The Mythological Motif of the Demon in Vis o Rāmin and Haft Paykar

In Persian lyrical texts, myth, as the infrastructure of culture, plays an important role in representing the function of characters. In Iranian mythological narratives of creation and in the infrastructure of stories, the demon, as a destructive character, tries to overthrow the divine characters. In the story of Vis o Rāmin, composed in poetry by Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, and the fifth story of Haft Paykar, composed in poetry by Nizami Ganjavi, the character of demon has enriched the two stories. Both poets, by contrasting demonic and divine forces, have highlighted the dual of good and evil in the deep-structures of narratives. In both texts, the narrator tries to portray the characters' morals and wisdom through their speech and behavior, but explaining of the role of demon in the deep-structures of the two stories is not the same. By using descriptive and analytical method, the present article attempts to consider the function of the theme of demon in two stories. In the mythological infrastructure of Vis o Rāmin which is a battle between Ahura Mazda and Ahriman, the love of Vis and Rāmin defeats the Ahuric wisdom and morals, while in Haft Paykar, the Ahuric wisdom prevails over Ahriman. It should be noted that the differences in the attitudes of the two poets and the influence of Zoroastrian, Zurvanite and Manichaean thoughts on these two books have led to differences in the imaginaries and narratives of the two stories.