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Abstract: Focusing on the linguistic and national diversities, the French school of comparative literature has mainly attempted to trace the footprints of the literature of one country in that of another mostly in a historical context. The rival American school, on the other hand, has raised new questions in this field and extended the scope of research to subsume other domains of scholarly endeavors. The present paper first intends to briefly examine the limitations of the French school. It then proceeds to show how the archetypal approach of literary criticism and the American school of comparative literature can be employed to bear fruitful results in the field of comparative studies. Such interdisciplinary approaches can make up for the possible shortcomings of the individual modes of study and make much of the potentials that the concept of archetype can offer for this purpose. The study then singles out the Shadow archetype and makes a comparative study of the concept in two epic works, i.e. Beowulf and Gilgamesh. It finally picks out a structural archetype—hero’s journey-- as an example, to briefly discuss and evaluate such models.

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Gilgamesh is the first epic in the world that the most fundamental human issues can be find in it. The Homeric community of Greece was familiar with and influenced by Eastern and Mesopotamian culture via the Mycenaean and eastern Greeks; therefore Gilgamesh has clearly influenced Homerchr('39')s Odyssey. Comparative literature enables us to have a deep understanding of texts. This paper compared to investigate the similarities between the two epics of Gilgamesh and Odyssey Homer by descriptive-analytical method. The two epics have common motifs such as supernatural creatures, alike gods, and philosophies. They also have characters who are similar in their functions. Holy woman and Nausicaa in love with the hero. Ishtar and Circe are capable of transforming humans into animals. Gilgamesh and Ulysses fight monsters. They have missed opportunities by neglect, crossed the sea, have a great personality, are complacent, have traveled to the underworld and to unknown lands, endured suffering to get help from the guide, mutinied, disappointed, killed the friends of gods and holy cow and slept inopportune.

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Taboo, as a belief in the existence of a transcendental and sanctifying force in a number of objects, plants, animals, and humans, is a prominent conceptual concept in the field of literary and anthropological studies. Each taboo, with its two characteristics of "sanctity" and “abstinence ", reminds its believers, a number of collective do's and dont's. Taboos, with their various functions, both in the past and in modern times, have a prominent place in collective relations. Since epic works are mythological manifestations and contain visible and hidden traces of the first eras of human life, by examining the taboo in these works, we can better understand the beliefs, do's and dont's and the type of thought that governs primitive society.The present article, which has been written with an analytical-comparative approach and from a taboo point of view, aims to acquaint the reader with the identical and dissimilar ideas of three peoples: Sumerians, Indians and Iranians, in three historical periods. Research shows that taboo beliefs and laws, with similar or dissimilar functions, play a prominent role in the three epic works, Gilgamesh, Ramayana and Garshasbnameh, and to the actions-reactions of epic-mythical characters. They give a special direction and this indicates the homogeneity of the type of functioning of the human mind, in different prehistoric-historical periods, in different geographical areas.

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An amalgamation of ancient mythological and linguistic features from Ghabrestan Tepe, this article is disposed to introduce some of the oldest findings especially about the then prevailing myths. It can possibly be said that the oldest motifs carved by men, on bones, stones or on cave walls have been the depictions of myths related to Homo sapiens; however, even after the lapse of thousands of years, it is still impossible to find the main tenets they actually tried to narrate through those depictions. Unfortunately, we have to admit that, even the use of modern methods, doesn’t help us to reach to those stories that are much warped and deformed. This article, tries to carry, what has remained from some later version of the myths, backwards in time and, by focusing on a pottery design, uncover what once has been a mythological and significant narrative. Perhaps this had been a well-known mythological story narrated in religious and domestic circles.