Sir James George Frazer developed an affinity for classic literature at a young age, which developed into a very real talent through his schooling at Glasgow University and then Trinity College at Cambridge, where he remained as a Classics Fellow for all but one year of his life. After the success of his first novel, “Totemism”, in 1887, Frazer set out to create what was to become his defining work, “The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion”. Originally a two-volume edition, the work expanded into multiple volumes, which in 1922 he edited down to the most widely-read abridged version, which has been reproduced here for this edition. It was initially celebrated as a remarkable study of comparative anthropology, but was later discredited by scientists because Frazer did not follow standard scientific procedures. Nevertheless, it could not be denied that the work was an incredible literary accomplishment. “The Golden Bough” is an important work which has heavily influenced many modern writers and philosophers. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.
Sir James George Frazer developed an affinity for classic literature at a young age, which developed into a very real talent through his schooling at Glasgow University and then Trinity College at Cambridge, where he remained as a Classics Fellow for all but one year of his life. After the success of his first novel, “Totemism”, in 1887, Frazer set out to create what was to become his defining work, “The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion”. Originally a two-volume edition, the work expanded into multiple volumes, which in 1922 he edited down to the most widely-read abridged version, which has been reproduced here for this edition. It was initially celebrated as a remarkable study of comparative anthropology, but was later discredited by scientists because Frazer did not follow standard scientific procedures. Nevertheless, it could not be denied that the work was an incredible literary accomplishment. “The Golden Bough” is an important work which has heavily influenced many modern writers and philosophers. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.
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Sir James George Frazer developed an affinity for classic literature at a young age, which developed into a very real talent through his schooling at Glasgow University and then Trinity College at Cambridge, where he remained as a Classics Fellow for all but one year of his life. After the success of his first novel, “Totemism”, in 1887, Frazer set out to create what was to become his defining work, “The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion”. Originally a two-volume edition, the work expanded into multiple volumes, which in 1922 he edited down to the most widely-read abridged version, which has been reproduced here for this edition. It was initially celebrated as a remarkable study of comparative anthropology, but was later discredited by scientists because Frazer did not follow standard scientific procedures. Nevertheless, it could not be denied that the work was an incredible literary accomplishment. “The Golden Bough” is an important work which has heavily influenced many modern writers and philosophers. This edition is printed on premium acid-free paper.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486119724 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/29/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 768 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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The Golden Bough
A Study in Magic and Religion
By James Frazer
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 2002 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-11972-4
CHAPTER 1
THE KING OF THE WOOD
§ 1. Diana and Virbius.—Who does not know Turner's picture of the Golden Bough? The scene, suffused with the golden glow of imagination in which the divine mind of Turner steeped and transfigured even the fairest natural landscape, is a dream-like vision of the little woodland lake of Nemi—"Diana's Mirror," as it was called by the ancients. No one who has seen that calm water, lapped in a green hollow of the Alban hills, can ever forget it. The two characteristic Italian villages which slumber on its banks, and the equally Italian palace whose terraced gardens descend steeply to the lake, hardly break the stillness and even the solitariness of the scene. Dian herself might still linger by this lonely shore, still haunt these woodlands wild.
In antiquity this sylvan landscape was the scene of a strange and recurring tragedy. On the northern shore of the lake, right under the precipitous cliffs on which the modern village of Nemi is perched, stood the sacred grove and sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis, or Diana of the Wood. The lake and the grove were sometimes known as the lake and grove of Aricia. But the town of Aricia (the modern La Riccia) was situated about three miles off, at the foot of the Alban Mount, and separated by a steep descent from the lake, which lies in a small crater-like hollow on the mountain side. In this sacred grove there grew a certain tree round which at any time of the day, and probably far into the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn sword, and he kept peering warily about him as if at every instant he expected to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer; and the man for whom he looked was sooner or later to murder him and hold the priesthood in his stead. Such was the rule of the sanctuary. A candidate for the priesthood could only succeed to office by slaying the priest, and having slain him, he retained office till he was himself slain by a stronger or a craftier.
