MATRIARCHY refers to a time in previous millennias when women played a special role in society and without them, the lives of the tribe's members would be in danger. In some of the stories of Shahnameh, one can see signs of the MATRIARCHY era. In this research, an attempt has been made to classify the MATRIARCHY stories of Shahnameh with a morphological approach and to provide a model for these stories. For this purpose, after introducing the characteristics of the MATRIARCHY era, a number of mythological narratives that have similar structures in different cultures and whose similarities are same as the events influenced by the MATRIARCHY period are briefly introduced. In the main part of the research, by examining four stories from Shahnameh, namely “Kaikavus and Soodabeh”, “Siavash and Soodabeh”, “Bijan and Manijeh” and “Esfandiar and Katayoun” in terms of morphology, we have shown a common pattern in them: The presence of the goddess of love in these stories causes death or a trouble for the main character of the story as a vegetation deity, and then a return or, in other words, a resurrection occurs for the vegetation god. All of these events are allegorical narratives for the season rotation as a MATRIARCHY myth.

The role that the parents play in the psychology of a child is indispensable. They are the two human beings that the child comes into contact with and looks up to them in almost everything. The Jungian psychology has tried to investigate the roots of father and mother in archetypal psychoanalysis and their relationship to childhood. Psychoanalytical readings of Radcliffe categorize her in female gothic and see her as a proto-feminist. While they are right about her search for a lost MATRIARCHY, they ignore her endings in marriage. Radcliffe’s A Sicilian Romance is filled with symbolism and symbolic elements. The mother-daughter relation including both rivalry and friendship is central to the novel. Sometimes the heroine antagonizes certain father figures and mother figures. At other times she looks for and cherishes other father and mother figures. The heroine' double attitude towards her parents resembles the double faces of father and mother archetypes. Her running from tyrant Patriarch and Matriarch is toward a new benevolent Matriarch who is later replaced by a chivalrous hero figure. The hero substitutes the father and plays the role of a husband who shows features of a chivalric manhood in a long-gone past. In the end While Radcliffean heroine in A Sicilian Romance is looking unconsciously for her mother and therefore the lost MATRIARCHY, she consciously accepts an ideal Patriarchy.

Native people of Iran, before Aryans, had a matriarchal culture. They used to worship the Great Goddesses. After inhabiting in Iran, Aryans adopted the belief in goddesses. After the advent of Zoroastrianism, belief in goddesses were rejected, but latter this belief reappeared once again in Mazdaism. After studying MATRIARCHY in ancient Iran, in this article we try to study functions of two important and famous goddesses, Anahita and Sepandarmaz, in ancient culture of Iran.

“Hanboue and Zahak” tale is a story in Marzban Nameh, that is about a woman who lived in “zaehak” period.One day her child, her husband and her brother were taken captive by Zahak government and were doomed to death to provide the food for night’s snakes for Zahak. Hanboue cried, thus Zahak allowed her to free one of them by her choice, and Hanboue selected her brother. Her choice was wonderful and had its specific aim which is different from social organization and relative meaning. Her social aim is related to primitive matriarchal societies.

The myth of maiden-mother, as a universal myth, refers to the birth of a hero from a virgin mother. The mother becomes pregnant in an unusual way and with the will of gods. Both the maiden-mother and her son have a direct relationship with nature and its manifestations, namely water, and plants. It seems that this relationship is reminder of the age of MATRIARCHY and belief in genesis of woman-and-land. It is at the same time is a reminder of a correspondence of genesis and fertility. Also, the role of gods in giving birth to hero and death to the mother at the moment of birth refers to the ending of matriarchal system and give rise to feeling of having kinship with gods. The present article, by studying the mythology of nations, tries to show that the myth of maiden-mother is a narrator of passing from MATRIARCHY to patriarchy and orientation to gods.

The fertility goddesses are the female deities to watch over and promote productivity, pregnancy, and birth in many polytheistic cultures. Iranian cultures also have praised these goddesses since Neolithic age until Sassanid period, and have built shrines and statues to satisfy them. Plurality of fertility statues shows life rules from our ancestors’ standpoint, and their constant panic of nature rage.To more easy classification, we have surveyed these objects in seven epochs: Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Achaemenidera, Seleucid-Parthian era, and Sassanidera. It should be mentioned that this approximate classification cannot represent style similarity.

