Parallelizing Rostam and Sohrab with Achilles and Hector in Matthew Arnold’s Poem “Sohrab and Rustum”

In translating “Rostam and Sohrab”, one of the most delightful stories in Shahnameh, Matthew Arnold did not stay true to Ferdowsi’s version. Instead, he opted to veer more into Homer’s The Iliad. The Homeric atmosphere hovering over the poem is exactly one of the factors that made Arnold’s poem universally famous. One of the scenes that Arnold intentionally, and most cleverly, copied in his rendition of Rostam and Sohrab was the battle between the Greek hero Achilles and the Trojan hero Hector, which he depicted under the heavy influence of Homer’s The Iliad. The present article is an attempt to demonstrate this parallelization which can be found in the overall framework of Arnold’s poem, especially in the battles between Rustum and Sohrab with that of Achilles and Hector.

Arnold related almost everything Sainte-Beuve had cited from Shahnameh, which made his work at times extremely close to the Persian original. Notwithstanding, Arnold's epic poem can at best be described as a very liberal adaptation of the original tale, during the composition of which the author excluded a considerable portion of the elements and plot twists otherwise present in the original version, at times even distorting some parts based on personal taste. The translation was so freely carried out that a number of critics accused Arnold of plagiarism. In the preface to the second edition of his poem, Arnold attempted to respond to those accusations. Hassan Javadi remarks upon this issue: Matthew Arnold's verse epic Sohrab and Rustum is not a verse by verse translation of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, but rather a liberal rendition inspired by that tale. Yet, Arnold's skill at developing an absorbing and impressive epic verse is undeniable, although, the charge of plagiarism still looms over Arnold's epic to this day! (Javadi, 2005, p.9).
Arnold was an accomplished literary critic. He published his most significant essays on literary criticism in a collection named Essays on Criticism. It included many discussions on Homer and the translation of his poems under the title of "On Translating Homer". He must have realized that in order to appeal to his audience, he needed to stay true to a Homeric style of epic in his translation, given that westerners' epic taste had been shaped by the works of the Greek poet. This explains why Joseph Champion, who published in Kolkata parts of Shahnameh under the title of "The Poems of Ferdowsi", failed to gain much recognition as he had followed the writing style of Alexander Pope, not Homer (Amiri, 1975, p.14). Sir William Jones, an English philologist of the eighteenth century, also attempted a verse translation of "Rostam and Sohrab" following the style of Greek tragedies (Amiri, 1975, p.14).
Hassan Javadi in his essay "Matthew Arnold's Sohrab and Rustum and Its Original Spring", maintains that Arnold attempted to impart to his work a local color by selecting similes and other literary elements with an Eastern touch and tone, because otherwise the work would appear odd and incomprehensible in translation (Javadi, 2005, p.70). He points to a letter in which Arnold had seemingly referred to this issue. In this paper, however, our purpose is to demonstrate that Arnold had made an attempt to accomplish quite the opposite; he composed this poem with a deliberately western feel and color, avoiding the original setting and atmosphere, because it needed to appeal to the taste of western audience. It goes without saying that if Arnold had remained too close to the Persian text in the process of translation, he would have kept the setting and local elements intact. His translation of the tale testifies that he has made extreme efforts to incorporate as much Homeric similes and other Greek literary traditions into the poem. And yet, naturally, he had to keep many proper names as they appear in Shahnameh.
However, Arnold's persistence in imitating Homer while translating the poem, most notably his use of epic simile, has given the poem its grand style, veering it closer to lyric poetry. Therefore, upon reading Arnold's "Sohrab and Rustum", a Persian reader unacquainted with this literary style will be confused, and might even come to the wrong assumption that portions of another text have mistakenly found their way into this poem. This is because these similes are peculiar to Greek epics, especially The Iliad, whose beauty would appeal to western readers who are familiar with the style.

