When the noise, disorder, and lack of harmony in urban life overwhelm and unsettle us, we seek refuge in nature, hoping to find a measure of peace.
Yet nature is not always benevolent, serene, or beautiful. Sometimes we forget that it was we who built cities to protect ourselves collectively from its power.
At times, nature and its forces are so immense, uncontrollable, and even unknown that they inspire fear and compel us to use our imaginations. Nature can appear so ruthless that—feeling powerless before it and overwhelmed by unanswered questions—we unconsciously begin to construct answers from the dark depths of our minds. Even the raw material for this imagination comes from nature itself; otherwise, nothing would exist in the mind as a given starting point. Since we cannot observe the world from any perspective other than our own, we view it through the window of our minds. Consequently, our answers align with our own nature—a nature that, in turn, stems from nature itself. Alternatively, we may find a genuine answer, yet find the reality so bitter and difficult to accept that we prefer to invent a different story and convince ourselves it is true.
In short, this is the process by which myth is born.
In this work, through a reinterpretation of the Iranian myth of Rostam, I illustrate the very mechanism of myth formation.
The myth of Rostam lies at the heart of Persian mythology; in terms of strength and significance, he is the Iranian counterpart to the Greek hero Heracles.
Rostam’s most celebrated feat is the journey he undertook to rescue the Persian king Kay Kāvus, who had been captured by demons in the enchanted land of Mazandaran. Along the way, he faced seven deadly trials.
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