The post which he held by this precarious tenure carried with it the title of king; but surely no crowned head ever lay uneasier, or was visited by more evil dreams, than his. For year in year out, in summer and winter, in fair weather and in foul, he had to keep his lonely watch, and whenever he snatched a troubled slumber it was at the peril of his life. The least relaxation of his vigilance, the smallest abatement of his strength of limb or skill of fence, put him in jeopardy; grey hairs might seal his death-warrant. To gentle and pious pilgrims at the shrine the sight of him might well seem to darken the fair landscape, as when a cloud suddenly blots the sun on a bright day. The dreamy blue of Italian skies, the dappled shade of summer woods, and the sparkle of waves in the sun, can have accorded but ill with that stern and sinister figure. Rather we picture to ourselves the scene as it may have been witnessed by a belated wayfarer on one of those wild autumn nights when the dead leaves are falling thick, and the winds seem to sing the dirge of the dying year. It is a sombre picture, set to melancholy music—the background of forest showing black and jagged against a lowering and stormy sky, the sighing of the wind in the branches, the rustle of the withered leaves under foot, the lapping of the cold water on the shore, and in the foreground, pacing to and fro, now in twilight and now in gloom, a dark figure with a glitter of steel at the shoulder whenever the pale moon, riding clear of the cloud-rack, peers down at him through the matted boughs.
The strange rule of this priesthood has no parallel in classical antiquity, and cannot be explained from it. To find an explanation we must go farther afield. No one will probably deny that such a custom savours of a barbarous age, and, surviving into imperial times, stands out in striking isolation from the polished Italian society of the day, like a primaeval rock rising from a smooth-shaven lawn. It is the very rudeness and barbarity of the custom which allow us a hope of explaining it. For recent researches into the early history of man have revealed the essential similarity with which, under many superficial differences, the human mind has elaborated its first crude philosophy of life. Accordingly, if we can show that a barbarous custom, like that of the priesthood of Nemi, has existed elsewhere; if we can detect the motives which led to its institution; if we can prove that these motives have operated widely, perhaps universally, in human society, producing in varied circumstances a variety of institutions specifically different but generically alike; if we can show, lastly, that these very motives, with some of their derivative institutions, were actually at work in classical antiquity; then we may fairly infer that at a remoter age the same motives gave birth to the priesthood of Nemi. Such an inference, in default of direct evidence as to how the priesthood did actually arise, can never amount to demonstration. But it will be more or less probable according to the degree of completeness with which it fulfils the conditions I have indicated. The object of this book is, by meeting these conditions, to offer a fairly probable explanation of the priesthood of Nemi.
I begin by setting forth the few facts and legends which have come down to us on the subject. According to one story the worship of Diana at Nemi was instituted by Orestes, who, after killing Thoas, king of the Tauric Chersonese (the Crimea), fled with his sister to Italy, bringing with him the image of the Tauric Diana hidden in a faggot of sticks. After his death his bones were transported from Aricia to Rome and buried in front of the temple of Saturn, on the Capitoline slope, beside the temple of Concord. The bloody ritual which legend ascribed to the Tauric Diana is familiar to classical readers; it is said that every stranger who landed on the shore was sacrificed on her altar. But transported to Italy, the rite assumed a milder form. Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no branch might be broken. Only a runaway slave was allowed to break off, if he could, one of its boughs. Success in the attempt entitled him to fight the priest in single combat, and if he slew him he reigned in his stead with the title of King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). According to the public opinion of the ancients the fateful branch was that Golden Bough which, at the Sibyl's bidding, Aeneas plucked before he essayed the perilous journey to the world of the dead. The flight of the slave represented, it was said, the flight of Orestes; his combat with the priest was a reminiscence of the human sacrifices once offered to the Tauric Diana. This rule of succession by the sword was observed down to imperial times; for amongst his other freaks Caligula, thinking that the priest of Nemi had held office too long, hired a more stalwart ruffian to slay him; and a Greek traveller, who visited Italy in the age of the Antonines, remarks that down to his time the priesthood was still the prize of victory in a single combat.
