Cosmic contradiction between goodness and evil as a basic mythology in platform of Iranian culture, religion and literature

Mohammad KhosraviShakib

Department of Persian Language and Literature, Human Science Faculty, Lorestan University, I. R. Iran.

E- Mail: Khosravi_shakib@yahoo.com

Accepted 28 May, 2012

Abstract

The solution of the problem of Evil has been attempted by every Great Prophet, and though the ways of looking at it have been different in different lands and at different epochs, still there is a fundamental similarity of treatment. Persian mythology developed in what is now Iran after about 1500 B.C. About a thousand years later, a religion known as Zoroastrianism emerged in the region. It held on to many of the earlier beliefs but added new themes, deities, and myths. The result was a mythology based on a dualistic vision: a cosmic conflict between good and evil.In the eminently dualistic Zoroastrian religion the need to defeat evil was emphasized, and it was not by chance that Ahriman was one of the prototypes of the enemy. This theme always has occupied the mind of Iranian from past time until now so that effect deeply the religion and literary masterpieces like Shahnameh and other contemporary works. Crystalizing of this theme in culture and literature of Iranian will be the main key of this paper.

Keywords: Iran, zoroastrianism, goodness and evil, Shahnameh.