The Mace of Faridun
The bull-headed mace (gurz) forged to the measure of the young prince Faridun, which Ferdowsi describes being made before his campaign against the tyrant Zahhak, so that only his hand could wield it. With it Faridun struck Zahhak's crowned head and split the serpents that had grown on the tyrant's shoulders, ending a thousand years of unjust rule and binding the defeated Zahhak in a cavern of Mount Damavand, where he is said to be chained to this day. The mace, in its bull-headed form, links the hero to the cattle-rearing world of the old Iranian kings and stands in the epic as the plain, hone