The idea of the ritualism of mythpoints out that the existence of myth depends on rituals. The recent developments of this theory underline a common paradigm between myth and ritual. This paperexplores the emergence of the “Siāvashān” ritual in relation to the Siāvash myth in Ferdowsi’sShahnameh.Siāvash is one of the pre-Zoroastrian Persian gods who is associated with fertility myth and the agricultural culture. The ritual of his invocation is an inseparable part of the Siāvashān ritual. At the core of this ritual is “holy death,” which can be analyzedalongside the rite of the sacred king’s sacrifice and the dramatization of mourning for him during the New Year’s festivals. According to the anthropologists’ analyses of Dionysian ritual, the poetry associated with the holy death of Dionysus played an important role in the birth of tragedy. A similar relation existsbetween the Siāvash myth and the Siāvashān ritual.

Keywords: myth-ritual theory, Siāvash, Siāvashān, tragedy, Dionysus

Full-Text [PDF 1252 kb]   (9516 Downloads)