Analysis of ontological metaphors in Mehrdad Avesta's "Epic of Arash" based on Lakoff and Johnsons’s theory

One of the achievements of cognitive linguistics is the discovery of the fact that languages ​​use conceptual metaphors to make abstract concepts tangible. According to Lakoff and Johnson (2003), conceptual metaphor uses the domain of origin, which is a tangible domain, to explain the domain of destination, which is an abstract and intangible concept; In fact, the basis of conceptual metaphor is the existence of a category of origin and a category of destination and the creation of a correspondence between them. In this view, conceptual metaphors are divided into three categories: ontological, directional and structural, and ontological metaphors in turn fall into three sub-categories: container, object / matter, personality (discernment). Arash's long epic poem is one of the valuable works of Mehrdad Avesta.  According to his epic content, he has expressed many abstract concepts with the help of conceptual metaphors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the ontological metaphors in this epic work in a descriptive-analytical manner. After answering the question of how ontological metaphors were used in Arash's epic and what concepts were tangible through this metaphor, the authors came to the conclusion that the poet sought to express sigh and regret. From the turbulent times that have arisen from the war between Iran and Turan, the conceptualized areas such as times, regrets, fears, calamities,  and etc. were expressed with the areas of origin in terms of the vessel, objects and people. Since the essence of the epic is associated with dynamism and mobility, most conceptualization has taken place with the domain of the origin of the character bringing life to abstract concepts.