چكيده لاتين :
This article is trying to pursuing the idea of "Plant of life" in the art of ancient Iran, Mesopotamia & Egypt people, by researching their myths and beliefs and also looking at the motifs of their artifacts, by mean of shine a flash on relationship between these cultures. Plant has had a great place in thoughts of ancient east people as prototypes like tree of life, cosmos tree, origin of herb, and source of medicines. Plant has always been a sorcerous sign that compound four elements، water, air, fire and earth. It correlates underworld, globe and heaven. And it’s a reminder of revitalization, immortality and fertility. In the Avestan and Pahlavi literature and Iranian mythology, we can find several plants related to life, eternality and cure, like، Amordad (guardian of plants, goddess of trees and immortality), Gukaran (or Houm-e sepid, a tree that its vivacity would certify continuance of life in universe), Bas tokhmak (a tree with remedial attribute, retentive of all herbal seeds, and destroyer of sorrow), Mashy and Mashyaneh (parents of the human race in Iranian myths), Barsam (copped offshoots of pomegranate, gaz or houm that Zoroastrians use in their rituals), Houme (a plant, unknown today, that was source of sacred potable), Derakht-e Assuric (an old tree that is debating with goat, in an epopee with the same name). Maybe the first inscription about plant of life is the Sumerian story of Inanna and the Huluppu Tree. The poem gives a mythic explanation of how the throne and the bed used in the "Sacred Marriage" came into existence. In the epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim tells him of a plant growing under water that can restore youth to a man. Gilgamesh finds the plant and picks it; he decides to take it to Uruk, but as Gilgamesh bathes, a serpent rises up and snatches away the plant; immediately it sloughs its skin and returns to the well. Etz Hayim, also transliterated as Etz Chaim refers to tree of life in Judaism. It’s said Genesis 2،9 that، “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. Plant of life has been seen in ancient Mesopotamia with various features, like، palm, pomegranate, cedar, grapevine, etc. In the art of Assyrian period the tree has been transformed to an intricate type, which is formed with the parts of several different plants. In Egyptian mythology, Isis and Osiris were said to have emerged from the acacia tree of Iusaaset, which the Egyptians considered the tree of life, referring to it as the "tree in which life and death are enclosed. Also we have found this motif in the artifacts of Cheshmeh Ali, Tal-e Bakun, Sialk, Jiroft, Shahdad, Shahr-e Sukhteh, Susa, Lorestan, Kalmakareh, Hasanlu, Amarlu, Marlik, ziwieh, Persepolis, Khafajeh, Ur, Isin - Larsa, Tell Asmar, Nineveh, Nimrud, Khorsabad and Thebes.
