The last arrow The Comparative Study of Myths of Āraš and Philoctetes

Finding the common aspects among the nations of the same root is a crystal clear. This article tries to compare Āraš the Archer, that of the ancient Iranian Literature, with Philoctetes, that of the ancient Greek Literature, as two Aryan nations. Based on these Myths, the protagonists of the two stories put an end to the two erosive rather longtime wars by throwing an arrow. That is, until Āraš is not using his bow and arrow, there is no end to the abortive twelve-year-old war between Iran and Turan headed by Manuchehr and Afrasyab, respectively; and until Philoctetes is not using his bow and arrow, there is no end to the ten-year-old war of the Greeks for conquering Troy. In this study, we studies the structural and semantic similarities between the two stories, considering Comparative Mythology, which is of comparative literature, in nine subjects: putting an end to the two erosive wars, the role of the encirclement in the two myths, the role of gods in throwing the arrow, the type of the two heroe's weapons, their weapons relation with super human forces, the two heroe's relation with holiness, their link with the holy places, the ultimate of their job from moral view and the influence of the two myths on the literature afterwards. The study also points on their the structural and semantic differences with seven subjects consisting of place, time and characteristics of the narration, the genre of the narration, the heroe's motivation, the differences between the two wars from the national merits view, the differences in the end of the two wars and the difference in the end of the two heroe's life and death. It is conclusded that the family connection and the joint experiences of the Endo-European nations, which is manifested in their epics and stories.