Horse in the Persian and Russian Literatures

In this paper, the place of the horse in the Persian and Russian literary works has been discussed. In the literature of both nations, horses mostly own human characteristics and are counted as humansʼ faithful companions and friends. This legendary animal, in the literature of both countries, has always been a positive symbol and never does have negative characteristics. In order to explain this case, we resorted to some literary works from both nations in which horses played a role. By contrast, in one of the famous Russian heroics entitled “A Song of the Wise Oleg”, one of the historical Russian stories which merge with Russian myths, the role of the horse is different from the other literary works and it somehow unconsciously causes the hero to die. In the heroic stories, the horse is considered as a complement for heroʼs character and plays an important role in developing his personality. The purpose of this research was to indicate the perspectives of two cultures on a common symbol.