Mélusine and Some Iranian Fairy Tales: A Comparative Study

In the fourteenth century, two French novels were published under the name “Melusine”. Melusine was a semi-human-semi-animal creature (snake or fish). She brought wealth and fertility to his human husband, but on the condition that her husband never watches her while bathing. The pact was broken and she was forced to leave her husband and family forever. In Eurasian stories, we come across similar stories, but there are some differences. According to Georges Dumézil, in order to be a melusinian story, it must have these three elements: a human and a fairy meet, there is a requirement or a pact, the pact is broken and the fairy goes away. In Iranian mythology, we encounter such motives. In this article, we tried to compare some Iranian stories with Melusine's story. The stories of Fayez and Perry, and Hassan Basri are among those which clearly have a melusinian pattern. In the case of Siavash, it may not be easy to talk about a melusinian pattern, although the existence of several elements of the story of Melusine can give some clues to recognize an underlying pattern, and these elements can even lead us to find a few missing motifs in the myth of Siavash.