King Yima — Jam — Jamshid: From Mythological Hero to Literary Image

Abstract

The article is devoted to the evolution of the mythological personage, ancient king, and cultural hero Yima in Persian literature of the Muslim period. With the help of translations of the Avesta as well as commentary and theological texts of Middle Persian literature, the work depicts Yima’s main creative functions as the keeper and protector of living beings, ruler of the world in the “Golden Age,” grantor of corporeal immortality, upholder of the cosmic and social order, and savior of the world from a natural catastrophe. These functions are opposed by the role of Yima as the first sinner, through whose fault the “Golden Age” was lost. The rudiments of the complex of mythological legends that have developed around Yima are reflected in Shahnama, the great epos that continued the Iranian narrative tradition of ancient times and the early Middle Ages. All the motifs based on Jam-Jamshid’s legends in different genres of lyric and lyric-epic poetry of XI–XIV centuries can be divided into three groups and they reflect the dual attitude towards this hero. The choice of a motif of a certain group in Persian classical poetry directly depended on genre context (panegyric, didactic, mysticallegoric, anacreontic). In lyric-epic and lyric poetry (qasida and qhazal), the circle of motifs connected with Jam-Jamshid are concentrated around Jamshid’s Throne and Jamshid’s Cup. Some similarities of Jamshid and Suleiman stories led to a merging of the two heroes in the Iranian tradition and even to a contamination of their roles and attributes. Sufi poets often used the motif Jamshid’s Cup showing the entire Universe (jam-i giti-nama) as a symbol of mystical knowledge.