Sasan

Sāsān (Middle Iranian > Persian ساسان), considered the eponymous ancestor of the Sasanians, was "a great warrior and hunter" and a Zoroastrian high priest in south western Iran and living sometime near the fall of Arsacid Empire.

Identity of Sasan

There are slightly different stories concerning Sasan and his relation to the founder of Sasanid Empire. The northern Iranian historian Tabari mentions further that Sasan married a princess of the Bāzarangid family, the vassal dynasty of Fārs and that Sasan was a grandfather of Aradashir I while Papag is named as Aradashir I's father. According to Tabari, Sasan is a descendent of Darius the Achaemenian.

According to the Pahlavi book of Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan, Sasan's wife was a daughter of a noble man called Papag and the marriage was arranged by Papg after hearing that Sasan has "Achamenian blood in him", the son of this union is named Ardashir I. Sasan vanishes shortly after Ardashir appears in the story and Papag is "considered the father of Ardashir".

These stories on different relations between "Ardashir, Papg, and Sasan" have according to Frye a Zoroastrian explanation. Accordingly Sasan was indeed the father of Ardashir and "disappears" from the story after the birth of Ardashir. Similar to the current Zoroastrian...
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