IN CLASS: Sita and Helen

For this assignment you are asked to think about some multiforms of Sita’s story and to compare them with some multiforms of Helen’s story.

So, first a preview. What happens  in the story is, essentially, this: Sita is abducted by Ravana, Rama wages a great war to free her, overcomes Ravana, and brings Sita back. In Valmiki’s Ramayana, Rama, upon winning the war, at first rejects Sita on account of her being tainted by having spent time under Ravana’s control. Sita protests her innocence and then asks Lakshmana to build her a funeral pyre. Proclaiming her purity and devotion to Rama, she enters the flames. Of course, she does not burn: the fire god appears carrying Sita, resplendent and shining like the sun, in his arms, and vouches for her purity. After that Rama and Sita are reunited.

1. Please read the following snippets and summaries of stories about Helen (drawn from Herodotus, Stesichorus, and Plato) and Sita (drawn from two different Ramayanas) What similarities do you observe? What do you think could possibly account for these similarities?

IF you have time, do part two: 

2. Please read the summary of “The Future life of the Shadow Sita” and “Sita’s Former Life” (from Brahmavaivarta Purana). What’s your reaction? Does this story touch upon any themes that are familiar by now? How are all these women connected? Can you make sense of their connection—in other words, do you see why they could be connected like this in these stories? Feel free to record any reaction you may have!

Note: all these summaries come from the first chapter (“The Shadow Sita and the Phantom Helen”) of Wendy Doniger’s  book, “Splitting the difference; Gender and Myth in Ancient Greece and India (University of Chicago, 1999). If you are interested in the subject, this is a very wide-ranging and provocative book, which also has a chapter on Odysseus and Penelope (compared to Nala and Damayanti).

TEXT FOR QUESTION ONE:

1. THE ILLUSORY DEER OF THE ILLUSORY SITA

Rama, knowing what Ravana intended to do, told Sita, "Ravana will come to you disguised as an ascetic; put a shadow [chaya] of yourself outside the hut, and go inside the hut yourself. Live inside fire, invisible, for a year; when I have killed Ravana, come back to me as you were before." Sita obeyed; she placed an illusory Sita (mayasita) outside and entered the fire. This illusory Sita saw the illusory deer and urged Rama to capture it for her.

2. SITA'S ORDEAL

[Rama said to Sita,] "Listen, beloved wife, beautiful, faithful, and amiable; I am about to act an alluring human part; let fire then be your dwelling place until I have completed the extirpation of the demons." No sooner had Rama finished speaking than she impressed the image of the Lord's feet on her heart and entered into the fire, leaving her image there, of ex­actly the same appearance and the same amiable and modest disposition. Not even Laksman knew the secret of what the Lord had done. [Ravana stole Sita, Rama brought her back, and a great celebration took place]. The real Sita had earlier been lodged in the fire, and now the Blessed Lord who witnesses the secrets of all hearts sought to bring her back to light. For this reason the All-merciful addressed some reproachful words [i.e., he commanded Sita to undergo the fire ordeal], on hearing which the female demons all began to grieve .... Sita rejoiced at heart to see the fiercely blazing flames and felt no fear. “If in thought and word and deed:' she said, "I have never set my heart on anyone other than Raghubira [Rama], may this Fire, who knows the thoughts of all, become as cooling as sandal­ paste" ... Both her shadow-form as well as the stigma of public shame were consumed in the blazing fire; but no one understood the secret of the Lord's doings. Even the gods, adepts, and sages stood gazing in the heav­ens. Then Fire assumed a bodily form and, taking by the hand the real Shri [Sita], famed alike in the Vedas and the world, escorted her and committed her to Rama.

3. HELEN NOT OF TROY

[Helen had run off with Paris, but a storm had cast them ashore in Egypt; she was kept there, protected by Proteus, while Paris returned home empty-handed. The Greeks laid siege.] But when they captured the walls-there was no Helen! ... Menelaus came to Egypt and sailed up to Memphis, told the truth of what had happened, and received great hospitality and took back Helen, quite unhurt. ... If Helen had been in Ilium, she would have been given back to the Greeks, whether Alexander wanted it so or not.

4. THE PHANTOM OF HELEN AT TROY

When he was struck blind for accusing Helen, Stesichorus, unlike Homer, recognized the cause, for he was well educated, and immediately he composed his Palinode: "The story [logos J is not true. You did not board the well-benched ships. You did not reach the towers of Troy." Stesichorus says the phantom of Helen was fought for at Troy through ignorance of the truth.

5. HELEN BY EURIPIDES

The Helen of Helen was carried off against her will, it is implied (though never actually stated), and the phantom was created to save her from an alliance she did not want. Helen herself claims at the start of the play:

“Hera gave Paris not me, but a breathing image [eidolon] made in likeness

to me, made out of air, and he thinks he has me, but has a useless seeming. Hermes caught me up in folds of air, veiled by cloud, and set me down in the halls of Proteus ... and I will still make my home in Sparta with my husband, and he will know I never went to Troy, never spread a bed for any man”

TEXT FOR QUESTION TWO:

THE FUTURE LIFE OF THE SHADOW SITA

One day when Sita and Rama were in the forest, the god of Fire came to Rama, took the true Sita, constructed an illusory shadow Sita, with quali­ties, form, and limbs equal to hers, and gave her to Rama. He told Rama not to divulge the secret to anyone; even Rama's brother Lakshmana did not know. Eventually, Rama subjected Sita to the ordeal of fire and Fire re­stored the real Sita to Rama.

But then the shadow Sita asked Rama and Fire, "What shall I do?" Fire told her to go to the Pushkara shrine, and there she generated inner heat and was reborn as Draupadi. In the Golden Age she is called Vedavati; in the Second Age, she is [ the shadow] Sita. And in the Third Age, the shadow is Draupadi. This shadow, who was in the prime of her youth, was so ner­vous and excited with lust when she asked Shiva for a husband that she re­peated her request five times. And so she obtained five husbands, the five Pandavas.

SITA’S FORMER LIFE

A beautiful maiden named Vedavati was granted her wish that she would marry Vishnu in her next life. She went into the mountains to meditate but Ravana came to her, grabbed her with his hand, and attempted to rape her. She, being a good woman, paralyzed him with her angry gaze; he became impotent in his hands and feet and unable to say anything. Then, by the power of her yoga, she died and was reborn as Sita.

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