The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 06 of 12)

(M171) We have now concluded our inquiry into the nature and worship of the three Oriental deities Adonis, Attis, and Osiris. The substantial similarity of their mythical charac...

292 Herodotus, ii. 59, 156; Diodorus Siculus, i. 13, 25, 95; Apollodorus, _Bibliotheca_, ii. 1. 3; J. Tzetzes, _Schol. on Lycophron_, 212. See further W. Drexler, _s.v._ “Isis,”...

(M130) Thus far we have discussed the character of Osiris as he is presented to us in the art and literature of Egypt and in the testimonies of Greek writers; and we have found...

(M41) Such, then, were the principal events of the farmer’s calendar in ancient Egypt, and such the simple religious rites by which he celebrated them. But we have still to cons...

and plates lx. lxi.; G. Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d’Archéologie Égyptiennes_ (Paris, 1893-1912), vi. 167-173; J. H. Breasted, _History of the Ancient Egyptians_ (London,...

(M1) In ancient Egypt the god whose death and resurrection were annually celebrated with alternate sorrow and joy was Osiris, the most popular of all Egyptian deities; and there...

(M81) The foregoing survey of the myth and ritual of Osiris may suffice to prove that in one of his aspects the god was a personification of the corn, which may be said to die a...

(M25) If the Egyptian farmer of the olden time could thus get no help, except at the rarest intervals, from the official or sacerdotal calendar, he must have been compelled to o...

—— of dead chiefs worshipped by the whole tribe, ii. 175, 176, 177, 179, 181 _sq._, 187; thought to control the rain, 188; prophesy through living men and women, 192 _sq._; rein...

Pessinus, image of Cybele at, i. 35 _n._ 3; priests called Attis at, 140; local legend of Attis at, 264; image of the Mother of the Gods at, 265; people of, abstain from swine,...

Ancestral spirits on shoulders of medicine-men, i. 74 _n._ 4; incarnate in serpents, 82 _sqq._; in the form of animals, 83; worshipped by the Bantu tribes of Africa, ii. 174 _sq...

(M114) In the preceding chapter some evidence was adduced of the sympathetic influence which the waxing or waning moon is popularly supposed to exert on growth, especially on th...

Women pass through holed stones as cure for barrenness, i. 36, with _n._ 4; impregnated by dead saints, 78 _sq._; impregnated by serpents, 80 _sqq._; fear to be impregnated by g...

(M107) Before we conclude this study of Osiris it will be worth while to consider an ancient view of his nature, which deserves more attention than it has received in modern tim...

Hair, sacrifice of women’s, i. 38; offered to goddess of volcano, 218; of head shaved in mourning for dead gods, 225; to be cut when the moon is waxing, ii. 133 _sq._

Brugsch, H., on Egyptian names for a year, ii. 26 _n._ 1; on the Sothic period, 37 _n._; on the grave of Osiris at Philae, 111; on Isis as a personified corn-field, 117

Isis, sister and wife of Osiris, ii. 6 _sq._; date of the festival of, 26 _n._ 2, 33; as a cow or a woman with the head of a cow, i. 50, ii. 50, 85, 88 _n._ 1, 91; invoked by Eg...

(M101) Osiris has been sometimes interpreted as the sun-god; and in modern times this view has been held by so many distinguished writers that it deserves a brief examination. I...

Dance of eunuchs in Corea, i. 270 _n._ 2; on the Congo, 271 _n._; of hermaphrodites in Pegu, 271 _n._; sacred, at the Sed festival, ii. 154; of king before the ghosts of his anc...

Lion, deity standing on a, i. 123 _n._ 2, 127; the emblem of the Mother Goddess, 164; as emblem of Hercules and the Heraclids, 182, 184; carried round acropolis of Sardes, 184,...

Nandi, the, of British East Africa, their belief in serpents as reincarnations of the dead, i. 82, 85; their ceremony at the ripening of the eleusine grain, ii. 47; boys dressed...

(M123) In the foregoing discussion we found reason to believe that the Semitic Adonis and the Phrygian Attis were at one time personated in the flesh by kings, princes, or pries...

Farnell, Dr. L. R., on Greek religious music, i. 55 _n._ 1 and 3; on religious prostitution in Western Asia, 57 _n._ 1, 58 _n._ 2; on the position of women in ancient religion,...

(M20) A useful clue to the original nature of a god or goddess is often furnished by the season at which his or her festival is celebrated. Thus, if the festival falls at the ne...

(M98) The original meaning of the goddess Isis is still more difficult to determine than that of her brother and husband Osiris. Her attributes and epithets were so numerous tha...

Sed festival in Egypt, ii. 151 _sqq._; its date perhaps connected with the heliacal rising of Sirius, 152 _sq._; apparently intended to renew the king’s life by identifying him...

Cook, A. B., i. 49 _n._ 6; on name of priest of Corycian Zeus, 155 _n._ 1; on the death of Romulus, ii. 98 _n._ 2; on the festival of Laurel-bearing at Thebes, 241 _n._ 3; on tr...

Germany, harvest custom in, i. 237; leaping over Midsummer fires in, 251; feast of All Souls in, ii. 70 _sqq._; popular superstition as to the influence of the moon in, 133, 140...

Moon, human victims sacrificed to the, i. 73; albinoes thought to be the offspring of the, 91; popularly regarded as the cause of growth and decay, ii. 132, 138; practical rules...

Smith, W. Robertson, on the date of the month Tammuz, i. 10 _n._ 1; on anointing as consecration, 21 _n._ 3; on Baal as god of fertility, 26 _sq._; on caves in Semitic religion,...

§ 1. Dying Gods and Mourning Goddesses. § 2. Influence of Mother-Kin on Religion. § 3. Mother-Kin and Mother Goddesses in the Ancient East. Notes. I. Moloch The King. II. The Wi...

§ 1. The Festival at Sais. § 2. Feasts of All Souls. § 3. The Festival in the Month of Athyr. § 4. The Festival in the Month of Khoiak. § 5. The Resurrection of Osiris. § 6. Rea...