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''The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion'' (retitled ''The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion'' in its second edition) is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by the Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). It was first published in two volumes in 1890; in three volumes in 1900; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve volumes. The work was aimed at a wide literate audience raised on tales as told in such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's ''The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and Heroes'' (1855). The influence of ''The Golden Bough'' on contemporary European literature and thought was substantial.〔Karbiener, K. and Stade, G., ''Encyclopedia of British Writers, 1800 to the Present'', Volume 2, Infobase Publishing, 2009, pp. 188-190. ()〕 ==Subject matter== ''The Golden Bough'' attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific thought, discussing fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god, the scapegoat and many other symbols and practices whose influence has extended into twentieth-century culture.〔Hamel, Frazer, ed. ''The Golden Bough,'' London: Wordsworth, 1993.〕 Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king. Frazer proposed that mankind progresses from magic through religious belief to scientific thought.〔Hamel, Frazer, ed. ''The Golden Bough,'' London: Wordsworth, 1993.〕 This thesis was developed in relation to J. M. W. Turner's painting of ''The Golden Bough'', a sacred grove where a certain tree grew day and night. It was a transfigured landscape in a dream-like vision of the woodland lake of Nemi, "Diana's Mirror", where religious ceremonies and the "fulfillment of vows" of priests and kings were held.〔Frazer, Sir James. ''The Golden Bough,'' London: Wordsworth, 1993.〕 The king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth. He died at the harvest and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that this legend of rebirth is central to almost all of the world's mythologies. Frazer based his thesis on the pre-Roman priest-king at the fane of Nemi, who was ritually murdered by his successor: :"When I first put pen to paper to write ''The Golden Bough'' I had no conception of the magnitude of the voyage on which I was embarking; I thought only to explain a single rule of an ancient Italian priesthood." (''Aftermath,'' p. vi) The book's title was taken from an incident in the ''Aeneid'', illustrated by the British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner: Aeneas and the Sibyl present the golden bough to the gatekeeper of Hades to gain admission. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Golden Bough」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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