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Book Reviews
Splitting the Difference...Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India by Wendy Doniger
Surprised by Joy

With the European colonization of India, western scholars noticed a commonalty between the Hellenic and the Indian mythologies and sought to establish that this was a consequence of Greek traditions filtering through to India with Alexander’s invasion. A British army officer even wrote a study showing that the Ramayana story had been borrowed from Homer (after all, Alexander is supposed to have slept with a copy of the Iliad under his pillow). Therefore,

The similarities between Helen and Sita are not a new discovery. Aware of this, Doniger begins with Helen but quickly switches to what is her new contribution to Indological studies: the Rig Vedic myth of Martanda, the “dead egg,” named Vivasvant the Sun, and his wife Saranyu-Samjna. She suggests that both Helen, the adulteress, and Sita, the chaste wife, have their model in Saranyu who is sexually......

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Approximate Word Count: 2495
Approximate Pages: 10 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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