Of the worship of Diana at Nemi some leading features can still be made out. From the votive offerings which have been found on the site, it appears that she was conceived of especially as a huntress, and further as blessing men and women with offspring, and granting expectant mothers an easy delivery. Again, fire seems to have played a foremost part in her ritual. For during her annual festival, held on the thirteenth of August, at the hottest time of the year, her grove shone with a multitude of torches, whose ruddy glare was reflected by the lake; and throughout the length and breadth of Italy the day was kept with holy rites at every domestic hearth. Bronze statuettes found in her precinct represent the goddess herself holding a torch in her raised right hand; and women whose prayers had been heard by her came crowned with wreaths and bearing lighted torches to the sanctuary in fulfilment of their vows. Some one unknown dedicated a perpetually burning lamp in a little shrine at Nemi for the safety of the Emperor Claudius and his family. The terra-cotta lamps which have been discovered in the grove may perhaps have served a like purpose for humbler persons. If so, the analogy of the custom to the Catholic practice of dedicating holy candles in churches would be obvious. Further, the title of Vesta borne by Diana at Nemi points clearly to the maintenance of a perpetual holy fire in her sanctuary. A large circular basement at the north-east corner of the temple, raised on three steps and bearing traces of a mosaic pavement, probably supported a round temple of Diana in her character of Vesta, like the round temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum. Here the sacred fire would seem to have been tended by Vestal Virgins, for the head of a Vestal in terra-cotta was found on the spot, and the worship of a perpetual fire, cared for by holy maidens, appears to have been common in Latium from the earliest to the latest times. Further, at the annual festival of the goddess, hunting dogs were crowned and wild beasts were not molested; young people went through a purificatory ceremony in her honour; wine was brought forth, and the feast consisted of a kid, cakes served piping hot on plates of leaves, and apples still hanging in clusters on the boughs.
But Diana did not reign alone in her grove at Nemi. Two lesser divinities shared her forest sanctuary. One was Egeria, the nymph of the clear water which, bubbling from the basaltic rocks, used to fall in graceful cascades into the lake at the place called Le Mole, because here were established the mills of the modern village of Nemi. The purling of the stream as it ran over the pebbles is mentioned by Ovid, who tells us that he had often drunk of its water. Women with child used to sacrifice to Egeria, because she was believed, like Diana, to be able to grant them an easy delivery. Tradition ran that the nymph had been the wife or mistress of the wise king Numa, that he had consorted with her in the secrecy of the sacred grove, and that the laws which he gave the Romans had been inspired by communion with her divinity. Plutarch compares the legend with other tales of the loves of goddesses for mortal men, such as the love of Cybele and the Moon for the fair youths Attis and Endymion. According to some, the trysting-place of the lovers was not in the woods of Nemi but in a grove outside the dripping Porta Capena at Rome, where another sacred spring of Egeria gushed from a dark cavern. Every day the Roman Vestals fetched water from this spring to wash the temple of Vesta, carrying it in earthenware pitchers on their heads. In Juvenal's time the natural rock had been encased in marble, and the hallowed spot was profaned by gangs of poor Jews, who were suffered to squat, like gypsies, in the grove. We may suppose that the spring which fell into the lake of Nemi was the true original Egeria, and that when the first settlers moved down from the Alban hills to the banks of the Tiber they brought the nymph with them and found a new home for her in a grove outside the gates. The remains of baths which have been discovered within the sacred precinct, together with many terra-cotta models of various parts of the human body, suggest that the waters of Egeria were used to heal the sick, who may have signified their hopes or testified their gratitude by dedicating likenesses of the diseased members to the goddess, in accordance with a custom which is still observed in many parts of Europe. To this day it would seem that the spring retains medicinal virtues.
