Characters
Adonis
In addition to his story being a fixture of the Greek tradition, the legend of
the Greek god Adonis, also known as Tammuz, has roots stretching back to
Babylonia and Syria. As both Tammuz in Babylonia and Adonis in Greece, he was a
god of vegetation and was seen as the embodiment of masculine beauty. He was
loved by Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, who hid him in a gold chest, which
she gave to Persephone, the queen of the underworld, for safekeeping. When
Persephone peeked in the chest and saw Adonis, she was captivated with his
beauty and refused to give him back to Aphrodite. Zeus settled the dispute by
giving him to each goddess for part of the year. The change of seasons was
explained in connection to the place where Adonis was during each part of the
year, since Aphrodite, lamenting when he was gone, refused to help plants or
animals grow, marking winter in climates where it did not snow.
Aeneas
Aeneas is a central figure of Roman mythology. He is the title character of
Virgil’s masterpiece The Aeneid, which recounts his seven years of
travels after the Greeks’ siege of Troy. His journey ended when he landed in
Italy and founded Rome. According to legend, Aeneas, before going to the
underworld, was told that he must take with him a golden bough from an
evergreen oak tree that grew in the grove of Diana, to give as a gift to the
Queen of the Underworld.
Artemis
See Diana
Attis
Like Adonis, Attis was a god of vegetation, worshipped in Phrygia. He was a
shepherd, famed for his good looks and beloved by Cybele, the goddess of
fertility. His death is explained in different ways in different versions of
his story, and he is said to have been turned into a pine tree, linking him to
the tree mythology that drives the story of The Golden Bough. In a
similar way to the story of Demeter and Persephone, Attis’ death caused Cybele
to grieve so much that the earth was thrown into a famine, and it is for this
reason that annual rituals were performed in the fall to mourn the loss of
Attis and in the spring to celebrate his return from the underworld.
Balder
In Scandinavian mythology, Balder the Beautiful could be harmed by nothing on
heaven or earth except a bough of mistletoe. Frazer supposes that Balder was a
personification of the mistletoe that grows on the oak tree, which was
worshipped as sacred by the Scandinavians. This mistletoe is considered to be a
possible source for the idea of the golden tree bough referred to in the book’s
title, thereby connecting the ancient Roman ritual practiced in Italy with the
religious practices that developed in the countries of northern Europe.
Demeter
Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest. The story of Demeter and her
daughter Persephone, one of the oldest Greek myths, has parallels in many
ancient cultures. According to the myth, when Persephone was carried off by the
lord of the underworld, Demeter refused to help the harvest, causing famine
across the Earth. Zeus, the king of the gods, returned Persephone to her but
ruled that she could only spend two-thirds of the year with Demeter and had to
return to Hades for four months of the year. For the four months annually that
she is gone, Demeter is said to mourn, accounting for the lack of vegetation in
the wintertime. Frazer’s analysis of the story centers on the poem Hymn to
Demeter , by Homer. Elements...
(This entire section contains 1600 words.)
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of her story are found throughout the world, traced through the ‘‘corn-mother’’ goddess worshipped by Cretans during the Stone Age and similar stories about characters identified as corn spirits.
Diana
One of the most important figures in classical mythology, Diana is the Roman
goddess of the hunt and of childbirth, associated with the Greek goddess
Artemis. Her association with childbirth and fertility, as well as with
hunting, led to the belief that she was also the goddess of wood, and in
particular of oak, which is specified in the rituals that Frazer examines in
The Golden Bough. The temple of Diana of the Wood, near the village of
Nemi in Italy, is guarded by a priest who has earned his position by killing
the previous priest, a ritual on which Frazer builds the book.
Dionysus
Dionysus is the god associated with the grape and, by extension, with wine and
drunkenness. A religion was formed around the worship of him, celebrating the
irrational over the rational, countering the focus on reason that characterized
Greek culture. He is related to the book’s focal story about the golden bough
because, in addition to being god of grapes, he is considered god of all trees.
