The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)Frazer, James George
Religion
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (Third Edition, Vol. 08 of 12)
Frazer, James George
Magic; Mythology; Religion; Superstition
(M28) Again, the theory that the pig, originally Osiris himself,
afterwards came to be regarded as an embodiment of his enemy Typhon, is
supported by the similar relation of red-haired men and red oxen to
Typhon. For in regard to the red-haired men who were burned and whose
ashes were scattered with winnowing-fans, we have seen fair grounds for
believing that originally, like the red-haired puppies killed at Rome in
spring, they were representatives of the corn-spirit himself, that is, of
Osiris, and were slain for the express purpose of making the corn turn red
or golden.(131) Yet at a later time these men were explained to be
representatives, not of Osiris, but of his enemy Typhon,(132) and the
killing of them was regarded as an act of vengeance inflicted on the enemy
of the god. Similarly, the red oxen sacrificed by the Egyptians were said
to be offered on the ground of their resemblance to Typhon;(133) though it
is more likely that originally they were slain on the ground of their
resemblance to the corn-spirit Osiris. We have seen that the ox is a
common representative of the corn-spirit and is slain as such on the
harvest-field.
(M29) Osiris was regularly identified with the bull Apis of Memphis and
the bull Mnevis of Heliopolis.(134) But it is hard to say whether these
bulls were embodiments of him as the corn-spirit, as the red oxen appear
to have been, or whether they were not in origin entirely distinct deities
who came to be fused with Osiris at a later time. The universality of the
worship of these two bulls(135) seems to put them on a different footing
from the ordinary sacred animals whose worships were purely local. Hence
if the latter were evolved from totems, as they may have been, some other
origin would have to be found for the worship of Apis and Mnevis. If these
bulls were not originally embodiments of the corn-god Osiris, they may
possibly be descendants of the sacred cattle worshipped by a pastoral
people.(136) If this were so, ancient Egypt would exhibit a stratification
of three great types of religion or superstition corresponding to three
great stages of society. Totemism, which may be roughly described as a
species of superstitious respect paid to wild animals and plants by many
tribes in the hunting stage of society, would be represented by the
worship of the local sacred animals; the worship of cattle, which belongs
to society in the pastoral stage, would be represented by the cults of
Apis and Mnevis; and the worship of cultivated plants, which is peculiar
to society in the agricultural stage, would be represented by the religion
of Osiris and Isis. The Egyptian reverence for cows, which were never
killed,(137) might belong either to the second or the third of these
stages. The consecration of cows to Isis, who was portrayed with cow’s
horns(138) and may have been supposed to be incarnate in the animals,
would indicate that they, like the red oxen, were embodiments of the
corn-spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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