Binary oppositions are considered as one of the main components of the critique of modern texts; but they can also be used in the critique of Persian classical texts. In Ilā hī-Nā meh, Attā r Neishapouri suggests that on the path of the Truth, nobody can reach the perfection without binary oppositions. Thus, he faces the sā lek (holy traveler) with much binary oppositions from the beginning to the end of suluk (spiritual journey). Attā r believes that the only method for converting oppositions to unity is to use the force of "transformation" and "equation". Most of the oppositions employed by Attā r are linked to "transformation"; in this way, the opposites change their nature and unite with each other. In this "transformation", he seeks a kind of "transcendence" that needs contemplation and going beyond the corporal world. By using descriptive and analytic method, in the present article, the attempt is made to explain Attā r's Divine thoughts based on concepts of "binary oppositions", "transformation" and "equation". This research does not seek to find the opposite terms and to classify the binary oppositions quantitatively, but it attempts to find the concepts that beyond apparent oppositions may conduce to the perfection of man.

the Ancient Persians always esteemed women as being equal to men in all aspects of life. Etymologically, the word “woman” in Persian language originated from the word (zan), which means “giving birth”. The word had different forms in various languages: (zan) and (narig) in Pahlavi, (wa/ǝd) in Soghdi, (wadu) or (wad) in Old Persian, (Vantav) in Avestan, and (Vadhu) in Sanskrit. The importance and the high status attributed to women were manifested in titles given to women as well as in their determination to defend their reputation, family, and land. Such a feature was also portrayed in ancient mythological goddesses such as Anahita, Spadnarmaz, Dena, Chista, and many others. Further, women’s love, affection, and commitment, in one perspective, and evil deviations, in another, were reflected in characteristics of female demons (daeva) like Jahi, Bushyasta, and others. However, all these myths refer to the good-evil duality in women’s nature. Therefore, as Anahita - female divinity of water, fertility, and kingship - possesses good attributes and pursues positive goals, evil attributes, such as vindictiveness and spitefulness are depicted in ada - another goddess.

Goddesses, among other deities, are impressive and meaningful in the life of ancient people. They have drawn attention in the most ancient civilizations, such as Greece and Mesopotamia, and especially they have been connected to the thoughts of ancient Iranians. So, understanding the ancient spiritual world in the epics will be deficient, if we don’t pay due attention to femininity of the goddesses. The authors of the present article try to study the role of woman in the myth of creation and myths of feminine divines based on historical and mythical resources. This point is made with regard to the age of MATRIARCHY and worshiping of the female gods, the role of women in the myth of creation and divine feminine myths. It seems that from historical and ethnological point of views the worshiping goddesses occurs in the same age as MATRIARCHY and centrality of communities based on women-mothers. The chronological precedence of MATRIARCHY over patriarchy and the coincidence of worshiping goddesses and age of MATRIARCHY show that impressive gods were female, but because of social changes in the passage of time the power of women-mothers have eroded and transformed to men-fathers and as a result the importance of the goddesses were lost.

The story of Chelgis is one of the most famous and well-known stories in folk literature. In the various narratives of the story, there are common elements such as the description of the character of Chelgis with repetitive characteristics, the theme of the hero's battle with the dragon, and the waterless and famine-stricken lands that give a symbolic and mythological aspect to the story. Using analytical-descriptive method, the purpose of this study is to identify the role and position of women in society in various narratives of the story of Chelgis mentioned in Iranian Legends and Fairy Tales Encyclopedia according to the mythic deep-structure of the story. Considering the history of MATRIARCHY and worship of goddesses in Iran, the results of the research show that the character of Chelgis can be an embodiment of the goddess Anahita, the goddess of water, in Iranian beliefs and myths. Also, the companionship of mythological themes related to the actions of the main male and female characters in the continuous structure of the story indicates the emphasis on male actions and power, the delegation of female tasks to men, the passivity of female characters and the fixation of women's role as obedient spouses. On this basis, the story of Chelgis depicts the decline of matriarchal beliefs and the formation of patriarchal societies.