Literary Monster

This passage is a turning point in the story. Zahhak is ruling with nothing but cruelty and no one can do anything to stop him. Then, Kaveh barges into the throne room and calls him out. The interesting thing is that as evil as the author portrays Zahhak to be, he returns the blacksmith’s son. Not only that but the testament that Kaveh refuses to sign afterward is the product of Zahhak’s fear of being dethroned. In this regard, when Kaveh asks Zahhak whether he is a king or a monster, the king’s identity becomes more complex. For example, monsters like Grendel in Beowulf do not show fear nor seek validation. Because of this, one can argue that Zahhak is not a full-fledged monster, but rather an evil human who somewhat looks like one. However, this notion can be challenged when considering the significance of Zahhak’s snakes in relation to his behavior and overall physical appearance.

First, Zahhak can be a monster in his behavior. He practices black magic and wishes for the downfall of mankind, however, these qualities can also be found in other characters across different stories. For example, the evil woman who turns her husband’s mistress and son into animals in the Thousand and One Nights  (615-618). She uses magic to do harm, but this does not necessarily make her a monster. This means that Zahhak’s tyranny is not enough for people to see their king as such. As a result, killing people and feeding their brains to something that is part of Zahhak’s own body becomes the action that ultimately leads the characters to question Zahhak’s humanity.

Zahhak can also be considered a monster for his physical appearance, more precisely for the two snakes that grew on his shoulders. In Iranian mythology, “the snake is a symbol of evil” (Reza Hosseini and Azizi, 2021). The snake is closely associated with the dragon, with both creatures often being referred to as the same in many ancient texts. In the Shahnameh, snakes are also described as “one of the devil forces and the enemy of Creation” (Motafakerazad and Dobakhty, 2016). Within this context, the dragon –or snake– can appear in a variety of guises, one of which is Zahhak as a half-human. These monsters are often described as having an insatiable thirst for blood and hunger, traits that also apply to Zahhak.

In this sense, given that Ferdowsi describes dragons as evil beings in the Shahnameh, we can compare Zahhak’s monstrous behavior to the dragon that Sekandar slays in the same text. This dragon also kills humans and has an insatiable hunger as it feeds five cows a night (Davis, 2018). As such, Zahhak and the dragon Sekandar slays are very similar considering that Zahhak has to feed two human brains to his snakes everyday. Another example is the dragon from Beowulf. This monster has almost the same description as the dragon from Sekandar’s story: it causes destruction, kills people, and viciously guards its treasure, much like Zahhak does with his throne and his ruling method. As a result, even though Zahhak looks mostly human, his dragon-like features support the idea that he is indeed a monster.