From the beautiful apsaras of Hindu myth to the swan maidens of European fairy tales, tales of flying women--some carried by wings, others by 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 the flying woman as it appears in a wide variety of cultures and historical periods, expressed in legends, myths, rituals, sacred narratives, and artistic productions. She introduces a wide range of such figures, including supernatural women like the Valkyries of Norse legend, who transport men to immortality; winged deities like the Greek goddesses Iris and Nike; figures of terror like the Furies, witches, and succubi, airborne Christian mystics, and wayward women like Lilith and Morgan le Fay. Looking beyond the supernatural, Young examines the extraordinary mythology surrounding twentieth-century female aviators like Amelia Earhart and Hanna Reitsch.

Oxford University Press, 2018.
ISBN: 9780195307887. 358 pp.
Hardcover. Fine in a fine jacket.