The Golden Bough (Third Edition, Vol. 7 of 12) - Mirrors

§ 2. Killing the Corn-spirit. 257reported to have slain Lityerses in the same way that Lityersesslew others (as Theseus treated Sinis and Sciron), we may inferthat Lityerses used to throw the bodies of his victims into theriver. According to another version of the story, Lityerses, a sonof Midas, was wont to challenge people to a reaping match withhim, and if he vanquished them he used to thrash them; but oneday he met with a stronger reaper, who slew him. 643There are some grounds for supposing that in these stories of The story ofLityerses seemsLityerses we have the description of a Phrygian harvest customto reflect an oldin accordance with which certain persons, especially strangers Phrygian harvestpassing the harvest field, were regularly regarded as embodiments custom of killingstrangers asof the corn-spirit, and as such were seized by the reapers, wrapt in embodiments ofsheaves, and beheaded, their bodies, bound up in the corn-stalks, the corn-spirit.being afterwards thrown into water as a rain-charm. The groundsfor this supposition are, first, the resemblance of the Lityersesstory to the harvest customs of European peasantry, and, second,the frequency of human sacrifices offered by savage races to [218]promote the fertility of the fields. We will examine these groundssuccessively, beginning with the former.In comparing the story with the harvest customs of Europe, 644three points deserve special attention, namely: I. the reapingmatch and the binding of persons in the sheaves; II. the killing ofthe corn-spirit or his representatives; III. the treatment of visitorsto the harvest field or of strangers passing it.I. In regard to the first head, we have seen that in modern Contests amongEurope the person who cuts or binds or threshes the last sheafis often exposed to rough treatment at the hands of his fellowlabourers.For example, he is bound up in the last sheaf, and,with the sickle that had been given him to reap with. Lityerses is the subjectof a special study by W. Mannhardt (Mythologische Forschungen, pp. 1 sqq.),whom I follow. Compare O. Crusius, s.v. “Lityerses,” in W. H. Roscher'sAusführliches Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, ii. 2065 sqq.643 Julius Pollux, iv. 54.644 In this comparison I closely follow W. Mannhardt, MythologischeForschungen, pp. 18 sqq.reapers, binders,and threshers inorder not to be thelast at their work.