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
(M79) We are now able to suggest an explanation of the proverb “There are
many Manii at Aricia.”(254) Certain loaves made in the shape of men were
called by the Romans _maniae_, and it appears that this kind of loaf was
especially made at Aricia.(255) Now, Mania, the name of one of these
loaves, was also the name of the Mother or Grandmother of Ghosts,(256) to
whom woollen effigies of men and women were dedicated at the festival of
the Compitalia. These effigies were hung at the doors of all the houses in
Rome; one effigy was hung up for every free person in the house, and one
effigy, of a different kind, for every slave. The reason was that on this
day the ghosts of the dead were believed to be going about, and it was
hoped that, either out of good nature or through simple inadvertence, they
would carry off the effigies at the door instead of the living people in
the house. According to tradition, these woollen figures were substitutes
for a former custom of sacrificing human beings.(257) Upon data so
fragmentary and uncertain, it is impossible to build with confidence; but
it seems worth suggesting that the loaves in human form, which appear to
have been baked at Aricia, were sacramental bread, and that in the old
days, when the divine King of the Wood was annually slain, loaves were
made in his image, like the paste figures of the gods in Mexico, India,
and Europe, and were eaten sacramentally by his worshippers.(258) The
Mexican sacraments in honour of Huitzilopochtli were also accompanied by
the sacrifice of human victims. The tradition that the founder of the
sacred grove at Aricia was a man named Manius, from whom many Manii were
descended, would thus be an etymological myth invented to explain the name
_maniae_ as applied to these sacramental loaves. A dim recollection of the
original connexion of the loaves with human sacrifices may perhaps be
traced in the story that the effigies dedicated to Mania at the Compitalia
were substitutes for human victims. The story itself, however, is probably
devoid of foundation, since the practice of putting up dummies to divert
the attention of ghosts or demons from living people is not uncommon. As
the practice is both widely spread and very characteristic of the manner
of thought of primitive man, who tries in a thousand ways to outwit the
malice of spiritual beings, I may be pardoned for devoting a few pages to
its illustration, even though in doing so I diverge somewhat from the
strict line of argument. I would ask the reader to observe that the
vicarious use of images, with which we are here concerned, differs wholly
in principle from the sympathetic use of them which we examined
before;(259) and that while the sympathetic use belongs purely to magic,
the vicarious use falls within the domain of religion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account