Prince Mohammad, Fereydun, Thraetaona, and Trita Aptya: Themes and Connections in Persian Narratives

Folklore, Oct, 2001 by Mehri Bagheri

There is a well-known Persian folktale that is transmitted in many versions, not only in Iran, but also in neighbouring countries. It is known as "The Tale of Prince Mohammad." More than twenty versions of this tale have been recorded by Persian folklorists, sometimes under alternative titles such as "The Tale of the Apple Orchard," "The Apple Tree and the Dev," or "Prince Djamshid's Tale." From these different versions, something like a central framework can be reconstructed.

The hero, usually called Malik Mohammad, is the youngest of three brothers whose father, an ageing king, has a wondrous, life-giving tree of golden apples in his garden. Night after night, a monstrous demon enters the garden and steals the fruit. The two older brothers fail to ward off the predator, but the youngest keeps watch and succeeds in cutting off the monster's arm. The next day, the brothers track the monster to a well, following a trail of blood. Again, only the youngest is brave enough to descend into the well, which, like hell itself, is filled with burning vapours. Once in the well, he successively attacks and slays three dragons, each of which lives with a captive maiden in its own underground room, house, or castle. He frees the maidens and the elder brothers pull them up to safety, but when the youngest brother starts climbing the rope, they cut it and he is plunged into the abyss. He lands on the back of one of two rams which are fighting in the pit and is thrown even deeper into that dark world.

An episode follows in which the hero finds his way to a city which has been laid waste by a dragon which has cut off the water supply by damming the stream. In order to get water, each year the citizens sacrifice a maiden to the dragon; while he is devouring her, they are able to set the waters free. The hero slays the dragon and releases the waters. He is finally brought home to the world of light and to his father's kingdom by the mythical King of the Birds, Simorq. Once there, he punishes his two brothers and marries the most beautiful of the three maidens.

One of the many points of interest in this complex tale is its resemblance to the Vedic myth of the semi-divine hero Trita Aptya, and epic versions of the myth to be found in the Avesta and the Shahname, the Iranian national epic. (In the Rigveda, the name of the hero is Trita Aptya; in the Avesta he is called Thrita or Thraetaona Athwiya, and in the Iranian national epic he appears as Fereydun.)

Rigveda scholars have greatly exercised their imaginations to explain Trita Aptya's place in Vedic myth. He has variously been described as: a deity of the bright sky (Hillebrandt 1965); a god of the storm and "older than Indra" (Perry 1882); a water and wind god (Roth 1848); a god of lightning (Macdonell 1974); a moon god (Hardy 1893); and Pischel formerly regarded him as a god of the sea, and latterly has expressed the opinion that he was originally a human healer who was later deified.

The Vedic evidence that has been collected and interpreted with scholarly thoroughness by K. Ronnow in his treatise, "Trita Aptya; eine vedische Gottheit," perhaps points to the conclusion that he was originally a divine hero, a dragon-slayer, and associated with water and the purifying powers of water.

Among the characteristics of Trita Aptya's myth, we should note such motifs as:

* his position as the third of three brothers;

* his betrayal by his brothers, which leads to--

* his captivity in a pit or well;

* his victory over a three-headed, six-eyed demon;

* and the subsequent release of some captive cows after the slaughter of the demon.

In Iranian mythology, we find Trita Aptya split into two rather distinct personages: one is Thrita, a mythical sacrificer and healer, who seems to represent the priestly side of the Vedic Trita Aptya; the other is Thraetaona, a hero-king, who is the representative of the ancient god's heroic function. In Persian epic Thraetaona becomes King Fereydun.

In the Iranian tradition, the story retains features from the Vedic myth. In the Avesta, Thraetaona slays the three-headed, three-mouthed, six-eyed dragon, Azi Dahaka. After overcoming the dragon, he releases and carries away his two wives whom the dragon had abducted. In Iranian tradition, Thraetaona is provided with two envious older brothers. In the Iranian tradition, too, according to the Shahname, Fereydun was accompanied in his expedition against Zahhak (= Azi Dahaka) by two brothers who enviously sought to kill him. A comparison of the Iranian and Indian data suggests that two of the most prominent features in the myth of Trita Aptya/Thraetaona Athwiya were his slaughter of a three-headed dragon or demon, and his position as the "third one" whose two elder brothers envied him and tried to kill him by abandoning him in a well.

The similarities between the Indo-Iranian myths and epics on the one hand, and the Persian folk tale on the other, suggest themselves at once:

* the position of the hero as the youngest of three brothers;