Jamshid Between the Mythical and the Heroic Unconscious: A Reflection on Language, Desire, and Identity in the Narratives of the Avesta and the Shahnameh

Abstract

Jamshid, one of the most mythical and enigmatic kings in Iranian culture, undergoes fundamental transformations in position and identity in his transition from the Avesta to the Shahnameh—from the radiant and order-establishing Jamshid of the Avestan texts to the proud and exiled monarch in Ferdowsi’s epic. This article, by focusing on a reinterpretation of the myth of Jamshid, seeks to analyze the linguistic and psychological mechanisms of his representation by drawing on the key concepts of Jacques Lacan’s structural psychoanalysis, including the “mirror stage,” the “big Other,” “desire,” and the “unconscious structured like a language.” The research methodology is qualitative and based on comparative-conceptual analysis, focusing on two core texts: the Avesta and the Shahnameh. The findings suggest that Jamshid’s downfall is not merely the result of personal pride, but rather a reflection of the subject’s rupture in the face of the structures of desire, power, and language—a subject who, in the struggle with the gaze of the “Other” and the constraints of discourse, fails to achieve coherent identity. This study, by linking the mythical unconscious with the heroic language, attempts to reveal layers of Iranian identity and its internal conflicts as mirrored in the myth of Jamshid.