Identity of Sasan
There are slightly different stories concerning Sasan and his relation to the founder of Sasanid Empire. The northern Iranian historian Tabari mentions further that Sasan married a princess of the Bāzarangid family, the vassal dynasty of Fārs and that Sasan was a grandfather of Aradashir I while Papag is named as Aradashir I's father. According to Tabari, Sasan is a descendent of Darius the Achaemenian.
According to the Pahlavi book of Karnamak-i Artaxshir-i Papakan, Sasan's wife was a daughter of a noble man called Papag and the marriage was arranged by Papag after hearing that Sasan has "Achamenian blood in him", the son of this union is named Ardashir I. Sasan vanishes shortly after Ardashir appears in the story and Papag is "considered the father of Ardashir".
These stories on different relations between "Ardashir, Papg, and Sasan" have according to Frye a Zoroastrian explanation. Accordingly Sasan was indeed the father of Ardashir and "disappears" from the story after the birth of Ardashir. Similar to the current Zoroastrian practices, Papag had then taken the responsibility of his daughter and her son Ardashir after Sasan "disappears" and is named afterwards as the father of Ardashir.
In the Kabe Zartosht inscription of Shapur I the Great, the four named persons "Sasan, Papag, Ardashir, Shapur" have different by importance titles: Sasan is named as "the lord", Papag as "the king", Ardashir as "the King of kings of Iran" and Shapur is "king of kings of Iran and non-Iran".
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