Discussion
In general, Arnold has been greatly influenced by The Iliad in his rendition and recomposing of Ferdowsi's " Rostam and Sohrab", which can be traced in various aspects. One of the most notable instances of such influence can be seen in Arnold's utmost persistence in parallelizing Rustum and Sohrab with Achilles and Hector.
One of the most beautiful and tragic parts of The Iliad is doubtless the single combat between the Greek and Trojan heroes, Achilles and Hector, in the narration of which Homer spent much time and paid extra attention. The battle leads to the death of Hector, and Achilles emerges victorious. Likewise, the tragic tale of Rostam and Sohrab is one of the most popular parts of Shahnameh, which also ends up in the death of Sohrab and the victory of Rostam. Having the original text of Shahnameh at his disposal and also having certainly read the battle of Achilles and Hector again and again, Arnold, wittingly or otherwise, attributed all of Hector's traits to Sohrab while assigning the characteristics of Achilles to Rustum, all this done without taking into consideration the original account of Rostam and Sohrab in Shahnameh. As a result, many of the elements that Arnold attributed to Sohrab and Rustam were absolutely nonexistent in Ferdowsi's poem. Arnold retains this manipulation for as long as the basic framework of the original tale is not distorted, at times even completely changing the direction of the story to make it more similar to The Iliad. In the following sections we will concentrate on examining such cases.

The Overall Setting
The setting of the battle, as described by Arnold, closely resembles the style of Homer when he relates the return of Achilles into the battlefield following the death of his cousin Patroclus. It is related in Song 21: Whereupon Trojan people came to the ford of a full-flowing river, Xanthus begotten of immortal Jove, Achilles cut their forces in two (Homer,2014, p.407).
The river of Xanthus plays various roles later in the epic story. Achilles reposes the body of Lycaon to this river (632). His res.ccsenet.org

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Vol. 10, No. 1; 2018 monologue with this river and its deity occupies several pages in The Iliad (636). Achilles' battle with Asteropaios, a grandson of the river god Axios,is another example: Then Achilles set his foot on his chest and spoiled him of his armour, vaunting over him and saying, "Lie there-begotten of a river though you be…Therefore as Jove is mightier than any river that flows into the sea, so are his children stronger than those of any river whatsoever. Moreover you have a great river hard by if he can be of any use to you, but there is no fighting against Jove the son of Saturn (Homer,2014, p.12 ).
After the fashion of Humor, Arnold too opens "Sohrab and Rustum" with a portrayal of Amu Darya River: And the first grey of morning fill'd the east, And the fog rose out of the Oxus stream.
But all the Tartar camp along the stream, Was hush'd, and still the men were plunged in sleep (Arnold, 1916, p.1-4).
Even though the depiction of this river served little to advance the plot of "Sohrab and Rustum", it seems that Arnold intended to portray, through depicting this river, a world which was completely oblivious to the bloodshed ensuing on its banks. Arnold also devoted the ending of his poem to the portrayal of the same river in night-time as a cold cloud passes over Amu Darya: With night, Crept from the Oxus…Rejoicing, through the hush'd Chorasmian waste, Under the solitary moon;-he flow'd Right for the polar star, past Orgunjè… And split his currents; that for many a league/The shorn and parcell'd Oxus strains along/Through beds of sand and matted rushy isles (Arnold, 1916, p. 887-895).
However, in the original text of Rostam and Sohrab there is no river playing a role in the plot. And the battle between the two heroes takes place in a flat plain with no depiction of the setting or surroundings (Ferdowsi, 2002, vol.2, verses 640-645, p. 170).

The Riverside
Achilles' battles before his showdown with Hector take place mainly on the riverside, and many times Homer speaks of heroes falling on the banks of the river. For instance, Achilles spills the blood of two Trojan heroes on the sands of the riverside. The first one is Lycaon, one of Priam's sons: Whereon Lycaon's forehead touched the ground, with the dark blood welling from his chest till the sands were soaked (Homer,1914,p.410). And the second is Asteropaios, son of Pelagon: with this he drew his bronze spear out of the bank, and now that he had killed Asteropaeus, he let him lie where he was with the dark water flowing over him and the eels and fishes nibbling and gnawing the fat that was about his kidneys (Homer, 1916, p.412).
Likewise, Arnold in his poem speaks many a time of heroes falling dead on the sands. It seems he especially intended that Sohrab's death take place on the bank of river; when Rostam brings down his mace upon Sohrab, the poet describes the effect of the strike as follows: And Rustum follow'd his own blow, and fell To his knees and with his fingers clutch'd the sand (Arnold, 1916, p. 420). While the battle is going on, the setting is described in the following words: And a wind rose under their feet, and moaning swept the plain, And in a sandy whirlwind wrapp'd the pair (Arnold,1916, p.483).
And elsewhere in the poem Arnold writes: And Sohrab, wounded, on the bloody sand (Arnold,1916, p. 527).
The following excerpts from the poem are other cases in point: And he saw that Youth, Of age and looks to be his own dear son, Piteous and lovely, lying on the sand (Arnold, 1916,p.631).
And from his dark, compassionate eyes, The big warm tears roll'd down, and caked the sand" (Arnold, 1916, p. 735).
However, in Ferdowsi's account, Sohrab falls dead on a plain, and not on a bank of river. And Rostam likewise pours the soil of that plain on his head in the mourning that follows the tragedy (Ferdowsi, 2002, p.193). Rostam and his steed Rakhsh are also covered with dust from the plains (Ferdowsi, 2002, p.182).The scene where Sohrab knocks Rostam down and sits on his chest is described as follows: On that monstrous chest, the youth did pause, Co'ered in dust his face, fingers and mouth (Ferdowsi,2002, p. 182 In the same way, the scene where Rostam finds that he had killed his own son is described in the following manner: Blood-floods he shod, locks of hair he raked, His dusty head and tearful heart ached. (Ferdowsi, 2002, p. 187).