The other of the minor deities at Nemi was Virbius. Legend had it that Virbius was the young Greek hero Hippolytus, chaste and fair, who learned the art of venery from the centaur Chiron, and spent all his days in the greenwood chasing wild beasts with the virgin huntress Artemis (the Greek counterpart of Diana) for his only comrade. Proud of her divine society, he spurned the love of women, and this proved his bane. For Aphrodite, stung by his scorn, inspired his stepmother Phaedra with love of him; and when he disdained her wicked advances she falsely accused him to his father Theseus. The slander was believed, and Theseus prayed to his sire Poseidon to avenge the imagined wrong. So while Hippolytus drove in a chariot by the shore of the Saronic Gulf, the sea-god sent a fierce bull forth from the waves. The terrified horses bolted, threw Hippolytus from the chariot, and dragged him at their hoofs to death. But Diana, for the love she bore Hippolytus, persuaded the leech Aesculapius to bring her fair young hunter back to life by his simples. Jupiter, indignant that a mortal man should return from the gates of death, thrust down the meddling leech himself to Hades. But Diana hid her favourite from the angry god in a thick cloud, disguised his features by adding years to his life, and then bore him far away to the dells of Nemi, where she entrusted him to the nymph Egeria, to live there, unknown and solitary, under the name of Virbius, in the depth of the Italian forest. There he reigned a king, and there he dedicated a precinct to Diana. He had a comely son, Virbius, who, undaunted by his father's fate, drove a team of fiery steeds to join the Latins in the war against Aeneas and the Trojans. Virbius was worshipped as a god not only at Nemi but elsewhere; for in Campania we hear of a special priest devoted to his service. Horses were excluded from the Arician grove and sanctuary because horses had killed Hippolytus. It was unlawful to touch his image. Some thought that he was the sun. "But the truth is," says Servius, "that he is a deity associated with Diana, as Attis is associated with the Mother of the Gods, and Erichthonius with Minerva, and Adonis with Venus." What the nature of that association was we shall enquire presently. Here it is worth observing that in his long and chequered career this mythical personage has displayed a remarkable tenacity of life. For we can hardly doubt that the Saint Hippolytus of the Roman calendar, who was dragged by horses to death on the thirteenth of August, Diana's own day, is no other than the Greek hero of the same name, who, after dying twice over as a heathen sinner, has been happily resuscitated as a Christian saint.
(Continues...)
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Table of Contents
I. THE KING OF THE WOOD§ 1. Diana and Virbius
§ 2. Artemis and Hippolytus
§ 3. Recapitulation
II. PRIESTLY KINGS
III. SYMPATHETIC MAGIC
§ 1. The Principles of Magic
§ 2. Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic
§ 3. Contagious Magic
§ 4. The Magician's Progress
IV. MAGIC AND RELIGION
V. THE MAGICAL CONTROL OF THE WEATHER
§ 1. The Public Magician
§ 2. The Magical Control of Rain
§ 3. The Magical Control of the Sun
§ 4. The Magical Control of the Wind
