The Role of the Hero in Creating Epic Content in Ferdowsi's "Rustam and Esfandiar" Story

The actions and thoughts of the hero of the epic represent the aspirations and characteristics of a nation. For this reason, recognizing the characteristics of the epic hero is especially important in realizing his role in creating epic content, because the epic poet tries to emphasize the effective elements in creating the epic content by using the "heroic insight". In this research, which is done analytically-descriptively and with the aim of examining the role of "hero" in creating epic content, an attempt is made to rely on the story of "Rostam and Esfandiar", the characteristics of two unique heroes/hero of Shahnameh, namely "Rostam". (the hero of the world and the national epic of Iran) and "Esfandiar" (the hero – the Iranian prince of invulnerability) to be introduced and analyzed as the hero's influential vision in forming repetitive epic themes in Shahnameh. According to the findings of this study, the most prominent characteristics, thoughts, and actions of the two main heroes of the story "Rostam and Esfandiar", which led to the formation of the most epic story of Shahnameh are: the popularity and nationality of the hero, having a superficial character and signs of godliness, the importance of the race, the need to preserve the name and protect the sanctity of the free, the use of special weapons, the need for knowledge.