Gushtásp, the son of Luhrásp, dissatisfied with his position at the court of his father who, mindful of his obligations to Kai Khusrau, reserves his chief favours for the descendants of Kai Káús, quits Írán in dudgeon and takes refuge in the land of Rúm, where Cæsar's daughter falls in love with him and marries him. Gushtásp achieves great quests in his adopted country and, re­turning to Írán, is reconciled to his father who resigns the throne in his favour.

For Luhrásp see Vol. II. p. 8 seq.

The romantic legend that occupies practically the whole of this reign was partially extant with certain variations in the days of Alexander the Great, some thirteen centuries before Firdausí wrote. Athenæus in his Deipnosophistœ*

quotes the following story from Chares of Mytilene, who was an official () at the court of Alexander the Great, and wrote an anecdotal history of him and of his campaigns in ten books, of which only fragments are extant in the writings of Athenæus and other authors: “We must not be astonished at some folk having fallen in love with others upon mere hearsay of their beauty when Chares of Mytilene in the tenth book of his anecdotal history of Alexander affirms that some have dreamt of those whom they never saw and fallen in love with them in consequence. He writes as follows: ‘Hystaspes had a younger brother named Zariadres and they were both very good-looking. The people of the country say that they were the children of Aphrodite and Adonis. Hystaspes was king of Media and of the lower lands thereabout, while Zariadres ruled over the country above the Caspian Gates up to the river Tanais.*

Now the daughter of Omartes, the chief of the Marathi, a people that dwelt beyond the Tanais, was named Odatis. She, as the histories tell us, dreamt of Zariadres and fell in love with him while in like fashion he fell in love with her. Thus for a long time they loved each other through the phantasies of sleep alone. Odatis was the most beautiful woman in Asia, and Zariadres too was very good-looking; but when he sent to Omartes to ask Odatis in marriage her father refused because he had no sons and desired to marry her to some one at his own court. Soon after he convoked the magnates of the realm, his kindred and his friends, and held a marriage-feast without announcing on whom he in­tended to bestow his daughter. When they were revelling he sent for Odatis and said to her before all the guests: “O Odatis, my daughter! we are engaged in celebrating your marriage-festival, so now look about you, scan those who are here, then take a golden goblet, fill it and give it to him unto whom you would like to be married, for you shall be his wife.” But Odatis, having looked about her, went away in tears, for she wanted to see Zariadres whom she had informed concerning her marriage-festival. Meanwhile Zariadres, who was encamped on the Tanais, had left his army there, had crossed the river secretly with his chariot-driver only, had driven through the city by night, and covered a distance of some eight hundred stadia without a pause. When he reached the town where the marriage-festivities were taking place he left the chariot with the charioteer hard by and went on alone dressed in Scythian garb. When he reached the palace he saw Odatis by the table in tears and filling the goblet very slowly. He got close to her and said: “Here am I as you asked me, Odatis—I, Zariadres!” She looked and saw a handsome man, like him of whom she had dreamed, and overjoyed gave him the goblet. He seized her, bore her off to his chariot, and fled away with her. The attendants and handmaids, who wotted of the love between the pair, held their peace, and when her father called for her said they knew not whither she had gone. This love-story of theirs is rife among the barbarians of Asia and greatly admired. They have pictures of it in their temples, palaces, and private houses, and many magnates in those parts give their daughters the name of Odatis.’”

It seems clear that in the brothers Hystaspes and Zariadres of the story we have the brothers Gushtásp and Zarír of the Sháhnáma. In the poem the framework of the story is different and the account has become much elaborated. The scene is changed from Scythia to Rúm and the chief actor is Gushtásp himself. The dream is confined to the lady's side and a posy is substituted for the goblet, so that we lose the pretty picture of Odatis standing by the table in tears and pouring out the wine as slowly as possible in the forlorn hope of her lover appearing. Still the identity of the legend in Athenæus with that in the Sháhnáma seems fairly obvious.

The method of contracting marriage as illustrated by the above story was known in ancient India as “Swyamvara” or “Self” or “Maiden's Choice.” We read in the Mahábhárata: “The large-eyed daughter of Kuntibhoja, Prithá by name, was endued with beauty and every accomplishment… Her father … invited … the princes and kings of other countries and desired his daughter to elect her husband from among his guests… The amiable daughter of Kuntibhoja, of faultless features, beholding Pándu—that best of men—in that assembly, became very much agitated. And advancing with modesty, all the while quiver­ing with emotion, she placed the nuptial garland round Pándu's neck… Then … the bride's father caused the nuptial rites to be performed duly.”*

§§ 14 and 15. The Khazars, who dwelt between the Caucasus and the Don and Volga rivers, had frequent political relations with the Eastern Roman, the Sásánian, and the Muhammadan empires till they were absorbed by Russia in Firdausí's lifetime.

The principal Íránian characters of this reign—Luhrásp himself, Gushtásp, and Zarír—appear in the Zandavasta as Aurvat-aspa, Vistaspa, and Zairi-vairi respectively, but the allusions to them in that work are concerned with the events recorded in the next reign, that of Gushtásp, which will appear in Vol. V. of this translation.