Infanticide as Instructing Ethics in “Rostam and Sohrab”

The present paper investigates the story of “Rostam and Sohrab” by Abolghasem Ferdowsi – the poet of the fourth century. This paper aims to demonstrate the relationship between infanticide by the major character of this work, Rostam, and ethical dilemmas in the light of Emmanuel Levinas’s notion of responsibility and depicts how instructing ethics will appear in the act of infanticide by him. Therefore, this paper shows how infanticide despite of being indecent is considered as an ethical dead in specific circumstances. Key words: Infanticide; Responsibility; Ethics