Other Peoples’ Myths
The Cave of Echoes
- Contents
Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface to the 1995 Edition
Introduction
Metamyth as Method
Strangers, Animals, Gods, and Children as Others
The Argument
1. Other Scholars’ Myths: The Hunter and the Sage
The Hunter and the Sage
Scholars and People
The Sage’s Myth
Fire and Ice
Academic Hardware and Religious Software
2. Other Peoples’ Lies: The Cave of Echoes
What a Myth Is and Is Not
The Cave of Archetypes
Myths and Classics
3. Other People’s Classics: Retelling the Mahabbarata
The Page and the Stage in the West
The Otherness of the Classics
Myth as Child’s Play
Fluid and Fixed Texts in the East
Impermanence and Eternity in India
4. Other People as Animals: Rudra, Lord of Sacrificial Beasts
If I Were a Horse
Humans as Sacrificial Animals
Carnivorous Hunters and Vegetarian Sages
Animals as Non-Others
5. Other Peoples’ Rituals: Daksha, Pentheus, and Jesus
Daksha and Shiva
Pentheus and Dionysus
Jesus: Myth with Ritual
6. Other Peoples’ Myths: The Place in the Woods
The Theater of Myth
Orthopraxy and Heterodoxy: Ritual without Myth
Myth without Ritual
The Shock of Recognition
The Myths about Rituals
7. Other Peoples’ Lives: The Rabbi from Cracow
The Rabbi from Cracow
Shooting at Pluralistic Ducks
The Audience inside the Story
The Recognition of Myth in Life
The Roundhouse of Myths
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface to the 1995 Edition
Introduction
Metamyth as Method
Strangers, Animals, Gods, and Children as Others
The Argument
1. Other Scholars’ Myths: The Hunter and the Sage
The Hunter and the Sage
Scholars and People
The Sage’s Myth
Fire and Ice
Academic Hardware and Religious Software
2. Other Peoples’ Lies: The Cave of Echoes
What a Myth Is and Is Not
The Cave of Archetypes
Myths and Classics
3. Other People’s Classics: Retelling the Mahabbarata
The Page and the Stage in the West
The Otherness of the Classics
Myth as Child’s Play
Fluid and Fixed Texts in the East
Impermanence and Eternity in India
4. Other People as Animals: Rudra, Lord of Sacrificial Beasts
If I Were a Horse
Humans as Sacrificial Animals
Carnivorous Hunters and Vegetarian Sages
Animals as Non-Others
5. Other Peoples’ Rituals: Daksha, Pentheus, and Jesus
Daksha and Shiva
Pentheus and Dionysus
Jesus: Myth with Ritual
6. Other Peoples’ Myths: The Place in the Woods
The Theater of Myth
Orthopraxy and Heterodoxy: Ritual without Myth
Myth without Ritual
The Shock of Recognition
The Myths about Rituals
7. Other Peoples’ Lives: The Rabbi from Cracow
The Rabbi from Cracow
Shooting at Pluralistic Ducks
The Audience inside the Story
The Recognition of Myth in Life
The Roundhouse of Myths
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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