2.3Omens
In The Iliad, upon spotting Achilles from afar marching toward Hector, Priam likens the former to an ill omen (Sirius)., seeing him as Hector's sworn enemy and ultimate killer, and also seeing in him bad omen for himself: King Priam was first to note him as he Scoured the plain, all radiant as the star which men call Orion's, Hound, and whose beams blaze forth in time of harvest more Brilliantly than those of any other that shines by night; brightest of Them all though he be, he yet bodes ill for mortals, for he brings fire And fever in his train-even so did Achilles' armour gleam on his Breast as he sped onwards (Homer, 2014, p.428).
Arnold too provides almost the same description of the scene where Rostam faces Sohrab: But had regain'd his spear,

Whose fiery point now in his mail'd right-hand
Blazed bright and baleful, like that autumn-star, The baleful sign of fevers (Arnold, 1916, p. 451).
By "the baleful sign of fevers", Arnold meant the Sirius star. In ancient Persia, Sirius was an object of worship and was known as the angel of rain. The Greek, however, deemed Sirius an omen of drought and heat, viewing it as an ill portent.

Oath
It was a common tradition among the ancient Greek people, heroes in particular, to swear to the knees of the other and kneel down on the ground when pleading for something. This tradition has been depicted in The Iliad and Odyssey numerous times: Then Minerva said, Dear brother, my father and mother went Down on their knees and implored me, as did all my comrades, to Remain inside (Homer, 2014, p.434 (Homer, 2014, p.409).
In another scene, Hector is seen swearing Achilles on his knees: Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, "I pray you by your life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home, that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead (Homer, 2014, p.437).

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Dog, talk not to me neither of knees nor parents (Homer, 2014, p.437).
After the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles, Priam asks his attendants to let him approach the killer of his son and beg him to return Hector's body. Arnold too, putting his feet on the footpath of Homer, depicts Sohrab as falling on his knees before Rostam, just like Hector did to Achilles, since the poet identified Sohrab and Rustam as Hector and Achilles respectively: And he ran forward and embraced his knees, And clasp'd his hand within his own, and said:-"O, by thy father's head! By thine own soul! Art thou not Rustum? Speak! Art thou not he? (Arnold,1916, p. 341) However, in Shahnameh such scenes do not exist. Instead, Sohrab addresses Rostam in the following words: Quoth he, "I now a question ask.
Let truth under the sunlight bask.
Think I perchance you are Rostam, Or from the seeds of famous Neyram (Ferdowsi, 2002, p. 171).

Fighting Rituals
In Shahnameh, a battle between two heroes followed a certain set of rituals. The two combatants would first fight each other with spears, swords, bows, maces, and finally they would engage in a wrestling contest that would end the fight and determine the victor. A battle would extend to the final stage only when the combatants failed to defeat their opponents during the initial phases. Wrestling was a tradition held sacred by the Persians and played a significant role in the outcome of a battle as well as serving as a true touchstone to the prowess of the combatants. Wrestling during battle, however, was not a tradition in Greece or the western world, and thus would not fit well into Arnold's poem, which is why his Sohrab and Rustum fight only with swords and spears (just like Hector and Achilles)., and the wrestling or the fight with mace are deliberately absent in the text. Ferdowsi's Sohrab is killed with a dagger after losing the wrestling match to Rostam, while in Arnold's version he is killed during the fight with the spears, with no wrestling involved. This has also been influenced by Homer's The Iliad, where Hector's fight with Achilles involves only swords and spears, which ends in Hector's death by Achilles' spear (Homer, 2014, p.493).

