The Golden Bough

The greatly revised and enlarged twelve-volume third edition (1911–15) of Sir James Frazer's controversial work on classical religion.

James George Frazer (Author)

9781108047302, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2012

468 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 2.6 cm, 0.59 kg

This work by Sir James Frazer (1854–1941) is widely considered to be one of the most important early texts in the fields of psychology and anthropology. At the same time, by applying modern methods of comparative ethnography to the classical world, and revealing the superstition and irrationality beneath the surface of the classical culture which had for so long been a model for Western civilisation, it was extremely controversial. Frazer was greatly influenced by E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture (also reissued in this series), and by the work of the biblical scholar William Robertson Smith, to whom the first edition is dedicated. The twelve-volume third edition, reissued here, was greatly revised and enlarged, and published between 1911 and 1915; the two-volume first edition (1890) is also available in this series. Volume 1 (1911) explores the belief that kings could harness Nature.

Preface
Preface to the first edition
Preface to the second edition
1. The king of the wood
2. Priestly kings
3. Sympathetic magic
4. Magic and religion
5. The magical control of the weather
6. Magicians as kings
7. Incarnate human gods
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]