“Water” Archetype and its Function in Myth and Mythical Epic

Subject Areas : Persian Language and Literature

Mehdi Sharifian ¹ , Behzad Atooni ²

1 - Associate Professor in Persian Language and Literature, Buali University, Hamadan
2 - PhD Student in Persian Language and Literature, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamadan

Received: 2011-09-23 Accepted : 2011-12-12 Published : 2012-02-20

Keywords:

Abstract :

One  the  important  discussion  of  mythological  criticism  school  is “archetypes”. The archetypes are mental package that give us the all of the human’s mental features since ancient age up to now. The one of these archetypes that has not already explored extensively is the “water”.This paper has attempted to investigate archetypes and collective unconscious, as well as functions of “water” archetype in myth and mythical epic. Among   these   functions   the   followings   are   considered   the   most considerable in epic: creation of world by “water”, passing mythical hero from water and his birthday, immortality and getting life shield against death by water, cleaning of spiritual of human and objects by water and tie of water and snake in myth. Finally, applying the mythological approach the paper investigates an archetype in Persian epic, Rostam’s Flag, which is similar to dragon.