The Golden Bough

A Study in Magic and Religion

 

Sir James George Frazer

 

A monumental study in comparative folklore, magic and religion, The Golden Bough shows parallels between the rites and beliefs, superstitions and taboos of early cultures and those of Christianity. It had a great impact on psychology and literature and remains an early classic anthropological resource.

 

CONTENTS

Bibliographic Record  Preface  Subject Index

 

NEW YORK: MACMILLAN, 1922

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.—

Chap. 1, § 3. Recapitulation.

Sir James
George Frazer
Ch. 1. The King of the Wood
     § 1. Diana and Virbius
     § 2. Artemis and Hippolytus
     § 3. Recapitulation

Ch. 2. Priestly Kings

Ch. 3. Sympathetic Magic
     § 1. The Principles of Magic
     § 2. Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic
     § 3. Contagious Magic
     § 4. The Magician’s Progress

Ch. 4. Magic and Religion

Ch. 5. 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

Ch. 6. Magicians as Kings

Ch. 7. Incarnate Human Gods

Ch. 8. Departmental Kings of Nature

Ch. 9. The Worship of Trees
     § 1. Tree-spirits
     § 2. Beneficent Powers of Tree-Spirits

Ch. 10. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe

Ch. 11. The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation

Ch. 12. The Sacred Marriage
     § 1. Diana as a Goddess of Fertility
     § 2. The Marriage of the Gods

Ch. 13. The Kings of Rome and Alba
     § 1. Numa and Egeria
     § 2. The King as Jupiter

Ch. 14. Succession to the Kingdom in Ancient Latium

Ch. 15. The Worship of the Oak

Ch. 16. Dianus and Diana

Ch. 17. The Burden of Royalty
     § 1. Royal and Priestly Taboos
     § 2. Divorce of the Spiritual from the Temporal Power

Ch. 18. 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

Ch. 19. 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

Ch. 20. 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

Ch. 21. 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

Ch. 22. 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

Ch. 23. Our Debt to the Savage

Ch. 24. 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

Ch. 25. Temporary Kings

Ch. 26. Sacrifice of the King’s Son

Ch. 27. Succession to the Soul

Ch. 28. 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 Resurrection of Kostrubonko
     § 7. Death and Revival of Vegetation
     § 8. Analogous Rites in India
     § 9. The Magic Spring

Ch. 29. The Myth of Adonis

Ch. 30. Adonis in Syria

Ch. 31. Adonis in Cyprus

Ch. 32. The Ritual of Adonis

Ch. 33. The Gardens of Adonis

Ch. 34. The Myth and Ritual of Attis

Ch. 35. Attis as a God of Vegetation

Ch. 36. Human Representatives of Attis

Ch. 37. Oriental Religions in the West

Ch. 38. The Myth of Osiris		  
Ch. 39. The Ritual of Osiris
     § 1. The Popular Rites
     § 2. The Official Rites

Ch. 40. 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

Ch. 41. Isis

Ch. 42. Osiris and the Sun

Ch. 43. Dionysus

Ch. 44. Demeter and Persephone

Ch. 45. Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden in N. Europe

Ch. 46. 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

Ch. 47. 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

Ch. 48. 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

Ch. 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as 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

Ch. 50. Eating the God
     § 1. The Sacrament of First-Fruits
     § 2. Eating the God among the Aztecs
     § 3. Many Manii at Aricia

Ch. 51. Homeopathic Magic of a Flesh Diet

Ch. 52. 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

Ch. 53. The Propitiation of Wild Animals By Hunters

Ch. 54. Types of Animal Sacrament
     § 1. The Egyptian and the Aino Types of Sacrament
     § 2. Processions with Sacred Animals

Ch. 55. The Transference of Evil
     § 1. The Transference to Inanimate Objects
     § 2. The Transference to Animals
     § 3. The Transference to Men
     § 4. The Transference of Evil in Europe

Ch. 56. The Public Expulsion of Evils
     § 1. The Omnipresence of Demons
     § 2. The Occasional Expulsion of Evils
     § 3. The Periodic Expulsion of Evils

Ch. 57. 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

Ch. 58. Human Scapegoats in Classical Antiquity
     § 1. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Rome
     § 2. The Human Scapegoat in Ancient Greece
     § 3. The Roman Saturnalia

Ch. 59. Killing the God in Mexico

Ch. 60. 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

Ch. 61. The Myth of Balder

Ch. 62. 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 Hallowe’en Fires
     § 7. The Midwinter Fires
     § 8. The Need-fire

Ch. 63. 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

Ch. 64. 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

Ch. 65. Balder and the Mistletoe

Ch. 66. The External Soul in Folk-Tales

Ch. 67. 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 and Resurrection

Ch. 68. The Golden Bough

Ch. 69. Farewell to Nemi
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