Did myths explain rituals, or did rituals make up the myths?
T. S. Eliot thanked Frazer's Golden Bough in a note to The Waste Land, while modern scholars largely reject its theories. Its big question, which came first, the story or the ceremony, is still open.
▶ Start the storyScholars still disagree. The exact relationship between myth and ritual has been a matter of controversy among scholars. There are two natural answers, and each had a famous champion.
The first says myth comes first. For E. B. Tylor, myth explains the world as an end in itself, and ritual applies that explanation to control the world. The second says ritual comes first. William Robertson Smith argued that once worshippers forgot the original, nonmythical reason for mourning in the ritual of Adonis, they created the myth of Adonis as a dying and rising god to account for it. James Frazer wrote that myth changes while custom remains constant, and the history of religion is a long attempt to find a sound theory for an absurd practice.
Myth first (Tylor)
- Myth explains the world
- Ritual applies the explanation to control it
Ritual first (Smith, Frazer)
- Ritual comes first, its reason is forgotten
- Myth is made up to account for it
Frazer's best-known book, The Golden Bough, argued that the most ancient religions were fertility cults revolving around the worship and periodic sacrifice of a sacred king in accordance with the cycle of the seasons. He based this on the priest of Diana at Lake Nemi, who was ritually murdered by his successor. He also proposed that humanity's understanding of nature progresses from magic through religion to science.
Frazer's theories are now largely rejected by modern scholars. Edmund Leach charged that whenever the evidence did not fit, Frazer simply altered it. Frazer himself accepted that his work was speculative and said it would be superseded by better induction based on fuller knowledge. Yet it was influential in literature: T. S. Eliot acknowledged his debt to Frazer in the first note to The Waste Land.
Today, according to the currently dominant scholarly view, myth and ritual share common paradigms, rather than one developing from the other.
Quiz me
0/3
Recap
Tylor said myth first, Smith and Frazer said ritual first, and the dominant view now is that they share common paradigms.
💡 A trick to remember it · Chicken or egg: Tylor says story, Frazer says ceremony, and today's scholars say they hatched together.
Surprising fact · Frazer himself expected his theories to be superseded.
Connects to
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (15 claims) cites at least one of these.