Persian & Arabian

Esfandiyar

His father chained him once, and then sent him to chain somebody else.

8 chapters on the figure behind the card, researched in the Persian & Arabian mythology sources and reviewed before publication. See Esfandiyar’s card →

1. Proof Against Weapons The poem treats him as unwoundable and never says how he got that way.
2. Chained on a Courtier's Word A kinsman says he wants the crown, and his father believes it.
3. He Says No First His father is besieged and begs for help. He refuses.
4. Seven Trials, and a Caravan He takes the unreachable fortress by walking in with the luggage.
5. Bring Him Back in Chains The third time his father hedges, he attaches a condition.
6. Both of Them Right Neither man can yield, and the dying one blames neither of them.
7. Before the Poem Had Him In the oldest Iranian scriptures he is barely there at all.
8. The Deaths He Dies Elsewhere Take away the arrow and the bird, and the quarrel is about religion.

Collect Esfandiyar

Ages of Myth is free on iOS and Android — and every figure's Codex opens as you play.