Archetypal criticism is based on the works of psychologist Carl Jung, who believed that humankind has a “collective unconscious,” a kind of universal psyche, which is appeared in dreams and myths. In archetypal criticism, the analysis of literary text symbols is performed based on the archetype theory in Jung's psychology school. One of the commonest symbols in world myths is the dragon myth and combat of an epic hero with this mythical animal, which has been symbolized and inspired by the ancient giant animals, eclipse, volcanoes and floods in the ancient fables. According to Jung the dragon is the symbol of shadow archetype, which intermediated conscious and unconscious and in mythical narrations, elimination of the shadow and arriving at the light of consciousness is depicted as the combat of a hero with a dragon. Shadow archetype, despite its usually negative function, can represent some positive characters. Likewise, the myth of dragons has negative representations in some cultures and positive and sacred in others. In the Persian epic poem (Shahnameh), while the dragon is the symbol of death and evil, it has been used in some positive cases.
