Zahhak was an ambitious prince seduced by the evil spirit Ahriman. On his advice he killed his own father to become king. Later Ahriman disguised himself as a cook and asked, as his only reward, to kiss Zahhak’s shoulders. Where his lips touched the skin, two black snakes grew. They were cut off, but they kept growing back. Ahriman, now disguised as a physician, advised that the snakes be fed every day with the brains of two young men.
For a thousand years Zahhak ruled through fear and blood. Two brave cooks, Armayel and Garmayel, secretly saved one of the two young men every day and mixed in a sheep’s brain instead. Those who were saved fled into the mountains; according to the legend they became the ancestors of the Kurds.
The blacksmith Kaveh had already lost seventeen sons to the snakes when the last one was to be taken. He stormed into the palace, tore up the document in which the nobles were to testify to Zahhak’s justice, and tied his leather apron to a spear. Under this banner, later called the Derafsh-e Kaviani, the people gathered. They found the young Fereydoun, a descendant of Jamshid, who defeated Zahhak with his ox-headed mace and chained him inside Mount Damavand.