Zoroastrianism which is a prophetic reli-
of Vṛtra,” lit “breaking the defence”)71 is used
gion with a revealed scripture offers salvation
especially by the Vedic god, Indra, who slays the
to the souls of its adherents and humanity can
dragon whose name became Vṛtra in the Indian
be redeemed The dualistic worldview inherent
tradition 72 The ancient myth of the dragon-fighter
in its belief system61 dictates that “Evil must be
was thus reinterpreted in a religious way in the
annihilated by Good, if God is to save his cre-
popular image of the Saoshiiaṇt overcoming
ation ”62 Hence in the younger Avestan hymns
Evil 73
the myth of the dragon-fighter inherited from
Indo-European times acquired an additional
semantic component, that of the coming world
b Iconography of the medieval dragon-fighter
saviour or Saoshiiaṇt (Pahl Sōshyans) This
Saoshiiaṇt is characterised by the epithet “victo-
The visual representation of a fighter, whether
rious” (Av vәrәthrajan-)63 who, in the last days,
mounted or on foot, doing battle with a dragon
“is conceived of as not only utterly defeating Evil
employs a traditional and enduring iconographi-
but also as ushering in a new age ”64 “He is the
cal formula of some antiquity and wide diffusion
one who brings about the Renovation of the world
throughout Central Asia and the Near Eastern
(Av frashō.kәrәti) in which Ahura Mazdā’s good
world, part of a stock of popular imagery that sur-
and perfect Creation is restored and freed from
vived into medieval times The fighter takes aim at
all Evil ”65 Significantly, his victory over the mon-
the dragon using a variety of weapons, including
strous dragon became the “pre-condition for the
bow and arrow, sword, spear or long lance, while
resurrection of the dead and the beginning of a
the dragon is shown either as a lively upright crea-
new era ”66
ture imbued with fighting spirit, or in the guise
The Zoroastrian eschatological myth recounts
of a vanquished dragon lying on its back beneath
the coming of the final cosmic saviour, who is
the horse’s feet with gaping upturned jaws The
believed to come from the region of the Helmand
representation of the single equestrian dragon-
river (Haētumaṇt, “with dams” in the Avesta)
fighter may be divided into two basic groups: the
in Sakastān/Sīstān in southeastern Iran and
rider distinguished by royal or divine attributes,
southwest Afghanistan 67 He is the son of Vīspa
as graphically depicted in the investiture relief of
tauruuairī, who became pregnant by the Prophet
Ardashīr I at Naqsh-i Rustam, discussed below,
Zarathushtra’s own seed while bathing in Lake
or the figure of the hunter or warrior, prevalent
Kasaoiia, his seed being miraculously preserved
in the medieval Islamic period, without such
in the depth of the lake guarded by “guardian
insignia
spirits ”68 She will bear a son called Astuuaṱ әrәta,
In Sasanian royal imagery Ahura Mazdā/
the last and greatest of the ancient Avestan valiant
Ohrmazd is shown on horseback crushing the
warriors, who wil brandish the victorious weapon
head of the Zoroastrian evil principle of the uni-
borne by other heroes before him, especially
verse, Angra Mainyu, known in later times as
Thraētaona when he slew the dragon Dahāka 69
Ahriman who is likened to the serpent in the
With this weapon (which belongs to the terminol-
Great Bundahishn (“Book of Primal Creation”),
ogy of the Indo-European myth of the hero kill-
Pahlawī translations based on lost Avestan scrip-
ing a dragon, Av azhi- “snake, serpent, dragon,”
tures of the third century ad and before and their
jan- “to kill”) he will drive out Falsehood from
commentaries written after the Arab conquest 74
the world of Truth (Zamyād yasht 19 93) 70 The
It describes him as having sprung:
corresponding Vedic adjective vṛtrahán- (“slayer
61
68
Cf the definition of the term “dualism” by Hintze
Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, p 282; Hintze, 1999, p 77 On
(1999, p 75 and n 19) referring to two separate cosmic
Vīspa tauruuairī, see Remmer, 2006, pp 57–8, 144–8, 200–5,
powers
253
62
69
Eadem, p 76
Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, p 283; Hintze, 1995, p 93 and
63 Hintze (1995, p 94) suggests that this epithet was
1999, pp 77–8
70
added because of “the connection of the concept of the
Hintze, 1995, p 93 and eadem, 1999, p 77
71
Saoshiiaṇt with the myth of the hero slaying a dragon ”
Eadem, 1995, p 94
64
72
Hintze, 1999, p 76
Eadem, 1999, p 77
65
73
Eadem, p 76; cf eadem, 1995, p 96
Eadem, p 78
66
74
Eadem, 1999, p 86
See Watkins, 1995, p 58 On the Iranian or Great
67 Eadem, 1995, p 96
Bundahishn, see also Klíma, 1968, pp 41–3
the dragon in scenes of combat
93
…like a snake, out of the sky down to the earth,
A mounted dragon-fighter distinguished by
… thereby the sky was as shattered and frightened
a flaming halo appears on seal stones from the
by him, as a sheep by a wolf 75
Iranian world79 such as a sixth-century brown-
red jasper, preserved in the State Hermitage, St
