نمادشناسی تطبیقی نقش و مفهوم عقرب در تمدن‌های باستانی ایران و مصر: جانور موذی یا الوهی

Ancient artifacts of past civilizations and various designs on them carry ideas, cultural values, beliefs and archetypes. Therefore, examining the remaining works is a way to understand the function of codes, symbols and myths in ancient times. These symbols and motifs, which are created by the human mind to show transcendental forces, have been mixed together throughout history, a kind of harmony and closeness can be seen in the main themes and motifs, which makes a comparative study of these traditions possible. In fact, the use of symbols was probably the first attempt of man to describe his position in the universe. The role of different artistic materials shows ethnic religious beliefs and some realism. Humans have always believed that some creatures were selected and bred with supernatural powers. As a result of this breeding, the good or bad nature of those animals has been revealed in the material life of their breeders. Some of these motifs include animal symbols or human-animal hybrids. As one of these old motifs, the scorpion has been the origin of legends in the past and with characteristics such as insidiousness, evil and pain; it has been a symbol of death, war and sometimes a guardian. This animal was noticed by ancient nations because of its special role and place in the life of ancient man and based on this, various myths and beliefs emerged around its existence; To the extent that some of these motifs have always been important as a manifestation of gods or as a role or image. The necessity of this research is due to the fact that considering the importance of Iran and Egypt civilizations both in their historical existence as two of the oldest known civilizations and in the aesthetic aspects of the obtained works, it is necessary that the motifs of these works in terms of Scorpio symbology be examined and studied To show its value, content and cultural aspects. Throughout history, myths and motifs are mixed as if they were watered from the same source. In this research, it is hypothesized that the motif of the scorpion in the two ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt as a symbol arose from the beliefs, beliefs and environmental conditions of the creation of these works. And this motif has a transcendental concept more than it has a mythological and literary meaning and it has been related to the religious rituals and beliefs related to the world after the death of the people of their time in both civilizations. In the upcoming research, the Semiotics of the scorpion in the ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt will be discussed with a comparative study as two examples of the oldest known civilizations in the world. The research method of this research is comparative-analytical and the method of collecting information is library-documentary. The key question of the research is that in the comparative Semiotics of the archetype of the scorpion, what commonalities are evident between the ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt? The results of the research indicate that the use of the scorpion motif on works and reliefs was considered in the ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt due to the removal of evil and the support of this creature. And in the ancient civilization of Egypt, it was also worshiped as a protective goddess. In some books and researches, ancient symbolic and mythological animals have been investigated and studied. But from the study of the available sources, it is clear that the studies conducted in relation to the symbolism of the scorpion were case-based and less research has been directly related to the topic of this article, i.e. the comparative symbology of the scorpion in the ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt. In this article, an attempt has been made to study and investigate the degree of adaptation of the Scorpio motif in these two civilizations by finding cross-cultural connections. The area under discussion in this research is the ancient civilizations of Iran and Egypt and the uncovered ancient works with the motif of the scorpion. The statistical population in this research is the ancient works of Iran and Egypt that have the symbol of a scorpion. From both ancient civilizations, pottery and artifacts with scorpion motifs and decorative scorpion paintings on tombs were examined. Finally, thirteen examples of works from different regions of ancient Iranian civilization and five examples of ancient Egyptian civilization were selected and subjected to a comparative study. It seems that the scorpion symbol in both ancient civilizations, in addition to the mythological concept, had a transcendental concept related to religious rituals and ceremonies.