Giving Sense to it All : The Cosmological Myth in Pahlavi Literature

Abstract

The article provides a literary analysis of three Middle Persian tales: the Story of Jōišt ī Friyān, the Memorial of Zarēr, and the Explanation of Chess and the Invention of Backgammon. Similar to most works of Zoroastrian narrative literature, composed in the late Sasanian and early Islamic era, they are based on oral traditions and contain numerous references to personalities and events also familiar from other Iranian sources. But, different from comparable stories belonging to the same context and time, they are thematically closely interwoven with the Zoroastrian cosmological myth. The reason for this striking intertextual connection is sought in their authors’ intent to provide didactic narratives for religious instruction to an audience hoping for eschatological deliverance from social oppression and spiritual evil.