The association of the serpent with Ahriman
Petersburg (fig 87) The rayed halo that surrounds
is perhaps best portrayed in the monumental
the rider’s head and shoulders probably symbol-
third-century investiture relief sculptures of the
ises the khurrak-i Kayan (the khvarәnah of the
Sasanian king Ardashīr I (r 224–241) at Naqsh-i
Avestan texts and Firdawsī’s farr-i kayani), the
Rustam It shows a bilateral equestrian scene The
Royal Splendour of the Kayanids (the protagonists
conquering king Ardashīr appears on the left,
of a millenary struggle against Tūrān), the radi-
facing an anthropomorphic Ahura Mazdā with
ance that descends upon the heroic warrior and,
turreted crown on the right, shown in the act of
above all, the ruler and renders him sacred 80 The
bestowing on Ardashīr the gift of khvarәnah, in
rider thus probably represents one of the ancient
the form of a ring to be hung over and secured
Indo-Iranian epic heroes that fulfil a mythical
around the royal crown Ardashīr’s steed is shown
quest He is seen holding a spear and battling
trampling on the head of the last Parthian leader
with what appears to be a seven-headed dragon
Ardavān (Artabanus) V, while Ahura Mazdā’s
whose body coils along the edge of the seal from
horse treads underfoot a creature held in the
below the horse’s hooves, rising upwards with one
coils of serpents The plastically sculpted reliefs
dragon head surmounting the other He is flanked
draw on the age-old universally understood
by the figure of a small scorpion and a star The
motif of the ruler placing his foot on a prostrate
depiction visualises here the popular imagery of
enemy as a symbolic gesture of physical as well
the hero as a “beneficial force” attacking a mon-
as ideological supremacy, the horse serving in
strous dragon representing a “malevolent force ”
this instance as a visual extension of the ruler,
In the historical story in the Pahlawī text
his rider 76 This visual realisation of victory is of
Kārnāmak-i Ardakhshīr-i Pāpakān (“Book of
particular significance: the vanquished enemy,
the Deeds of Ardashīr, Son of Pāpak”), written
his head wreathed with serpents, one of which
around 600, the founder of the Sasanian dynasty
uprears its head at the front, presumably repre-
Ardashīr Pāpakān (224–241) himself is related
sents the anthropomorphic Ahriman, and thus
to the valiant ritual of killing a dragon called
the first dated example of a symbolic synthesis
Haftān-bōkht (the Haftwād of Firdawsī’s Shāh-
of the serpent and Ahriman (figs 86a and b) 77
nāma) who lived in the vil age of Alār in the rustāq
The defeat of the Parthian leader is thus equated
of Kojārān 81
with triumphing over the powers of evil Inscrip-
Prominent depictions of the equestrian
tions in three languages, Middle Persian, Parthian
dragon-fighter are encountered on wall paint-
and Greek, on the horses’ flanks identify the god
ings discovered by Russian archaeologists in the
and the conqueror 78 The representation of the
city of Panjikent in Sogdiana (Zarafashān, north
paired mounted horsemen, imperial and divine,
of the Hiṣār range), now at the State Hermitage,
surmounting prostrate enemies, human and
St Petersburg The depictions show pictorial
satanic, thus underscores the triumph by meta-
epics from a variety of literatures, among them
phorically alluding to a complex of eschatological
the Greek fables of Aesop and the Indian epic
beliefs
75 Bundahishn 6 10–11 ( Sacred Books of the East, tr West,
p 54, no 6 6; Bivar, 1969, nos BL 3, BL 4; Ghirshman,
E W , vol 5, Oxford, 1897) Cf Zaehner, 1961, p 262; Boyce,
1962, p 243, fig 300 (collection of H Seyrig)
80
1984, p 50
The iconography of farr(ah), khvarәnah has been asso-
76 The motif appears in the Shāh-nāma, tr and ed Mohl,
ciated with figures connected with light and fire, in other
1838–1878, vol 4, p 81, l 237 See also the related ancient
words, by having flames emanating from the human body
Oriental motif of “eating/licking dust” as simile for death and
or partially surrounding it Cf Christensen, 1944, p 146 For
the humiliation of the vanquished enemy, which is exempli-
the “flaming shoulders” of divine beings or kings on Kushāṇa
fied in Genesis 3 14 Cf p 23; also Martinek, 1996, p 65 with
coins, see Rosenfield, 1967, pp 17, 23–4, 29, 157, 197–201
further examples
Cf Gnoli, “Farr(ah), Xvarәnah,” EIr; Carter, 1974, pp 176–7
77 Ghirshman, 1962, p 132, fig 168 Cf Boyce, 1979,
and ns 18–20 On Firdawsī’s concern with the distinc-
repr 2001, p 107
tive hereditary mark of Iranian splendour, farr-i kayani, see
78 Boyce, 1979, repr 2001, p 107
Rypka, 1968, pp 155, 159 See most recently, Soudavar, 2003
79
81
For additional examples of Sasanian-period glyptics
Nöldeke (1879, ch 6) associated the story of Haftwād
with this motif, cf Gyselen, 2007, pls 14 2 and 14 3; Gignoux
with the ancient myth of Apollo and Hydra; Minorsky, “Lār,”
and Gyselen, 1982, p 58, nos 14 1–14 3; Gignoux, 1978,
EI 1 III, pp 15–7
94