Indian Scholar Discusses Evil Women Mythology

The good myths about women in the Indo-European world die a quick death," Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty '62 told more than 75 people at her lecture on "Evil Women in Myth and Reality" at the Cronkhite Graduate Center yesterday.

Instead, she added, the recurrent image of the woman in Indo-European mythology is one who castrates or drains men.

O'Flaherty, a professor of the History of Religion at the University of Chicago, said myths "arise out of a genuine understanding about some very deep truths about the way things are." The inner feelings and disturbanees within a society are projected into its mythology, she explained.

Citing a number of ancient Hindu myths that still play an important role in Indian consciousness today, O'Flaherty demonstrated how myths often limit our thinking patterns. In India, where liquid is precious, women in myth are seen as draining fluids out of men. Similarly, their own body fluids, such as milk, are frequently poisonous in stories. Women are seen as sexually dangerous, hence "evil."

The repression of female sexuality in Hindu myths shows in Hindu society, where pornography is strictly prohibited--but rape is extremely widespread, O'Flaherty said.

Although many feminists who believe women are treated unfairly in mythology would like to revive ancient "good" myths about women or create new ones, O'Flaherty said she feels this is impossible. To change the role of women in mythology would require changing the basic views of a society, she said, adding, "It comes very slowly and you have to cut very deep."