Peri

For other uses, see Peri (disambiguation).
Peri, 1875 Kalighat painting

In Persian mythology and Armenian mythology, the Peri (Persian: پری‎‎ pari) are exquisite, winged fairy-like spirits ranking between angels and evil spirits. They sometimes visit the realm of mortals.

In earlier sources they are described as agents of evil who have been denied paradise until they have done penance; later, they are benevolent.

In Persian mythology and literature

At the start of Ferdowsi's epic poem Shahnameh, "The Book of Kings", the divinity Sorush appears in the form of a peri to warn Keyumars (the mythological first man and shah of the world) and his son Siamak of the threats posed by the destructive Ahriman. Peris also form part of the mythological army that Kaiumers eventually draws up to defeat Ahriman and his demonic son. In the Rostam and Sohrab section of the poem, Rostam's paramour, the princess Tahmina, is referred to as "peri-faced" (since she is wearing a veil, the term Peri may include a secondary meaning of disguise or being hidden).

Peris were the target of a lower level of evil beings called دیوسان divs (دَيۋَ daeva), who persecuted them by locking them in iron cages. This persecution was brought about by, as the divs perceived it, the peris' lack of sufficient self-esteem to join the rebellion against perversion.

In Islam

Jinn, notably evil ones, are called Dev by the Persians, and the most powerful referred to as Narahs (which signifies males though there are said to be females too). The good Jinn are the Piri (or Peri in Turkish) which is usually applied to the female. There are lower orders of Jinn, one of which is called Gul or Ghul (from which the English word Ghoul is derived). These are regarded as a kind of female Sheytan or evil Jinni (the male is called Qutrub). Guls are said to be solitary demonic creatures resembling both man and animal; they inhabit cemeteries where they feed on the dead, or lie in wait for a traveler to pass where from they entice and trick him by changing their shape (shape-shifting) to resemble another traveler, and lead him from his course till lost. [1]

Western representations

The term peri appears in the early Oriental tale Vathek, by William Thomas Beckford, written in French in 1782.

In Thomas Moore's poem Paradise and the Peri, part of his Lalla-Rookh, a peri gains entrance to heaven after three attempts at giving an angel the gift most dear to God. The first attempt is "The last libation Liberty draws/From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause", to wit, a drop of blood from a young soldier killed for an attempt on the life of Mahmud of Ghazni. Next is a "Precious sigh/of pure, self-sacrificing love": a sigh stolen from the dying lips of a maiden who died with her lover of plague in the Mountains of the Moon (Ruwenzori) rather than surviving in exile from the disease and the lover. The third gift, the one that gets the peri into heaven, is a "Tear that, warm and meek/Dew'd that repentant sinner's cheek": the tear of an evil old man who repented upon seeing a child praying in the ruins of the Temple of the Sun at Balbec, Syria. Robert Schumann set Moore's tale to music as a cantata, Paradise and the Peri, using an abridged German translation.

French composer Paul Dukas's last major work was the sumptuous ballet La Péri (1912). Described by the composer as a "poème dansé", it depicts a young Persian prince who travels to the ends of the Earth in a quest to find the lotus flower of immortality, finally encountering its guardian, the Péri.[2]

Gilbert and Sullivan's 1882 operetta Iolanthe, is subtitled The Peer and the Peri. However the "peris" in this work are also referred to as "fairies" and have little in common with peris in the Persian sense.

A peri, whose power is in her hair, appears in Elizabeth Ann Scarborough's 1984 novel The Harem of Aman Akbar.

In the novel Zariel's Doom (2014) by Joseph Robert Lewis, "peris" appear as small fairy-like creatures with leaf-like wings, insect-like eyes, and four arms (but no legs). They are impish pests that can speak, but can only be understood by angels, and can only repeat words and phrases that have been spoken to them previously.

In terms of popular culture, the line from Moore's 'Paradise and the Peri, 'one morn, a Peri, at the Gate of Eden stood, disconsolate' is quoted in the Doctor Who adventure The Twin Dilemma, when the lead character of the series, the Doctor, having seemingly gone mad after a violent regeneration into a new persona, compares his travelling companion Peri Brown to a Peri. The Doctor goes on to explain that "a Peri is a good and beautiful fairy in Persian mythology. The interesting thing is, before it became good, it was evil...", and incorrectly concludes that she is a malevolent alien spy.

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=O84eYLVHvB0C&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=Piris&f=false
  2. ↑ Blakeman, Edward (1990). Notes to Chandos CD 208852, p. 5
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