Greek Mythology in Contemporary Iranian poetry (Reflection of Greek Myths in the Contemporary Iranian Poems)

The familiarity of Iranians with Greek myths is not so long. If we put aside a few exceptional cases of the past (such as Khajeh Nasiroddin Tusi's mentioning the myth of Sisyphus), we can say that Iranians' familiarity with Greek myths is limited to the contemporary period. It is in the contemporary era that the names of many mythological characters appear in the works of Iranian intellectuals, including Aga Khan Kermani and Ali Shariati. The intellectuals use Greek mythology to explain their thoughts. Likewise, contemporary poets (e.g., Shamlou, Atashi, Naderpour, and M. Azad) paid attention to Greek myths and were inspired by them in various ways. Among the Greek myths, the myth of Prometheus, Sisyphus, Icarus and Achilles have attracted the most attention of contemporary poets and inspired them. Poets like Shamlu and M. Azad took turned to Prometheus due to the similarity of contemporary poets’ mission (informing the mass of people) with this myth; Just as Prometheus steals the fire (the symbol of knowledge) from the gods and gives it to the people, these poets also consider it their mission to bring awareness to the society and the mass of people. This has sometimes even made some poets to identify with Prometheus. The myth of Sisyphus and Icarus are not the same and there are differences between them, but contemporary poets have taken them as symbols of failure after victory. In contemporary poetry, the two mythical characters have been a metaphor for the developments in the history of contemporary Iran, which is a history of successive victories and defeats. Unlike Prometheus, Sisyphus and Icarus, the beauty of the myth of Achilles was the main reason the poets, like Shamlu, paid attention to it.