The Persian line of Heroes, Sam

Do you remember those almighty gods of good and evil? Do you remember how Ahriman entered the world and wreaked havoc?

If not, go to that story first because today, I’m going to tell you about the central land and the story of Sam’s family.

Sam, was a famous warrior from generations before. Mind you that the warriors we’re talking about are not just bulky, muscular super heroes who fight in wars and smash their enemies.

The Persian word for it, “Pahlavaan” has multiple meanings and is woven deeply into cultural etymology. But for the sake of the argument, let’s say they were very similar to the old function of king in English language.

That is to protect people against natural causes or those made by man. In Persian myths though, those Pahlavaans were also accountable to the High King of Iran. So the country had a few Pahlavaans, say local lords, who were half independent in their own territory. Mind you that one of them, the strongest, was usually the one whom everybody respected and was honored higher in the court. Whether alongside such titles as “Jahaan Pahlevaan” came actual civil privileges, I don’t know. By the way, that title literally means something like a super super hero. Because the word ‘jahaan’ meaning world in Persian is a term of exaggeration, meaning big or high.

Anyway, at the time of our story, Sam is the greatest warrior and when his son is born he’s terrified. The infant is so out of the ordinary that he fears his birth must be the act of Ahriman. Remember how those Arians responded to anything irregular? Well, so does Sam and takes the baby to the wilderness to be eaten by scavengers. Besides, he is worried because he thinks if his people knew he had such a strange son, they would definitely shun him.

Sounds creepy and cruel? Let me remind you how common it is to leave babies in nature in myths all around the world. Yeah, how are you doing Jochebed?

Yet, you might wonder why Sam’s petrified by this baby. Because he had a rather pinkish skin and all white hair. Spoiler alert, his son later faces a similar demon, with dark skin and all white hair. But that’s another story.

Back to Sam, he leaves his son in the desert. In case you ask why he chose such a strange fashion I need to remind you how the customs worked for disposing corpses. You see, old Persians considered almost all aspects of nature as holy and pure, especially fire. So, they would not contaminate it with a filthy substance like a corpse. Burial was out of question as well because the dead body would spoil the soil. So, they would leave their dead to be eaten by scavengers somewhere out of the city walls but sometime later, they would go and pick up the bones and keep them in jars. And keeping bones or some sort of remaining from the dead is an old and wide spread tradition which accounts of it are even recorded from north of Africa.

Anyway, Sam thinks he had gotten rid of the baby monster but a mythical bird of prey, called Simorq takes the baby into her own nest. (That ‘q’ at the end of the word Simorq is pronounced something like the letter ‘r’ in French but don’t worry too much. I’ll leave links for correct pronunciations.) Somehow, she shows pity and doesn’t eat him. The baby names Zaal, which in Persian means albino, grows strong in her nest but his name is not just a word describing his appearance.

Another title for Zurvaan, the god of time in the cannons of Zoroastrianism, is ‘Akraanak’ meaning without limits of time. And guess what, our baby boy is apparently blessed with being limitless as well. For no matter how many hardships are thrown at him, there exists no record of his death. Another title for Zaal, is Zar that if you take the second pronunciation for Zurvaan as Zarvaan, also makes another link between the two.

But he can’t live with Simorq forever, right?

Let me tell that story another time.