The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion, Volume 1 |
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Page 287
... reaper who cut the last corn also wears the wreath ) is drenched with water to the skin ; for the wetter he is the better will be next year's harvest , and the more grain there will be threshed out . At the spring ploughing in Prussia ...
... reaper who cut the last corn also wears the wreath ) is drenched with water to the skin ; for the wetter he is the better will be next year's harvest , and the more grain there will be threshed out . At the spring ploughing in Prussia ...
Page 311
... reapers had cut the first stalks , they laid them down and beat their breasts , lamenting and calling upon Isis . Amongst the epithets by which she is designated on the inscriptions are " creatress of the green crop , " " the green one ...
... reapers had cut the first stalks , they laid them down and beat their breasts , lamenting and calling upon Isis . Amongst the epithets by which she is designated on the inscriptions are " creatress of the green crop , " " the green one ...
Page 333
... reapers stand round the last sheaf and beat it with sticks in order to drive the Corn - mother out of it . They call to each other , " There she is ! hit her ! Take care she doesn't catch you ! " The beating goes on till the grain is ...
... reapers stand round the last sheaf and beat it with sticks in order to drive the Corn - mother out of it . They call to each other , " There she is ! hit her ! Take care she doesn't catch you ! " The beating goes on till the grain is ...
Page 335
... reaper who reaped fastest dances round it with the prettiest girl for his partner . After the dance a pyre is made . All the girls , each wearing a wreath , strip the puppet , pull it to pieces , and place it on the pyre , along with ...
... reaper who reaped fastest dances round it with the prettiest girl for his partner . After the dance a pyre is made . All the girls , each wearing a wreath , strip the puppet , pull it to pieces , and place it on the pyre , along with ...
Page 337
... reapers dance about with it . In some parts of Westphalia the last sheaf at the rye harvest is made especially heavy by fastening stones in it . It is brought home on the last waggon and is called the Great Mother , though no special ...
... reapers dance about with it . In some parts of Westphalia the last sheaf at the rye harvest is made especially heavy by fastening stones in it . It is brought home on the last waggon and is called the Great Mother , though no special ...
Common terms and phrases
Adonis Africa Amongst ancient animal annually Athenaeus Attis Bastian Baumkultus believed blood body bough buried burned called carried celebrated ceremony clothes Corn-mother corn-spirit crops dance dead death deity Demeter Deutsche Diodorus Dionysus divine dressed effigy Egyptian European festival field fire Flamen Dialis flowers Gebräuche girl gods Greek Grimm ground grove hair hand harvest customs head human Indians Isis Isis et Osiris Khond killed Kostrubonko last corn last sheaf Lityerses maize Mannhardt May-tree midsummer myth Mythologie nature observed offered Old Woman Osiris Pausanias person Phrygia plants Plutarch priest Proserpine rain reapers religion represented resurrection rice rites sacred sacrifice sacrificed Sagen savage Shrove Tuesday slain sometimes song soul spirit of vegetation spring stone stranger straw supposed taboos temporary king Thammuz threshing throw Thüringen Tiele tree tree-spirit tribe U.S. Exploring Expedition victim village Virbius Whitsuntide women wood worship young Zeus
Popular passages
Page 217 - The danger is a formidable one; for if the course of nature is dependent on the man-god's life, what catastrophes may not be expected from the gradual enfeeblement of his powers and their final extinction in death. There is only one way of averting these dangers. The man-god must be killed as soon as he shows symptoms that his powers are beginning to fail, and his soul must be transferred to a vigorous successor before it has been seriously impaired by the threatened decay.
Page 215 - ... predecessors we are indebted for much of what we thought most our own, and that their errors were not wilful extravagances or the ravings of insanity, but simply hypotheses, justifiable as such at the time when they were propounded, but which a fuller experience has proved to be inadequate. It is only by the successive testing of hypotheses and rejection of the false that truth is at last elicited. After all, what we call truth is only the hypothesis which is found to work best.
Page 5 - 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...
Page 221 - Chitome were to die a natural death, the world would perish, and the earth, which he alone sustained by his power and merit, would immediately be annihilated. Accordingly when he fell ill and seemed likely to die, the man who was destined to be his successor entered the pontiff's house with a rope or a club and strangled or clubbed him to death.
Page 35 - ... prayer are the resource of the pious and enlightened portion of the community, while magic is the refuge of the superstitious and ignorant. But when, still later, the conception of the elemental forces as personal agents is giving way to the recognition of natural law ; then magic, based as it implicitly is on the idea of a necessary and invariable sequence of cause and effect, independent of personal will, reappears from the obscurity and discredit into which it had fallen, and by investigating...
Page 307 - In one of the chambers dedicated to Osiris in the great temple of Isis at Philae the dead body of Osiris is represented with stalks of corn springing from it, and a priest is depicted watering the stalks from a pitcher which he holds in his hand.
Page 113 - There is such a holiness ascribed to all the parts of his body that he dares to cut off neither his hair, nor his beard, nor his nails. However, lest he should grow too dirty, they may clean him in the night when he is asleep; because they say that what is taken from his body at that time, hath been stolen from him, and that such a theft does not prejudice his holiness or dignity.
Page 343 - ... and much clamour of the reapers, into the field, where it stands fixed on a pole all day, and when the reaping is done, is brought home in like manner. This they call the Harvest Queen, and it represents the Roman Ceres.
Page 43 - Even an infant king must not be despised, (from an idea) that he is a (mere) mortal; for he is a great deity in human form.
Page 99 - The mistress and servants of each family take a sheaf of oats and dress it up in women's apparel, put it in a large basket, and lay a wooden club by it, and this they call Briid's Bed : and then the mistress and servants cry three times, Briid is come, Briid is welcome.