The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion

Frazer opens this two-part chapter by concluding that the traditional spring festivities were not allegorical performances but rites of homeopathic or imitative magic. These rites were often accompanied by an excess of sexual activity, suggesting that the union of the human sexes was connected to the fertility of the earth.

In other cultures, a similar association of human sexuality with natural fertility led people to live chastely and fast in the springtime. Adulterers might be forced to perform ritual acts of penitence, and infertile women might be banished in the hope of avoiding a blighted crop. Frazer explores instances of ruined harvests being attributed to pedophilia and incest. While he is dismissive of the assumptions underlying these restraints, Frazer nonetheless suggests that they represent the bases of an invaluable form of self-preservation: the sacrifice of temporary gratification for long-term gain.

In the second section, Frazer asks whether popular associations between human and natural fertility can be traced back to classical antiquity. He suggests that the wedding enacted between Diana and Virbius / Hippolytus (the King of the Woods) is an early counterpart of the wedding of the May King and Queen.