VI. MAGICIANS AS KINGS
VII. INCARNATE HUMAN GODS
VIII. DEPARTMENTAL KINGS OF NATURE
IX. THE WORSHIP OF TREES
§ 1. Tree-spirits
§ 2. Beneficent Powers of Tree-spirits
X. RELICS OF TREE-WORSHIP IN MODERN EUROPE
XI. THE INFLUENCE OF THE SEXES ON VEGETATION
XII. THE SACRED MARRIAGE
§ 1. Diana as a Goddess of Fertility
§ 2. The Marriage of the Gods
XIII. THE KINGS OF ROME AND ALBA
§ 1. Numa and Egeria
§ 2. The King as Jupiter
XIV. THE SUCCESSION TO THE KINGDOM IN ANCIENT LATIUM
XV. THE WORSHIP OF THE OAK
XVI DIANUS AND DIANA
XVII. THE BURDEN OF ROYALTY
§ 1. Royal and Priestly Taboos
§ 2. Divorce of the Spiritual from the Temporal Power
XVIII. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL
§ 1. The Soul as a Mannikin
§ 2. Absence and Recall of the Soul
§ 3. The Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection
XIX. TABOOED ACTS
§ 1. Taboos on Intercourse with Strangers
§ 2. Taboos on Eating and Drinking
§ 3. Taboos on showing the Face
§ 4. Taboos on quitting the House
§ 5. Taboos on leaving Food over
XX. TABOOED PERSONS
§ 1. Chiefs and Kings tabooed
§ 2. Mourners tabooed
§ 3. Women tabooed at Menstruation and Childbirth
§ 4. Warriors tabooed
§ 5. Manslayers tabooed
§ 6. Hunters and Fishers tabooed
XXI. TABOOED THINGS
§ 1. The Meaning of Taboo
§ 2. Iron tabooed
§ 3. Sharp Weapons tabooed
§ 4. Blood tabooed
§ 5. The Head tabooed
§ 6. Hair tabooed
§ 7. Ceremonies at Hair-cutting
§ 8. Disposal of Cut Hair and Nails
§ 9. Spittle tabooed
§ 10. Foods tabooed
§ 11. Knots and Rings tabooed
XXII. TABOOED WORDS
§ 1. Personal Names tabooed
§ 2. Names of Relations tabooed
§ 3. Names of the Dead tabooed
§ 4. Names of Kings and other Sacred Persons tabooed
§ 5. Names of Gods tabooed
XXIII. OUR DEBT TO THE SAVAGE
XXIV. THE KILLING OF THE DIVINE KING
§ 1. The Mortality of the Gods
§ 2. Kings killed when their Strength fails
§ 3. Kings killed at the End of a Fixed Term
XXV. TEMPORARY KINGS
XXVI. SACRIFICE OF THE KING'S SON
XXVII. SUCCESSION TO THE SOUL
XXVIII. THE KILLING OF THE TREE-SPIRIT
§ 1. The Whitsuntide Mummers
§ 2. Burying the Carnival
§ 3. Carrying out Death
§ 4. Bringing in Summer
§ 5. Battle of Summer and Winter
§ 6. Death and Resurretion of Kostrubonko
§ 7. Death and Revival of Vegetation
§ 8. Analogous Rites in India
§ 9. The Magic Spring
XXIX. THE MYTH OF ADONIS
XXX. ADONIS IN SYRIA
XXXI. ADONIS IN CYPRUS
XXXII. THE RITUAL OF ADONIS
XXXIII. THE GARDENS OF ADONIS
XXXIV. THE MYTH AND RITUAL OF ATTIS
XXXV. ATTIS AS A GOD OF VEGETATION
XXXVI. HUMAN REPRESENTATIVES OF ATTIS
XXXVII. ORIENTAL RELIGIONS IN THE WEST
XXXVIII. THE MYTH OF OSIRIS
XXXIX. THE RITUAL OF OSIRIS
§ 1. The Popular Rites
§ 2. The Official Rites
XL. THE NATURE OF OSIRIS
§ 1. Osiris a Corn-god
§ 2. Osiris a Tree-spirit
§ 3. Osiris a God of Fertility
§ 4. Osiris a God of the Dead
XLI. ISIS
XLII. OSIRIS AND THE SUN
XLIII. DIONYSUS
XLIV. DEMETER AND PERSEPHONE
XLV. THE CORN-MOTHER AND THE CORN-MAIDEN IN NORTHERN EUROPE
XLVI. THE CORN-MOTHER IN MANY LANDS
§ 1. The Corn-mother in America
§ 2. The Rice-mother in the East Indies
§ 3. The Spirit of the Corn embodied in Human Beings
§ 4. The Double Personification of the Corn as Mother and Daughter
XLVII. LITYERSES
§ 1. Songs of the Corn-reapers
§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit
