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.
Author(s): James George Frazer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1998
Language: English
Commentary: oxford world's classics, abridged
Tags: magic;religion;anthropology;psychology;sociology;comparative religion
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
