Iconic Reflection of Mithraic Sacrifice - Myth of Slaying the First Bull (Evagdât) - The Seven Beauties – Nizami

Abstract

The most secret and most wonderful story of Mehr is the fight with the primitive cow. Mithra makes the earth to flourish and fertilize by killing the eternal cow and pouring its blood. This basic idea in Mehr religion influenced many cultures and cults. Belief in different forms of sacrifice to be immune from the evil forces and to find blessing has been pinned to the lives of residents of Iranian Plateau thorough the history. For this reason, some people or animal became the scapegoats for a tribe so that this sacrifice would diminish the sins, pains, and suffering of people. By these actions and other dramatic rituals, people aimed at reconstruction of time and place of cosmic creation so they could find the happiness and blessing once again by killing the primitive cow. So in a large feast, they all ate a piece of the beef to transfer her power, fertility, and blessing to themselves where they found a sort of unity. This happy sacrificing became one of the themes in Persian literature and was recreated in the works of many poets and writers. Among these, Nezami Ganjavi has paid especial attention to the ritual of sacrifice in his story "Haft Peykar". By the language of tales, he points at a number of sacrifice-related rituals including regeneration, creation, rain prayer, eclipse, and war. He uses literary arrays such as allegory, allusion, and ambiguity to depict a new and interesting account of these beliefs and ritual traditions.

Keywords

• Haft-Peykar
• Mithra religion
• Myth
• sacrifice
• Haft
• Peykar
• Nezami Ganjavi
• primitive cow