Death, war, and sacrifice : studies in ideology and practice / foreword by Wendy Doniger

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1991. 1st edition. Hardcover. Fine copy in the original title-blocked cloth. Slightest suggestion only of dust-dulling to the panel edges. Remains particularly well-preserved overall; tight, bright, clean and strong. Physical description: xxi, 289 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents: Foreword -- Preface -- Indo-European religions: an introduction -- PART ONE: DEATH AND FUNERARY GEOGRAPHY IN INDO-EUROPEAN MYTH: On the imagery of paradise -- The lord of the dead -- Waters of memory, waters of forgetfulness -- The ferryman of the dead -- Mithra(s) as sun and savior -- The hellhound -- The house of clay -- The two paths -- PART TWO: WAR, SACRIFICE, AND THE SCIENCE OF THE BODY: Homeric lyssa: ""Wolfish rage"" -- War and warriors: an overview -- Warriors and non-herdsmen: a response to Mary Boyce -- Sacrificial ideology and Indo-European society -- The Druids and human sacrifice -- On the Scythian royal burials -- Debreasting, disarming, beheading: some sacrificial practices of the Scyths and Amazons -- Physiological speculation and social patterning in a Pahlavi text --Embryological speculation and gender politics in a Pahlavi text -- PART THREE: POLEMIC PIECES: Shaping the past and the future -- Kings, rebels, and the left hand -- Myth and history in the study of myth: an obscure text of Georges Dumezil, its context and subtext --Acknowledgments -- Indexes. Subjects: Mythology, Indo-European; War Religious aspects; Death Religious aspects; Sacrifice; Animal sacrifice; Religion primitive.