Paper short abstract

A south Indian myth traces the development of the political order to matricide, and to the suppression of maternal desire.

Paper long abstract

The origin of the democratic political order in ancient Athens was to be found, according to Aeschylus, in the trial by jury of Orestes, accused of murdering his mother, Clytemnestra. In the south Indian fishing village that is the subject of this paper, the political order also begins in matricide, in this case of the earth goddess "Adi Sakti" by her three sons, Brahma, Visnu, and Siva. What Clytemnestra and Adi Sakti have in common is uncontrollable sexual desire. It is this desire - maternal and sexual at the same time - that must be suppressed, and then transformed, in order for the patriarchal political order to come into existence. This paper explores the relationship between maternal desire and the development of the political order in the mythology of a south Indian fishing village, and compares this story to the account in Aeschylus of the origins of Athenian democracy.