The Origins of Rostam’s Character in Pre-Shāhnāmeh Age

Rostam is a mythological character whose name can be put alongside the new ideals of Iranians; and mentioning his name in various fields of Iranian culture shows that mythological figures still have the ability to meet the historical needs of Iranians. If we agree that myth and history can lead to the formation of epic, the questions will arise in which historical or mythological (or even epic) context does the character of Rostam, as the most prominent national hero of Iranians and Shāhnāmeh, come from and which Iranian/ Aneran god or character does he represent? In order to answer these questions and by examining the available sources, the authors have studied the role of Rostam and his counterparts in the myths, the history and the epics of Iran and the neighboring nations. The findings of the present study which are based on library resources and comparative-analytical method, show that Rustam of Shāhnāmeh is the inheritor of “Indian Indra” (from the mythological point of view), “Surena of Carrhae” (from the historical point of view) and “Indian Bhishma” (from the epic point of view).