The criticism that patients' productions of material concerning infantile sexual memories and fantasies are in response to 'suggestions' from the analyst is refuted by mythological material written down centuries before the advent of psychoanalysis, in which such fantasies and attitudes are expressed with comparatively little distortion. The epics of ancient India seem to reflect a great cluster of attitudes and fantasies centering about the Oedipus complex, the primal scene, the latency period, and the revival of the Oedipus complex at puberty. This thesis is demonstrated in two mythical episodes of ancient India, in which, for example, interfering with a couple in intercourse is punished by being compelled to be chaste on pain of death. Many details of the episodes duplicate closely certain types of fantasy material first discovered in the psychoanalytic treatment of contemporary Europeans. This contradicts the criticism that the nature of the basic freudian mechanisms is either culturally determined or else a response to the analyst's suggestions.