Basmaran series

The legend of the Basilisk was a story I read when I was little and gave a little goosebumps, and was engraved in a corner of my mind even though I forgot the details.

I think the reason for this was that I felt some kind of injustice was done to Şahmeran.

Sahmeran had a talk on one occasion in the past days, so I wanted to remember it again and take a look at the woman's relationship with the snake.

The story of Şahmeran, which is the subject of Turkish, Kurdish and Iranian mythology, has been told in many different ways in the aforementioned geographies, so many different versions of the story have emerged over the years. For those who don't know or don't remember, let's explain first: Şahmeran, that is, the Shah of the Snakes, is a wise and beautiful woman in the form of half-human, half-snake who lives seven floors under the ground. According to the legend, the first person to see Şahmeran is a young man named Cemşab. One day, while walking in the forest with his friends, Cemşab sees a jar of honey at the bottom of a cave; and his friends take him honey

After they persuade him to go to the cave, they leave him there. Looking for a way out of the cave, Cemşab sees a light beam and follows it just as he gives up; this road takes him to Şahmeran's home. Cemşab first gets scared when he sees the snakes, but Şahmeran relieves his fear and becomes friends with him; he eats and drinks. From time to time, their friendship turns into love, and according to some narratives, Şahmeran conveys his wisdom to him; He tells all the stories he knows about the world. However, after a while, Cemşab wants to return home, according to some because he is bored because Şahmeran has no more story to tell, and for others because he misses his family. Şahmeran hesitates at first, afraid that Cemşab will reveal his location to others and betray himself. Despite this, he accepts Cemşab's return to his land, but on one condition: He will not tell anyone about his location. He also advises not to wash in front of anyone, because the body of those who see Şahmeran is covered with scales in the presence of others. Cemşab accepts this condition and returns to his country.

From time to time, the sultan of the country gets sick and according to the vizier, the only medicine for his recovery is the meat of Şahmeran. Şahmeran is searched, scanned, cannot be found; But since the vizier knows the secret of Şahmeran, one day he watches everyone gather and wash, and there he sees Cemşab's skin covered with scales. Despite all the insistence, Cemşab does not speak at first, but then tells Şahmeran's location to save his life. According to one version, Cemşab cannot even look at Şahmeran's face, and when he meets, he is so ashamed of his betrayal that he first eats Şahmeran's flesh and dies. Because the meat of Şahmeran is poisonous and the vizier, who knows this, wants to give him poison as a cure because he has an eye on the sultan's place. According to another version, Şahmeran feeds the poisonous part of his meat to the vizier and the vizier dies, he feeds the useful part to the sultan and the sultan gets well and feeds the most delicious part to Cemşab; Cemşab gains his wisdom and turns into a great doctor known as Lokman Hekim. According to another narrative, Cemşab is declared a vizier by the sultan, whose life was saved. The only thing that does not change in all these narratives is that Şahmeran was betrayed, eventually killed and his flesh eaten.