Explores the myths, stories, and tales that exist and are passed on within cultures, and their role in explaining natural phenomena and creating a common code

Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes

O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger

Religion & Spirituality

Macmillan Pub. Co.

Other People's Myths celebrates the universal art of storytelling, and the rich diversity of stories that people live by. Drawing on Biblical parables, Greek myths, Hindu epics, and the modern mythologies of Woody Allen and soap operas, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty encourages us to feel anew the force of myth and tradition in our lives, and in the lives of other cultures. She shows how the stories of mythologyâ€”whether of Greek gods, Chinese sages, or Polish rabbisâ€”enable all cultures to define themselves. She raises critical questions about the way we interpret mythical stories, especially the way different cultures make use of central texts and traditions. And she offers a sophisticated way of looking at the roles myths play in all cultures.

Other People's Myths: The Cave of Echoes

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Originally published under the title Asceticism and Eroticism in the Mythology of Siva, this book traces the development of an Indian approach to an enduring human dilemma: the conflict between spiritual aspirations and human desires. The work examines hundreds of related myths and a wide range of Indian texts--Vedic, Puranic, classical, modern, and tribal--centering on the stories of the great ascetic, Siva, and his erotic alter ego, Kama.

Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (Galaxy Books)

Literature & Fiction

World Literature

Oxford University Press

Asceticism and eroticism in the mythology of Śiva

Examines the conception of the relationship between men and women as expressed in the animal symbols and sexual metaphors of Hindu mythology

Women Androgynes and Other Mythical Beasts

Univ of Chicago Pr

"An important, provocative and original work, of great interest to Indian scholars, historians of religions, psychologists and historians of ideas, but accessible also to the cultivated reader. Even if one does not always agree with the author's interpretation, one cannot but admire her vast and precise learning, her splendid translations and exegesis of so many, and so different, Sanskrit texts, and her uninhibited, brilliant, and witty prose."—Mircea Eliade, University of Chicago "This is . . . a book which is as rich in detail as the carvings of the great Hindu temples. It shares with them a delight in the interplay of myth and mundane experience, and above all an empathy with the Hindu preoccupation with the meaning of human existence in all its complexity."—G. M. Carstairs, Times Literary Supplement

Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts

University of Chicago Press

Retells stories from ancient Indian folklore and analyzes each tale in terms of modern Freudian psychology

Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (English and Sanskrit Edition)

"Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty . . . weaves a brilliant analysis of the complex role of dreams and dreaming in Indian religion, philosophy, literature, and art. . . . In her creative hands, enchanting Indian myths and stories illuminate and are illuminated by authors as different as Aeschylus, Plato, Freud, Jung, Kurl Gödel, Thomas Kuhn, Borges, Picasso, Sir Ernst Gombrich, and many others. This richly suggestive book challenges many of our fundamental assumptions about ourselves and our world."—Mark C. Taylor, New York Times Book Review "Dazzling analysis. . . . The book is firm and convincing once you appreciate its central point, which is that in traditional Hindu thought the dream isn't an accident or byway of experience, but rather the locus of epistemology. In its willful confusion of categories, its teasing readiness to blur the line between the imagined and the real, the dream actually embodies the whole problem of knowledge. . . . [O'Flaherty] wants to make your mental flesh creep, and she succeeds."—Mark Caldwell, Village Voice

Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

History & Criticism

Other People's Myths celebrates the universal art of storytelling, and the rich diversity of stories that people live by. Drawing on Biblical parables, Greek myths, Hindu epics, and the modern mythologies of Woody Allen and soap operas, Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty encourages us to feel anew the force of myth and tradition in our lives, and in the lives of other cultures. She shows how the stories of mythology—whether of Greek gods, Chinese sages, or Polish rabbis—enable all cultures to define themselves. She raises critical questions about the way we interpret mythical stories, especially the way different cultures make use of central texts and traditions. And she offers a sophisticated way of looking at the roles myths play in all cultures.

"While focusing on the central problem of evil, O'Fiaherty illuminates every aspect of Hindu thought." --Choice "This is Dr. O'Flaherty's third book on Indian mythology, and the best yet. The range and number of myths handled is dazzling .... Moreover, her fluent and lucid style make reading a pleasure .... a major contribution to the study of religion in general and Hinduism in particular."--Times Literary Supplement "This scholarly work is a welcome and valuable addition to Hindu studies because it corrects the widespread belief that Hindu thought does not recognize the problem of evil. The author shows conclusively that the mythology of tribal societies and the Puranas deal with this question extensively. She traces certain conceptual attitudes towards evil from the Vedic period to the present day."--Library Journal "O'Flaherty has accomplished an important double task. She has reoriented our thinking on the Indian experience of evil as it has been given literary expression in the mythological texts of the Sanskrit tradition and to a lesser extent in the Tamil and tribal traditions as well. She has also provided, in this rich and exquisitely crafted book, a new set of vantage points from which to re-read familiar Indian myths and encounter new ones. . . Origins is both a superb piece of scholarship and a lively, witty and engagingly written book." --South Asia in Review "The author performs a brilliant feat in her textually exegetical and hermeneutical handling of the numerous and many-faceted myths. The study is highly pertinent and valuable . . . The authorial translations from the Hindu and Pali texts are refreshing ... and her comments are illuminating. Thus the Hindu view of evil comes out as something not simplistic and arbitrary but as an approach which is careful, complex, and richly eclectic. . . . This is a highly readable volume written with verve, sparkle and occasional light touches of decent humor."--Asian Student "For serious students of mythology, theology and Hinduism, this book is must reading."--Religious Studies Review

The origins of evil in Hindu mythology (Hermeneutics, studies in the history of religions)

University of California Press, Berkeley

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes

Other People's Myths: The Cave of Echoes

Siva: The Erotic Ascetic (Galaxy Books)

Asceticism and eroticism in the mythology of Śiva

Women Androgynes and Other Mythical Beasts

Women, Androgynes, and Other Mythical Beasts

Tales of Sex and Violence: Folklore, Sacrifice, and Danger in the Jaiminiya Brahmana (English and Sanskrit Edition)

Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

Other Peoples' Myths: The Cave of Echoes

The origins of evil in Hindu mythology (Hermeneutics, studies in the history of religions)