Mythological Functions of the Water in Ancient Iran

Abbasi, S.; Safari, M.; Asgari, L.

Mythological Functions of the Water in Ancient Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Payame Noor University

Abstract

Arbia elements, and especially water, are the main elements of nature and one of the most critical phenomena that mankind faces with them and has found their necessity and importance. Water was always sacred in pre-Zoroastrian religions as well as in Zoroastrian religion, and the goddesses were protected it. A significant part of the mythology of ancient Iranian religions is devoted to water. In the cultural and biological system of the early periods of life, human beings have used certain methods for recognizing and introducing the phenomena of existence, one of which is myth. Myths are among the earliest initial cognitions and explanations of humankind to determine what is the status of the available and unknown elements of nature. In fact, they are the history of the fiction of different nations and the cultural system that expresses the general worldview of the world, its origin, the position of man in nature and part of the human epistemic system in the period of the beginning of human life. The scope of the functions of myth is often the recognition of human behavioral patterns in all its dimensions and the general justification of socio-cultural phenomena around it. In other words, myths are the symbolic image of the phenomena of nature in tangible and visible language, and the symbolic expression of social infrastructure and common thought in ancient and prehistoric that are reflected by associating with the rituals, behaviors, ethics and rules of the traditional social and family system. Thus, with myths, one can examine the cognitive system of a nation or religion and measure their views and actions. Accordingly, in this research, a descriptive-analytic approach has been used to express, first of all, with a brief overview of myth and their epistemic and ontological functions, to state what the water identity is in the beliefs of ancient Persians and in Iranian religions, especially Zoroastrianism, and cognitive functions about the Iranian's insight and their attitude toward this natural phenomenon.

Keywords

20.1001.1.23223057.1396.6.2.9.3

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