Forgot your password?  
Related Topics

The Golden Bough Study Guide & Notes

This Study Guide consists of approximately 65 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Golden Bough.
This section contains 939 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our The Golden Bough Study Guide

The Golden Bough Summary & Study Guide Description

The Golden Bough Summary & Study Guide includes comprehensive information and analysis to help you understand the book. This study guide contains the following sections:

This detailed literature summary also contains Further Reading on The Golden Bough by James Frazer.

The Golden Bough Plot Summary

Preview of The Golden Bough Summary:

Chapters 1-2

The entire line of inquiry of The Golden Bough is developed from one particular ritualistic practice that Frazer describes in the book's early pages. In Italy, he explains, there is a wooded area on the shore of Lake Nemi, which is dedicated to the memory of the Roman goddess Diana. By tradition, each priest of Diana who guards the forest, known as the King of the Wood, gained his position by murdering the priest who held the position before him. Tradition held that the King of the Wood must be killed by an escaped slave who would beat the king to death with a golden bough taken from a tree that grew in the grove. Frazer was curious about several elements in this tradition. He wondered why the priest is referred to as a king, a practice he learned was fairly common. Next, he wondered about the probability that the...
(read more)

This section contains 939 words
(approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page)
Purchase our The Golden Bough Study Guide
Copyrights
The Golden Bough from BookRags and Gale's For Students Series. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.
Follow Us on Facebook
Homework Help