§ 3. Human Sacrifices for the Crops
§ 4. The Corn-spirit slain in his Human Representatives
XLVIII. THE CORN-SPIRIT AS AN ANIMAL
§ 1. Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit
§ 2. The Corn-spirit as a Wolf or a Dog
§ 3. The Corn-spirit as a Cock
§ 4. The Corn-spirit as a Hare
§ 5. The Corn-spirit as a Cat
§ 6. The Corn-spirit as a Goat
§ 7. "The Corn-spirit as a Bull, Cow, or Ox"
§ 8. The Corn-spirit as a Horse or Mare
§ 9. The Corn-spirit as a Pig (Boar or Sow)
§ 10. On the Animal Embodiments of the Corn-spirit
XLIX. ANCIENT DEITIES OF VEGETATIONAS ANIMALS
§ 1. "Dionysus, the Goat and the Bull"
§ 2. "Demeter, the Pig and the Horse"
§ 3. "Attis, Adonis, and the Pig"
§ 4. "Osiris, the Pig and the Bull"
§ 5. Virbius and the Horse
L. EATING THE GOD
§ 1. The Sacrament of First-fruits
§ 2. Eating the God among the Aztecs
§ 3. Many Manii at Aricia
LI. HOMOEOPATHIC MAGIC OF A FLESH DIET
LII. KILLING THE DIVINE ANIMAL
§ 1. Killing the Sacred Buzzard
§ 2. Killing the Sacred Ram
§ 3. Killing the Sacred Serpent
§ 4. Killing the Sacred Turtles
§ 5. Killing the Sacred Bear
LIII. THE PROPITIATION OF WILD ANIMALS BY HUNTERS
LIV. TYPES OF ANIMAL SACRAMENT
§ 1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament
§ 2. Processions with Sacred Animals
LV. THE TRANSFERENCE OF EVIL
§ 1. The Transference to Inanimate Objects
§ 2. The Transference to Animals
§ 3. The Transference to Men
§ 4. The Transference to Evil in Europe
LVI. THE PUBLIC EXPULSION OF EVILS
§ 1. The Omnipresence of Demons
§ 2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils
§ 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils
LVII. PUBLIC SCAPEGOATS
§ 1. The Expulsion of Embodied Evils
§ 2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils in a Material Vehicle
§ 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils in a Material Vehicle
§ 4. On Scapegoats in General
LVIII. HUMAN SCAPEGOATS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
§ 1. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Rome
§ 2. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Greece
§ 3. The Roman Saturnalia
LIX. KILLING THE GOD IN MEXICO
LX. BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH
§ 1. Not to touch the Earth
§ 2. Not to see the Sun
§ 3. The Seclusion of Girls at Puberty
§ 4. Reasons for the Seclusion of Girls at Puberty
LXI. THE MYTH OF BALDER
LXII. THE FIRE-FESTIVALS OF EUROPE
§ 1. The Fire-festivals in general
§ 2. The Lenten Fires
§ 3. The Easter Fires
§ 4. The Beltane Fires
§ 5. The Midsummer Fires
§ 6. The Hollowe'en Fires
§ 7. The Midwinter Fires
§ 8. The Need-fire
LXIII. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE FIRE-FESTIVALS
§ 1. On the Fire-festivals in general
§ 2. The Solar Theory of the Fire-festivals
§ 3. The Purificatory Theory of the Fire-festivals
LXIV. THE BURNING OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THE FIRES
§ 1. The Burning of Effigies in the Fires
§ 2. The Burning of Men and Animals in the Fires
LXV. BALDER AND THE MISTLETOE
LXVI. THE EXTERNAL SOUL IN FOLK-TALES
LXVII. THE EXTERNAL SOUL IN FOLK-CUSTOM
§ 1. The External Soul in Inanimate Things
§ 2. The External Soul in Plants
§ 3. The External Soul in Animals
§ 4. The Ritual of Death a