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This distinguished and tireless author here offers the first of two volumes that consist of an amplification of the Gifford lectures delivered in 1924 and 1925. The following list of chapter headings will give some idea of the extent of ground covered: The worship of the sky among the Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the sky among non-Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the sky among the Civilized peoples of the Far East: The worship of the sky in Africa: The worship of the earth among the Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the earth among non-Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the earth in China; The worship of the earth in modern India: The worship of the earth in Africa: The worship of the earth in America: The worship of the sun among the Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the sun among the non-Aryan peoples of antiquity: The worship of the sun in modern India: The worship of the sun in Japan: The worship of the sun in Indonesia.
The book is a magnificent collection, written in the author's well-known graceful style, of all the mythical beliefs on these topics. Throughout he refrains from any serious psychological analysis of his material, and nowhere does he refer to the work done by psycho-analysts on some of the most important themes. There is no attempt to trace the beliefs to a personal and human origin. For instance, when describing how Cronus first castrated and then displaced his father Uranus, he terms him 'this unnatural son', and accepts the old view that the story simply relates to an ancient belief that the sky and earth were once united nuptially. There is no hint that this nuptial union, with the corresponding behaviour on the part of the son, had anything to do with earthly situations or why primitive people should have held such a belief.
Nevertheless the volume will in time rank as one of the series of psychoanalytical text-books that Sir James Frazer is unwittingly providing. For psych