From the asparas of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, tales of flying women-some with wings, others with clouds, rainbows, floating scarves, or flying horses-reveal both fascination with and ambivalence about female power and sexuality. In Women Who Fly, Serinity Young examines the motif of flying women as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, expressed in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She covers a wide range of themes, including supernatural women, like the Valkyries, who transport men to immortality; winged goddesses like Iris and the Greek goddess Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi; the relationship of marriage and freedom; the connections between women, death, and rebirth; dreams about flying and shamanistic journeys; airborne Christian mystics; and wayward women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Young also looks at the mythology surrounding real-life female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch. Throughout these examples of flying women, Young demonstrates that female power has been inextricably linked with female sexuality and that the desire to control it was and continues to be a pervasive theme in these stories. The relationship between sex and power is most vividly portrayed in the 12th-century Niebelungenlied, in which the proud warrior-queen Brunnhilde loses her great physical strength when she is tricked into losing her virginity. But even in the 20th century the same idea is reflected in the exploits of the comic book character Wonder Woman, who, posits Young, retains her physical strength only because her love for fellow aviator Steve Trevor goes unrequited. The first book to systematically chronicle the figure of the flying woman in myth, literature, and art, Women Who Fly sheds new light on the ways in which women have both influenced and been understood by society and religious traditions around the world.

Contents:
Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I: Life of the Buddha 1. Rejection and reconciliation Part II: Parents and procreation 2. Mothers and sons 3. Medical excursus 4. Fathers and heirs Part III: Sexualities 5. Wives and husbands 6. South Asian Courtesans 7. Courtesans in Buddhist literature 8. Tantric consorts: Tibet 10. The traffic in women 11. Women, men, and impurity 12. Sex changes 13. Other lands/other realities Conclusion Bibliography Index

Contents:
Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction Part I: Life of the Buddha 1. Rejection and reconciliation Part II: Parents and procreation 2. Mothers and sons 3. Medical excursus 4. Fathers and heirs Part III: Sexualities 5. Wives and husbands 6. South Asian Courtesans 7. Courtesans in Buddhist literature 8. Tantric consorts: Tibet 10. The traffic in women 11. Women, men, and impurity 12. Sex changes 13. Other lands/other realities Conclusion Bibliography Index

"Our first encounter with these Tibetan medical paintings is filled with delight, wonder, and pleasure. Their boisterous colors, their exquisite detail, their marvelous array of subject matter, the often playful and energetic figures that people them - all these perceptions strike us at once. We are drawn to the paintings instantly but at the same time are beset with questions." - Janet Gyatso, from the Introduction The first full set of Tibetan medical paintings, or medical tangkas, were painted between 1687 and 1703 and were inspired by Sangye Gyatso, Regent of the Fifth Dalai Lama, who was a great patron of medical learning. In a beautiful and unique artistic style, the paintings illustrate Tibetan medical knowledge that drew on medical traditions from India, ancient Greece, Persia, pre-Buddhist Tibet, and China, while remaining firmly rooted in Buddhism. Copies of the iconic images have been created in meticulous detail through the centuries and Body and Spirit focuses on a set of contemporary paintings in the traditional technique by the Nepalese artist Romio Shrestha and his assistants in Kathmandu. The tangkas illuminate human anatomy and the causes and effects of illness, as well as their diagnosis and treatment. Most of the paintings consist of rows of small human figures, animals, plants, minerals, houses, landscapes, and demons and deities, depicting the rich complexity of human endeavor: farming, animal husbandry, personal hygiene, marriage, sex, birthing, fighting, sleeping, studying, and meditating. The thousands of small and large images were designed to add visual form to the technical information: an eye-pleasing teaching aid for medical students.

This now standard text offers engaging readings from a wide variety of sources by and about women. Designed for women's studies and religion courses everywhere.