Moreover, the practice of sacrificing goats in ceremonies to honor Dionysus
resembles the ritual sacrifice of the King of the Forest in the golden bough
tradition.
Egeria
Egeria is a water-nymph who is important in the sacred grove at Nemi because,
like Diana, she can give ease to women in childbirth. Sometimes Egeria is
considered to be another form of Diana.
Hippolytus
See Virbius
Isis
Sister and wife of Osiris in Egyptian mythology, Isis was given dozens of
different personalities throughout the years. Frazer speculates that one of her
original functions in mythology was that she was thought to be the goddess of
corn and barley, having discovered them and given them to mankind. Over time,
her image changed from that of the plain corn-mother (a function shared by the
Roman goddess Diana) to a glamorous beauty, and as this transformation occurred
she grew to be the most popular of all Egyptian deities.
King of the Wood
The King of the Wood is the traditional priest of the Arician grove. Frazer
recounts how this position has been handed down, generation after generation,
since antiquity. The book’s title, The Golden Bough, refers to the
tradition that states that the King of the Woods must be killed by an escaped
slave, hit with a golden bough from a tree that grows there. The person who
kills him then becomes the new King of the Wood. He is thought to represent a
worldly husband to the goddess Diana. Throughout the course of the book, Frazer
speculates about various theories explaining how the king’s ritual murder came
to be custom. The history of the position, as well as similar rituals in other
cultures, is explored. Using this particularly significant ritual, Frazer
examines the implications of hundreds of beliefs and their evolution over the
centuries.
Numa
Numa was a wise king who was a husband or lover of Egeria. Since the legend of
Egeria is closely associated with that of Diana, Frazer speculates that Numa
has a place in the cult at Nemi that serves as a basis of the book. Numa is
often thought to be another form of the King of the Wood.
Osiris
Osiris is an ancient Egyptian god whose death and resurrection were celebrated
each year. Osiris was the most popular of Egyptian deities, and he was
worshipped for centuries. As an Egyptian king, he is credited with having
taught the Egyptians how to cultivate fruit from trees, while Isis, who was
both his sister and his wife, taught the people how to plant and harvest
grains. Osiris traveled the world, teaching people of foreign lands how to grow
crops. When he returned to Egypt, though, he was ambushed by a cadre of
forty-seven conspirators, led by one of his own brothers; they tricked him into
a box and, sealing the lid, sent it floating off down the Nile. Isis found his
body downstream and buried it, but Osiris lived on as the lord of the
underworld.
Orestes
A very famous figure in Greek mythology, Orestes is thought, according to one
legend, to have started the cult of Diana of the Woods. After killing the King
of the Tauric Chersonese, Orestes is said to have fled to Nemi, the place where
the golden bough ritual is followed, thereby introducing Diana to that part of
Italy.
Persephone
Greek myth explains how Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, was playing in a
field one day and was carried off by the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto. When
Demeter’s grief threatened to destroy the world with famine, Zeus arranged for
Persephone to return to the surface world for two-thirds of the year, but for
the last third she always had to be Pluto’s bride again in Hades. She also
figures into the story of Adonis, with whom she fell in love and whom she tried
to keep in the underworld with her, although Zeus allowed him to return to the
earth’s surface for several months each year to be with Aphrodite, who loved
him first.
Tammuz
See Adonis
Virbius
Bearing the Roman name for the Greek hero Hippolytus, Virbius was Diana’s lover
and showed no interest in other women. When the goddess Aphrodite tried to take
Virbius for herself he spurned her advances, and in her humiliation she
persuaded his father to kill him, but Diana brought him back to life and hid
him at Nemi. Among the rituals that make up the focus of The Golden
Bough, Frazer includes the ban on horses at Nemi, which is thought to have
started in recognition of the fact that Virbius was said to have been killed by
being dragged behind horses. He is considered to be the founder of the sacred
grove and the first king of Nemi.