Morphology of Homay Nameh

Homay Nameh is a barely known heroic epic belonging to about sixth or seventh century in Persian Literature whose anonymous composer makes it worthy of analysis. This research is based on the methods put forward by the prominent structuralists such as Vladimir Propp, Arthur Asa Berger and Paul Ricoeur in the domain of morphology of stories, folk, mythic and epic tales. The outcome of the analysis shows that the story is composed of a general framework encompassing the starting point, events arising from shortcomings and evil doings and a happy ending for the hero. The morphological analysis of Homay Nameh can be embarked upon on the basis of significant elements such as character, motivation, function, movement, and repetition in order to follow the sequence of actions in this epic. The seven multifaceted characters in the story is reminiscent of characters in Propp's theory with one difference that in place of "false hero" the character of "hero's successor" is present.
The number of main functional titles considering the repetition is eighty three. It must be emphasized that some functions in comparison with Propp's theory are new and some similar titles present novel concepts. The functions of "war" and "victory" are among the most repetitive elements of the story and from the movement point of view the story makes use of the combination of three manners of story movements and that of movement pattern proposed by Berger. Once the structure of a heroic epic, in particular epic romance found, one can seek the format in other similar works.