Many artists in postrevolutionary Iran are inspired by the long-ago kings and heroes from Persian literature and art, which they recycle as paradigms of virtue or as objects of derision to capture a world caught between a mythical past and an ever-dwindling present. Such is the case with this compelling image based on Rostam, the Hercules-like hero of the Iranian national epic, the Shahnama, or Book of Kings. Here the great champion, in the guise of a wrestler, is shown in a sinister setting replete with ravenous vultures and hyenas and blood-like paint splashes. Unlike traditional illustrated narratives of the Shahnama depicting Rostam, this nonnarrative version reflects the somber ambivalence of the overwhelmed hero. Born in Tehran in 1945, Fereydoun Ave completed his early education in England and subsequently moved to the United States to study applied art, theater, and cinema. He belongs to the influential first generation of Iranian artists who received their arts education in the West. Ave returned to Iran in 1970 and was caught up in and influenced by the cultural fervor and internationalism of prerevolutionary Tehran. At present he mainly divides his time between Tehran and Paris, where he continues to work and inspire younger Iranian artists.