a mythical and psychological critique of status of women in banugoshasb-nameh

banugoshasb-nameh is a national epic poem written in imitation of ferdowsi's shahnameh about banugoshasb's life and courage, daughter of rostam. the poem, the only epic in persian literature is the central story of a heroic woman. most researchers, who have studied this poem, have focused on the presence of banugushasb in the context of epic and her heroism. they sometimes related her achievements to the effects left by the period of matriarchy and mythological warrior goddesses while showing less interest in the psychological background of the champion women's actions. this research addresses a study of mythological and psychological background and heroic deeds of banugoshasb character in the epic poem banugshsb-nameh. the findings show that although signs of matriarchy and feminist can be seen in this poem, this marks the dominance of patriarchal culture, and patriarchy replaces matriarchy. in the second part of this paper, the issue is analyzed from viewpoint of jung’s analytical psychology. according to this view, heroic and masculine behavior of banugoshasp cannot be considered as feminist, but it should be attributed to effects of archetype animus (masculine psyche in women) that has been institutionalized through banugoshasp life among the top heroes of epic and influenced by their behavior.