The First Fight
The first fight between Rostam and Sohrab closely resembles that of Achilles and Hector. Unmoved by Hector's pleas to reconsider the fight, Achilles hurls his spear at his enemy, which misses its target: He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. Hector saw it coming and avoided it; he watched it and crouched down so that it flew over his head and stuck in the ground beyond (Homer, 2014, p.435).
Then, Hector hurls his own spear at Achilles: He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. His aim was true for he hit the middle of Achilles' shield, but the spear rebounded from it, and did not pierce it (Homer, 2014, p.436 Vol. 10, No. 1;2018 In turn, and full struck Rustum's shield; sharp rang, The iron plates rang sharp, butturn'd the spear (Arnold, 1916, p.398-407 ) Negotiations between Hector and Achilles turn sour when the latter hurls his spear at the former, which does not hit its target. This bold action is then answered by Hector in the same manner, whose spear hits his opponent's shield. The same scene is also depicted by Arnold in his rendition of the battle between Sohrab and Rustum. Sohrab's pleas are interrupted by Rustum when he hurls his spear at his enemy, which does not hit its mark. Then Sohrab hurls his own spear at Rustum, which strikes his shield.

Estrangement
Prior to his showdown with Hector and his reappearance in the field of battle, Achilles finds himself at severe odds with Agamemnon when the latter forcefully takes a war bride named Briseis from the former. It results in a heated dispute between the hero and his king, leading to the estrangement of Achilles and his temporary abandonment of the battlefield. Achilles then sets up his camp at a corner away from the rest of Greek's army, avoiding the battle and leaving his fellow men at the mercy of the Trojan army: Then Achilles went all alone by the side of the hoar sea, weeping and looking out upon the boundless waste of waters. He raised his hands in prayer to his immortal mother (Homer, 2002, p.15).
Arnold ,likewise, made up a similar scene for Rustum: But Rustum came last night; aloof he sits And sullen, and has pitch'd his tents apart (Arnold, In Shahnameh, however, Rostam's dispute with Kavus is swiftly resolved by the mediation of Gōdarz, and thus Rostam's estrangement does not escalate into camping separately from his army or abandoning the battlefield.

Aristotle'S Unity
According to Aristotle's triple unities, the plot of a tragedy would not exceed the length of a single day. However, Ferdowsi's account of the battle between Sohrab and Rostam enters a second day.

Epic Simile
The most distinguished literary device employed by Arnold in his composition of "Sohrab and Rustum" was the epic simile, a special form which unlike common similes was expansive in its range and not limited to the description of the tenet, but the vehicle as well (Shamisa, 2003, p. 125).Following the fashion of European epics, Arnold made copious use of this device in his epic poem. A great portion of Arnold's prolixity can be found in these epic similes, especially those employed in his depiction of the battle between Sohrab and Rustum. A case might be made that, sometimes, these similes reduce the epic's violent scenes into mere aesthetic, lenient displays, virtually omitting the genre's inherent violence from the text. The problem with this method is that these depictions, rare and picturesque as they are, verbally paint scenes which immerse the reader heavily in the depiction itself, making him lose track of the plot. These types of similes were a norm in the culture and epic tradition of the classical Greece and the literature of the western world in general. That is why Arnold made abundant use of them throughout his poem, following Homer's The Iliad and Odyssey. However, Arnold's overuse of this device, as well as the quality of some of these similes, incited censure even from the western critics who were not alien to these types of similes (Amiri, 1975). Arnold employed the epic simile about twenty times in his poem, and the lengths of such similes, depending on the subject, are sometimes short and sometimes lengthy. A good example is Arnold's depiction of Rustum as he watches Sohrab's corpse on the sands, a scene which, being the most tragic in the entire poem, houses a simile that exceeds twenty lines. There are also instances where Arnold employs his epic similes in exactly the same place and manner that Homer did in his epics. For example, Rostam's grappling with Sohrab has been depicted by Arnold in the exact style that Homer depicted that of Achilles and Hector: As he spoke he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong by his side, and gathering himself together he sprang on Achilles like a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds on to some lamb or timid hare-even so did Hector brandish his sword and spring upon Achilles (Homer ,2002, p.436