Fereydūn also pronounced (e.g. in Tajik

Tajik language

Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a variety of modern Persian spoken in Central Asia. Historically Tajiks called their language zabani farsī , meaning Persian language in English; the term zabani tajikī, or Tajik language, was introduced in the 20th century by the Soviets...

) Farīdūn or (arabicized) Afrīdūn (Medieval Persian: Firēdūn, Middle Persian

Middle Persian

Middle Persian , indigenously known as "Pârsig" sometimes referred to as Pahlavi or Pehlevi, is the Middle Iranian language/ethnolect of Southwestern Iran that during Sassanid times became a prestige dialect and so came to be spoken in other regions as well. Middle Persian is classified as a...

: Frēdōn, Avestan

Avestan language

Avestan is an East Iranian language known only from its use as the language of Zoroastrian scripture, i.e. the Avesta, from which it derives its name...

 Θraētaona), also called Apam Napat, "Son of the Waters", is the name of an Iranian mythical king

Iranian mythology

Iranian mythologies include:*Persian mythology*Scythian mythology*Ossetic mythology...

 and hero who is an emblem of victory, justice and generosity in the Persian literature

Persian literature

Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...

.

Etymology

All of the forms of the name shown above derive, by regular sound laws, from Proto-Iranian *Θraitaunah and Proto-Indo-Iranian *Traitaunas.

*Traitaunas is a derivative (with augmentative

Augmentative

An augmentative is a morphological form of a word which expresses greater intensity, often in size, but also in other attributes...

 suffix -una/-auna) of *Tritas, the name of a deity or hero reflected in the Vedic Trita

Trita

Trita "the Third" is a minor deity of the Rigveda, mentioned 41 times. He is associated with the Maruts, with Vayu and with Indra, like Indra, or as Indra's assistant, fighting Tvastar, Vrtra and Vala. He is called Āptya, the deity of the Apas ....

and the Avestan Θrita. Both names are identical to the adjective meaning "the third", a term used of a minor deity associated with two other deities to form a triad. In the Indian Vedas

Vedas

The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....

, Trita is associated with gods of thunder and wind. Trita is also called Āptya, a name that is probably cognate with Āθβiya, the name of Θraētaona's father in the Avesta. *Traitaunas may therefore be interpreted as "the great son of the deity Tritas". The name was borrowed from Parthian into Armenian as Hrudēn.

Θraētaona in Zoroastrian literature

In the Avesta, Θraētaona is the son of Āθβiya, and so is called Āθβiyāni "from the family of Āθβiya". Originally he may have been recorded as the killer of the dragon Aži Dahāka

Zahhak

Zahhāk or Zohhāk is an evil figure in Iranian mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Aži Dahāka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta...

, but in Middle Persian texts Dahāka/Dahāg is instead imprisoned on Mount Damāvand

Damavand

Damavand is a city in and the capital of Damavand County, Tehran Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 36,433, in 10,279 families....

.

Fereydun in the Shāhnāmeh

According to Ferdowsi

Ferdowsi

Ferdowsi was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies.The Shahnameh was originally composed by Ferdowsi for the princes of the Samanid dynasty, who were responsible for a revival of Persian cultural traditions after the...

’s Shāhnāmeh

Shahnameh

The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...

, Fereydun was the son of Ābtīn

Abtin

Abtin or Aubteen is a character in Shahnama , who is the father of Fereydun. His name translated in English means "The one with good thoughts, good words and good deeds". These three traits are very important characteristics in Zoroastrianism. Unlike how it is spelt, the pronunciation of the name...

, one of descendants of Jamshid

Jamshid

Jamshid is a mythological figure of Greater Iranian culture and tradition.In tradition and folklore, Jamshid is described as having been the fourth and greatest king of the epigraphically unattested Pishdadian dynasty . This role is already alluded to in Zoroastrian scripture Jamshid (Middle-...

. Fereydun, together with Kaveh

Kaveh

Kāveh the Blacksmith, also known as The Blacksmith of Isfahan or Kaveh of Isfahan is a mythical figure in Persian mythology who leads a popular uprising against a ruthless foreign ruler, Zahhāk. His story is narrated in the Epic of Shāhnāma, the national epic of Iran by the 10th century Persian...

, revolted against the tyrannical king “Zahhāk

Zahhak

Zahhāk or Zohhāk is an evil figure in Iranian mythology, evident in ancient Iranian folklore as Aži Dahāka, the name by which he also appears in the texts of the Avesta...

”, defeated and arrested him in the Alborz Mountains

Hara Berezaiti

Harā Bərəzaitī, literally meaning "High Watchpost", is the name given in the Avestan language to a legendary mountain around which the stars and planets revolve.-Etymology and derived names:...

. Afterwards Fereydun became the king and, according to the myth, ruled the country for about 500 years. At the end of his life he allocated his kingdom to his three sons; Salm, Tur, and Iraj

Iraj

Iraj is a Sri Lankan and Persian given name.Iraj may refer to:*Īrāj, a character in Shahnameh*Lord HanumanPeople with the given name Iraj:* Iraj Danaeifard, Iranian footballer* Iraj Ghaderi, Iranian actor...

. Iraj was Fereydun’s youngest and favored son and inherited the best part of the kingdom, namely Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

. Salm inherited Asia Minor

Asia Minor

Asia Minor is a geographical location at the westernmost protrusion of Asia, also called Anatolia, and corresponds to the western two thirds of the Asian part of Turkey...

 ("Rūm

Rûm

Rûm, also Roum or Rhum , an indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world to refer to the Balkans and Anatolia generally, and for the Byzantine Empire in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in Asia Minor, and referring to Greeks living outside of Greece or non-muslims...

", more generally meaning the Roman Empire

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

, the Greco-Roman world, or just "the West") and Tur inherited Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

 ("Tūrān

Turan

Tūrān is the Persian name for Central Asia, literally meaning "the land of the Tur". As described below, the original Turanians are an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age. As a people the "Turanian" are one of the two Iranian peoples both descending from the Persian Fereydun but with different...

", all the lands north and east of the Oxus, as far as China), respectively. This aroused Iraj’s brothers’ envy and encouraged them to murder him. After Iraj’s murder, Fereydun enthroned Iraj’s grandson, Manūchehr

Manuchehr

Manūchehr , older Persian Manōčihr, Avestan Manuščiθra, is a character in Shahnameh. He is the first of the legendary Shāhs who ruled Iran after the breakup of the world empire of Manūchehr's great-grandfather, Fereydūn....

. Manūchehr’s attempt to avenge his grandfather’s murder initiated the Iranian-Turanian wars.

External links

• First Iranian Legendary Heroes and Heroines: A Research Note by Manouchehr Saadat Noury
• Encyclopedia Iranica article