ABSTRACT
This chapter implies that an unknown volunteer was being operated on in order to assume the likeness of the deposed ruler. It suggests that at least two steps are necessary in the proper analysis of narratives. These are identification and interpretation. The rumor with which we are concerned in this chapter is based on an interesting legend about a royal impostor. The structural similarity of the bodily deficiency of the impostor in these ancient legends and the allegedly fake Ayatollah in the modern rumor is self–evident. The key to the analysis of this narrative is found in the Ayatollah’s fingers. The phallic symbolism of the ears may be inferred from motifs such as: “ears cut off as punishment for adultery”; “fairy bites off ear of ravisher”; and more explicitly “flesh struck from ravisher’s ear.” The psychological conflict aroused in the minds of anti–Ayatollah Iranians and their American hosts were then resolved and mastered in fantasy.
