Wendy Doniger and the mythology of the ring

Doniger offers fascinating insight into complex relationship between genders down the ages

The ring on your finger has a long and quilted history, in parts gruesome, exciting, erotic and, sometimes, romantic. From an insignia of power to a symbol of ownership to being a cue for a forgotten sexual liaison or a secret assignation; a ring is anything but a fancy bauble in the world of the ancients. Above all else, as The Ring of Truth: Myths of Sex and Jewelry by Wendy Doniger reveals, a ring (and other pieces of circular jewellery) stands in for the fraught and complex nature of relationship between genders through the ages.

The role of the