The Ritual of Sacrifice of Animals in the Persian Poetry-Narrative Texts; An Analysis Based on Theories of Sacrifice

The ritual of sacrifice, as a religious-social behavior, is one of the ancient rituals that has remained among different ethnic groups in different ways. The present study tries to study the position of sacrificial animals in the Persian poetry-narrative texts (up to the 7th AH century) through a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the research show that sacrificial humans are gradually being replaced by sacrificial animals, and this is one of the good deeds of the founders of the divine religions. According to various texts of Persian literature, most animals like cows, camels, sheep, horses and sometimes mares, zebras, donkeys and chickens are sacrificed on various occasions such as scapegoating, repelling misfortune, protecting from evil eye, thanksgiving, succeeding in affairs, giving birth to child, repelling magic and talisman. The ritual of sacrifice is equally reflected in epic and mystical texts, but in the lyrical texts, due to the romantic atmosphere of them, there is often talk of donating animals to temples and fire temples, and there is rarly talk of shedding animal blood. Fraser's theory about scapegoating  as well as Tylor and Boyce's views about the sacrifice as a gift to the gods are more efficient and flexible than other theories.