Abstract
THE object of this book is to offer a probable explanation of the priesthood of Nemi. The method adopted is to show that such barbarous customs as those associated with that priesthood were also carried on elsewhere; and “if we can detect the motives which led to its institution; if we can prove that these motives have operated widely, perhaps universally, in human society, producing in varied circumstances a variety of institutions specifically different but generically alike; if we can show, lastly, that these very motives, with some of their derivative institutions, were actually at work in classical antiquity; then we may fairly infer that at a remoter age the same motives gave birth to the priesthood of Nemi.”
The Golden Bough: a Study in Comparative Religion.
By J. G. Frazer In Two Volumes. (London: Macmillan and Co., 1890.)
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W. The Golden Bough. Nature 42, 513–516 (1890). https://doi.org/10.1038/042513a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/042513a0
