Mythological Themes in Shahriar Mandanipour's Story: The Lady of the Garden

The short story "The Lady of the Garden" from the book Seven Captains, written by Shahriar Mandanipour, is a patriarchal narrative about women and the society in which the story takes place. In an eerie atmosphere and inspired by Sadegh Hedayat's book The Blind Owl (Boof-e koor), the author expresses his views about his society and homeland by using symbols and mythological elements. Using descriptive analytic method and based on a mythological view, the present article tries to answer these questions: Which mythological themes and narratives did the author use for making the story better understood? Are these themes woven into the warp and woof of the story, or, are they only present in a symbolic way? In order to explain the death of beauty and the lack of progress, the lack of change and failure to achieve goals in his homeland, Mandanipour talks about the myth of the journey to the underworld, and the death of the plant god. He mentions the symbols of the agricultural – well era, flower, etc.; he believes that a demon is the reason for destruction and creates a confrontation between the goddess of agriculture and the god of the Aryans. Referring to the theme of "repetition of myths in the sacred time", the author believes that the hero always tries to make a great change and ultimately does not achieve this goal, because people do not interpret truth, beauty and change as the hero does