The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough (The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion) is a comparative study of mythology and religion published by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854-1941). The work first appeared in fifteen volumes1 in 1890. The second edition of 1900 included three. The third edition, published from 1911 to 1915, comprised twelve volumes. An abridged edition appeared in 1922 and a thirteenth volume in 1935, entitled Aftermath2. The title is inspired by an episode from canto VI of the Aeneid, where Aeneas and the Sibyl hold out a golden bough to the guardian of the Underworld in order to be admitted into the realm of the dead.