From Euripides' Alceste to Ferdowsi's Foroud: An Analysis Based on Foucault's Power Discourse in Greek-Iranian Episteme

The present research aims to analyze the common traits and differences of knowledge system in these two works by comparative study of Euripides’ play Alceste and Froud’s story in Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. Also, it seems that the findings of this research can be generalized to the analysis (induction) of the dominant discourse of power in the semantic structure governing the flourishing era of classical Greece as well as Iranian-Islamic culture of the 4th century Hijri. The theoretical framework of the topics presented will be taken from the thoughts of Michel Foucault, the late French philosopher, and his concepts such as episteme and discourse of power. The evaluation method of this research is also descriptive-analytical, and on this basis, the necessary data to measure the samples will be obtained in a library manner and with discourse analysis tools. The evidence obtained from this comparative study is indicative of the fact that despite the presence of similar components in the knowledge system of both works, in both the divine and human realms, the concepts of “destiny”, “death”, “love” and “wisdom” are fundamental points of difference. In explaining the discourse of power, they return to the type of their approach in accepting or rejecting the supreme power of God or Gods. In other words, despite the emphasis on the place of “destiny” and “death” in the heart of Forud’s story, the essence of Alceste’s play is the rejection of all that traditional discourse of power before it. In this work, a person will gain power who will be approved by the human discourse of power.