"The Legend of Seyavash begins with the stuff of romance--a foreign
girl of royal blood, found as a fugitive and introduced into the
king's harem, gives birth to a son, Seyavash, who is raised not by
his father the king, but by the great hero Rostam. Upon his return
home from Rostam's tutelage, he is betrayed by his stepmother,
Sudabeh, who attempts to seduce him and punishes him with a trial
by fire when he spurns her. Seyavash is victorious in his trial,
and goes on to successfully battle Iran's rival. Turan, concluding
a truced with the Turanian king, Afrasyab, on amicable terms. But
Seyavash's father, Kavus, insists that Seyavash surrender the
Turanian hostages to slaughter, and with a conflicted conscience
and no one to turn to, Seyavash flees to the Turanian court, where
he is first given safe harbor, but is once again abandoned,
murdered by the king's jealous brother. The Legend of Seyavash
comes from the middle section of Ferdowsi's "Shahnameh, and
presents a world of warfare between Iran and its neighbors. The
epic style--with its paeans to loyalty, military prowess, and
bravery, and its dichotomy between the forces of good and evil--is
in full bloom. But here, as an episode of the Shahnameh which seems
to receive more of Ferdowsi's attention, "The Legend of Seyavash
achieves a psychological complexity, in Seyavash's struggles with
his various father-figures, with his surrogate family, and
ultimately with his own sense of loyalty conscience, and fate. The
heroic action in The Legend of Seyavash is matched by Ferdowsi's
acute and ethical insights into the individual's struggle between
conscience and familial loyalty, easting Seyavash as not only an
epic figures but a tragic oneas well.
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