Monday, October 1, 2012

Muhteşem Mythical Birds

Simurgh
The new Muhteşem Yüzyıl season is up and running, and Hurrem Sultan... Well, I can't wait to see how she gets out of this mess: There's a new girl in the harem, and Sultan Suleiman has fallen head over heals over her.

Firuze is more than just a girl though. She's got something magical going on. Suleiman was in her dreams- before she met him. She heals Hatice Sultan with a sweep of the hand and a Persian poem. And she has a mysterious tattoo on the back of her neck. This girl is my style!  (I'm still rooting for Hurrem to win, of course.)

Last week's episode had me googling all over the place. I'm still looking for the correct mythical bird of Firuze's hairpin. It's not the Simurgh (above), or the Shahrukh (which is the root of the word roc, btw). It's a lovesick bird with a tragic end.

A la Arabian Nights, she tells Suleiman this tale:

The diman (?) falls in love with the sea - a sea as blue as Suleiman's eyes.
It protects the sea, so it can't bear to leave the shore for fear that something would happen.
It never drinks a drop of the water.
When the bird dies of thirst, waves wrap around the body and pull it down to the deepest, deepest heart of the sea.

Is she planning to kill Suleiman? The Ottomans are about to march on Tabriz. She might be in the harem on a mission. I guess we'll find out. At the moment, it seems she's obsessed with Suleiman as her destiny.

Meanwhile, I'm obsessed with the bird. The story feels familiar, but I might be confusing it with the Greek myth of Narcissus.

Has anyone else heard of this mythical bird?

10 comments:

Deniz Bevan said...

Love it! How exciting that they're weaving in myths and legends now. Off to read about the bird for myself - what a sad fate!
(It's definitely a diman, then? Not an anka? That's the one bird I know; I used to read stories about it when I was a kid)

Connie Keller said...

I don't know anything about the stories or the birds, but they're lovely and the mosaic is gorgeous.

LTM said...

very cool--so is this a new TV series? That mosaic is gorgeous, and the tale is very much like Narcissus. What was that spin on the story from The Alchemist? Where the lake loved Narcissus b/c she saw herself reflected in his eyes? Anyway, good stuff. Don't have your answer, though~ :o) <3

Carolyn Abiad said...

Muhteşem Yüzyıl is a popular Turkish show very like The Tudors from HBO. It's in the third season.

Carolyn V said...

That's so interesting! I have never heard of the mythical bird before. So cool.

Southpaw said...

I've not heard of the bird. I love the mosaic pic.

Carolyn Abiad said...

Thanks to Deniz and her mom, we discovered the real name of the bird is BUTIMAR kusu - the butimar bird of Persian myth. Where did I get "bu diman kusu"(this diman bird)? :p

Note to producer: That's what you get when the actress tries to pretend she doesn't speak good Turkish. lol. :)

Deniz Bevan said...

Thanks for telling us about the bird, Carolyn. I love the legend, it's such a sad one.

Unknown said...

Hi . This is " Simurgh" , an ancient mythical "Iranian's" bird that in Persian means : 30 morgh or "30 birds" .
Hear is a link about it : https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%DB%8C%D9%85%D8%B1%D8%BA

you can read it in english too.
thank you every one.

loolivash said...

http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/butimar-a-semilegendary-aquatic-bird-also-called-gamkorak-lit

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