Dual-Characterization of Mythological Figures in Shahnameh

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh is one of the worthwhile letters of Persian language which uncovers its worthy capacity and exclusivity for researchers and critics every day. The authors of the present study with special attention to Ferdowsi different characterization in Shahnameh tried to discover the dual characters. Ancient Iranian mythology and beliefs organized of different religions and ancient beliefs. Hence some mythical characters have different figures and even antithetical personality in literary texts. The interaction of these different views about some of the symbols and characters has created a dual-mode and ambivalent in these texts.
Ferdowsi while being aware of this fact has made a good use of these different figures to make more real and more human characters. The authors intend to focus on this capacity of Shahnameh and present to its readers the worth of dealing with dual characters to manifest human characters in more realistic ways. Considering a good number of important figures such as Afrasiab, Sodabeh, Zahāk, Kaykavous with such dual characters, the authors point out to study them is of noticeable importance to manifestation of Shahnameh to people. They have considered, for example, Afrasiyab as a figure possessing dual character in Ferdowsi`s Shahnameh compared with a person of Manic-depressive personality style in modern psychopathology.