The Onager That Was Not

The Shahnameh opens the episode with a shepherd at court. Something has come into the royal herd, he says, shaped like a wild ass but the colour of the sun, as though the sky had washed it in gold water, with a line of black musk drawn from mane to tail — and it is tearing the necks and manes off the horses. It is the king who works out what that means, not the hero: no onager outmatches a horse, he says, so guard yourself, this may be Ahriman. Rostam rides out alone, hunts it for three days, and on the fourth he sees it.