The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion

Description

A wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, first published as two volumes in 1890. It was aimed at a broadly literate audience raised on tales The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes, and offered a modernist approach to religion, treating it as a cultural phenomenon rather than discussing it from a theological perspective. Acknowledgements Introduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography A Chronology of Sir James George Frazer THE GOLDEN BOUGH BOOK I: THE KING OF THE WOOD 1. The King of the Wood 2. Priestly Kings 3. Magic and Religion 4. Human Gods 5. Departmental Kings of Nature 6. The Worship of Trees 7. The Sacred Marriage 8. The Kings of Rome 9. The Succession to the Kingdom 10. The Burden of Royalty 11. The Perils of the Soul 12. Taboos BOOK II: KILLING THE GOD 1. The Mortality of the Gods 2. The Killing of the Divine King 3. Temporary Kings 4. Sacrifice of the King’s Son 5. The Killing of the Tree-Spirit 6. Adonis 7. Sacred Prostitution 8. The Ritual of Adonis 9. Attis 10. The Hanged God 11. Osiris 12. Feasts of All Souls 13. Isis 14. Mother-kin and Mother Goddesses 15. Dionysus 16. Demeter and Persephone 17. Woman’s Part in Primitive Agriculture 18. The Corn-Mother and Corn-Maiden 19. Lityerses 20. The Corn-Spirit as an Animal 21. Eating the God 22. The Flesh Diet 23. Killing the Divine Animal BOOK III: THE SCAPEGOAT 1. The Transference of Evil 2. Ancient Scapegoats 3. Killing the God in Mexico 4. The Saturnalia 5. The Crucifixion of Christ BOOK IV: THE GOLDEN BOUGH 1. Between Heaven and Earth 2. The Seclusion of Girls 3. Balder’s Fires 4. The External Soul 5. Death and Resurrection 6. The Golden Bough Explanatory Notes Index