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

Preface.[vi]In the last part of this work we examined the figure of theDying and Reviving God as it appears in the Oriental religionsof classical antiquity. With the present instalment of The GoldenBough we pursue the same theme in other religions and amongother races. Passing from the East to Europe we begin withthe religion of ancient Greece, which embodies the now familiarconception in two typical examples, the vine-god Dionysus andthe corn-goddess Persephone, with her mother and duplicateDemeter. Both of these Greek divinities are personifications ofcultivated plants, and a consideration of them naturally leads uson to investigate similar personifications elsewhere. Now of allthe plants which men have artificially reared for the sake of foodthe cereals are on the whole the most important; therefore it isnatural that the religion of primitive agricultural communitiesshould be deeply coloured by the principal occupation of theirlives, the care of the corn. Hence the frequency with which thefigures of the Corn-mother and Corn-maiden, answering to theDemeter and Persephone of ancient Greece, meet us in otherparts of the world, and not least of all on the harvest-fields ofmodern Europe. But edible roots as well as cereals have beencultivated by many races, especially in the tropical regions, asa subsidiary or even as a principal means of subsistence; andaccordingly they too enter largely into the religious ideas of thepeoples who live by them. Yet in the case of the roots, suchas yams, taro, and potatoes, the conception of the Dying andReviving God appears to figure less prominently than in the caseof the cereals, perhaps for the simple reason that while the growthand decay of the one sort of fruit go on above ground for all to