Pari (mythology)
Pari , also Peri (پری, DMG Parī ; Plural: Paria , also Pairika ), is a fairy-like, winged mythical creature of Persian mythology . Paria stand for all that is good and pure in the world. Wilhelm Vollmer describes them as supernatural beings, more precisely angels cast out from heaven who are supposed to ensure peace and order on earth. Accordingly, they are god-like beings in human form. Other traditions say that the pariah are exquisite, winged ghost-like beings who are on a par between angel and human. Their opponents are the so-called Diwe (Persian term for evil demons). The belief in Pari was later adopted from Islam along with that of the Diwen and integrated into this religion .
“Paria” and the singular “Pari” are traditionally popular first names for girls in Iran .
literature
The pariah are common characters in Persian literature. They are (mostly female) fairies full of grace and beauty, they enchanted mortals above all with their beautiful face ("fairy face", Persian paritschehr ). They can be both helpful and at times nasty and harmful to people.
At the beginning of the epic book Shāhnāme ( The Book of Kings ) by Firdausi , the deity Sorush appears in the form of a par to Keyumars (the mythologically first man and Shah (Persian king ) of the world) and his son Siamak from the threat of the destructive Ahriman to warn. Ultimately, Keyumars succeeds in defeating the cruel Ahriman and his demonic son. In the section of the poem Rostam and Sohrab , Rostam's lover, Princess Tahmina, is referred to as the "pari figure". The fairy Peribanu is a main character in the story Prince Achmed and the fairy Peribanu in the fairy tale collection Arabian Nights .
reception
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The figure of Pari appears in the orientalizing fairy tale Vathek by the eccentric Englishman William Beckford , which he wrote in French in 1782.
In Thomas Moore's poem Paradise and the Pariah, part of his Lalla Rookh, it is said that a Pari gains entrance to heaven after giving three gifts to God. The first gift is a drop of blood from a young soldier who was killed in an attack on Mahmud of Ghazni. The second is a sigh from the lips of a dying virgin. The third gift is the tear of an angry old man who repented at the sight of a child praying in the ruins of the temple of Baalbeck .
Robert Schumann set Moore's abbreviated version of the story as an oratorio with the title Paradise and the Peri . The fantastic overture Paradise and the Peri (Op. 42) by William Sterndale Bennett premiered in London in 1862 .
The last great work of the French composer Paul Dukas was the ballet La Péri (1912), called Poème danse by the composer . It is about a young Persian prince who wanders to the end of the world in search of the lotus flower , through which man can become immortal, until he finally meets her protector, the Péri . Friedrich Burgmüller composed a ballet music La Péri , which, based on the libretto by Théophile Gautier, was performed as a dance by the choreographer Jean Coralli and was premiered at the Paris Opera in 1843 .
William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's 1882 operetta Iolanthe bears the subtitle “Peer and the Pari”, but his Pari - the fairy queen “Iolanthe” - has little resemblance to the Pariah in Persian mythology except for the name.
In the fantasy novel Zariel's Doom (2014) by Joseph Robert Lewis, “Peris” appear as creatures with leaf-like wings, insect-like eyes and four arms and no legs.
In the episode "The Twin Dilemma" of the television series Doctor Who , the protagonist explains the pariah's story and characteristics.
Literary sources
- Story of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Peri Banu. Fairy tales from the Arabian Nights.
- Firdausi : Shahnama . The book of kings. Around 1000.
- Critical edition: Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh (Ed.): The Shahnameh (The Book of Kings). Vol. 1-8. Published by the Persian Heritage Foundation in association with Bibliotheca Persica. New York 1988-2008, ISBN 978-1-934283-01-1 .
- William Beckford: The history of the Caliph Vathek. 1786; Original title: An Arabian tale, from an unpublished manuscript: with notes critical and explanatory.
- German translation by Franz Blei . Reprint of the German first edition published in Leipzig in 1907. Deutscher Literaturverlag 2014. ISBN 978-3862678082
- Thomas Moore : Paradise and the Peri. Seal from Lallah Rookh. Explained by Ferdinand P. Laurencin. Leipzig: Matthes 1859.
literature
- Peri (mythology) in: Damen Conversations Lexikon . Vol. 8. Leipzig 1837. p. 152. [1]
- Jürgen Ehlers (ed. And translator): Abū'l-Qāsem Ferdausi: Rostam - The legends from the Šāhnāme . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2002, p. 369.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Wilhelm Vollmer: Dictionary of Mythology. Erftstadt, 2004. ISBN 3-89853-417-0
- ↑ Thomas Patrick Hughes: Dictionary of Islam 1885. Reprint: New Delhi 2001 ISBN 81-206-0672-8 p. 134
- ↑ Quotations: And when the rush of war was past / Swiftly descending on a ray / Of morning light she caught the last– / Last glorious drop his heart had shed / Before its free-bornspirit fled! / 'Be this,' she cried , as she winged her flight, 'My welcome gift at the Gates of Light' ./ […] 'Sleep', said the Peri, as softly she stole / The farewell sigh of that vanishing soul, / […] Upon the tear that, warm and meek, / Dewed that repentant sinner's cheek. […] From Heaven's gate to hail that tear / Her harbinger of glory near / […] 'Joy, joy for ever! my task is done– / The Gates are past and Heaven is won! ' Paradise and the Peri, full text, English
- ↑ cf. Scenes: Figurines from the 1843 staging (category on Commons); Figurines by Léon Bakst for a production of Ballets Russes (Image on Commons)
- ^ History of Prince Ahmed and the fairy Pari Banu, full text
- ↑ märchenlexikon.de: Fairy tale type AT: 402
