids in some Persian folk tales. The research questions are: what roles does she play as an Archetypal Anima? In which characteristics is her main role portrayed? Is her role invariable or does it change? By examining these stories, it was cleared that she had shown nine role (six positive and three negative). Among her positive roles are her nurturance and growing up, intermediary, confident, resourcefulness, intercession, and preparing the spousal affairs. Her negative roles can be seen in magic, witchcraft and spellbinding, information and managing of the alehouse (bagnio). Most of the actions and behaviors that exist in people’s minds are also observed in the studied stories. Among these deeds, nurturance and growing up have been the most frequented as a positive role and witchcraft and spells of highest frequency among the negative roles. About the positive roles of Anima, intermediary, confident, resourcefulness and intercession and preparing the spousal affairs all subsumed under the "intermediary" character of Anima. The criterion for choosing the stories was the presence and role of Daye in them. Among the long folk tales we chose Samak-e Ayyar, Abu Muslimnāmeh and Hossein-e Kurd because of the stories’ importance, the diversity of motifs, and the frequency of the presence of Daye (nursemaid).