Peri
Tat · numen · Tat traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The peri is a beautiful female spirit of Tat and wider Iranian folk belief, dwelling by springs, rivers, and remote wild places, where she bathes and dances unseen. She is ambivalent: she may fall in love with a chosen man and aid him, or she may beguile him and lead him to sickness, ruin, and madness. In the wonder-tales the peri is frequently held prisoner by a div, and her rescue is the object of the hero's quest, so that pari and div stand as the paired bright and dark powers of the tale world.
Domains
- beauty and seduction
- waters and springs
Powers
- enchant and beguile lovers
- dwell by springs and rivers
Relations
- enemy: DivIn the tale corpus the pari is held captive by a div until freed by the hero.Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. 'Pari'; and Tat wonder-tale corpus in A. L. Grünberg, Yazyk severoazerbaydzhanskikh tatov (Leningrad, 1963) (secondary)
Sources
- The peri is a beautiful and ambivalent female spirit of springs and wild places who may love or ruin a man, and who appears in tales as the captive of a div.: Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. 'Pari' (secondary); Mify narodov mira, ed. S. A. Tokarev (Moscow, 1980), s.v. 'Pari' (secondary)