The Wiles of Women/The Wiles of Men

Focusing on gender issues, this book compares and contrasts the treatment of the Potiphar's Wife motif—in which a woman makes vain overtures to a man and then accuses him of attempting to force himself upon her—in ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Islamic folklore. One of the world's oldest recorded folktales tells the story of a handsome young man and the older woman in whose house he resides. Overcome by her feelings for him, the woman attempts to seduce him. When he turns her down she is enra