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)

9781108047418, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2012

410 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.3 cm, 0.52 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. Volumes 10 and 11 (1913) continue to examine taboo behaviour, and consider the role of sunlight and firelight in ritual.

6. Fire-festivals in other lands
7. The burning of human beings in the fires
8. The magic flowers of Midsummer Eve
9. Balder and the mistletoe
10. The external soul in folk-tales
11. The external soul in folk-custom
12. The Golden Bough
13. Farewell to Nemi
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1]