Allegorical and Symbolic Concepts of Snake in Epic, Lyric, and Gnostic Works (On the Basis of The Shah-Nameh by Ferdowsi, The Khamseh by Nizami, and The Masnavi by Molavi)

Symbol is a sign, point, word, or something which has such a clear and bright feature that it can represent that property. The aim of using symbol is that a message be sent beyond its outward meaning. In this study, we investigate symbolic concepts of snake in epic, lyric, and gnostic works (on the basis of The Shah-Nameh by Ferdowsi, The Khamseh by Nizami, and The Masnavi by Molavi) comparatively and according to the library method and descriptive-analytic method. At first, symbolic concepts of this creature in epic, lyric, and gnostic domain will be expressed. Then, we will determine the percentage of collation of the symbolic concepts in two or all three works and percentage of usage of snake symbolic concept in each work.The outcome of this article is this point that 37.5 percent of this creature’s concepts (baseness, hurtfulness and twisting) in all three works and 37.5 percent (strength, guarding and darkness) in two of them are conformed; 25 percent of the concepts are used only in one of them. In addition, 12.5 percent of concepts are in epic domain, and 25 percent are in gnostic one. There is no concepts in lyric domain for snake. 62.5 percent of concepts are in other domains (besides epic, lyric, and gnostic).