batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l7981-l8057
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l7981-l8057
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: MACAULAY. / CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL. / HEINE. / CHAPTER III. KILLING
THE GOD.; lines 7981-8057
start: '7981'
end: '8057'
translation: 'The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion (Vol. 1 of 2)'
notes: Generated from OpenAI Batch run motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority;
human review required.
canonical_text:
quote: mââ-ne-hra, “come thou back”; ai lanu, “woe to us”
summary: Frazer discusses harvest and vintage laments in Egypt, Phoenicia, Bithynia,
and Phrygia, interpreting several named songs or youths as connected with mourning
for a corn-spirit or vegetation figure. He summarizes customs involving first
sheaves, reaping songs, missing or slain youths, and the Phrygian story of Lityerses,
who kills strangers in a harvest-field before being slain by Hercules. Frazer
then proposes that the Lityerses story may reflect a harvest custom involving
strangers treated as embodiments of the corn-spirit, bound in sheaves, beheaded,
and thrown into water as a rain-charm, and he introduces a comparison with European
harvest customs.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: Egyptian reapers are reported to have lamented over the first sheaf cut and
invoked Isis as the goddess associated with the discovery of corn.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The Greeks called the Egyptian reapers’ cry Maneros and explained it through
a story about Maneros, the only son of the first Egyptian king, who invented agriculture
and died an untimely death.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: Frazer states that the name Maneros may derive from the Egyptian formula translated
as “come thou back,” found in Egyptian writings including a dirge of Isis in the
Book of the Dead.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: Frazer supposes that the reapers’ cry over cut corn functioned as a dirge
for the death of the corn-spirit, identified parenthetically as Isis or Osiris,
and as a prayer for its return.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The first ears reaped are described as the place where the corn-spirit was
believed to be present and to die under the sickle.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:6
text: In Java, the first ears of rice are said to represent the Corn-bride and Corn-bridegroom.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:7
text: In parts of Russia, the first sheaf is reaped by the mistress, placed near
holy pictures, threshed separately, and mixed into the next year’s seed-corn.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:8
text: A Phoenician or Western Asian plaintive song sung at the vintage, and probably
also at harvest, was called Linus or Ailinus by the Greeks and explained as a
lament for a youth named Linus.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:9
text: One story says Linus was brought up by a shepherd and torn to pieces by his
dogs.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
- id: obs:10
text: Frazer states that Linus or Ailinus may derive from the Phoenician cry translated
as “woe to us,” uttered in mourning for Adonis, and notes that Sappho seems to
have treated Adonis and Linus as equivalent.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: obs:11
text: In Bithynia, Mariandynian reapers chanted a mournful song called Bormus or
Borimus.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:12
text: Bormus is described as a handsome youth who went to fetch water for reapers
and was never heard of again; reapers sought him by calling him in plaintive strains
used afterward.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: obs:13
text: In Phrygia, a harvesters’ song sung at reaping and threshing was called Lityerses.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- id: obs:14
text: One story describes Lityerses as a son of Midas who fed and gave drink to
strangers, forced them to reap, wrapped them in a sheaf, cut off their heads with
a sickle, and carried away their bodies wrapped in corn stalks.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: obs:15
text: Hercules is said to have slain Lityerses and thrown his body into the river.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: obs:16
text: Another version says Lityerses challenged people to reaping matches, thrashed
those he defeated, and was eventually slain by a stronger reaper.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- id: obs:17
text: Frazer proposes that the Lityerses stories may describe a Phrygian harvest
custom in which strangers were regarded as embodiments of the corn-spirit, seized,
wrapped in sheaves, beheaded, and thrown into water as a rain-charm.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- id: obs:18
text: 'Frazer identifies three comparison points for European harvest customs: reaping
matches and binding persons in sheaves; killing the corn-spirit or its representatives;
and treatment of visitors or strangers to the harvest-field.'
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:16
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Egyptian reapers
description: Reapers who lament over the first sheaf and invoke Isis.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Isis
description: Named as the goddess to whom Egyptians owed the discovery of corn and,
in Frazer’s interpretation, as one possible identity of the corn-spirit lamented
in harvest dirges.
role_refs:
- role:2
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: Maneros
description: Explained by Greek story as the only son of the first Egyptian king,
inventor of agriculture, and youth who died untimely and was lamented.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: Osiris
description: Named parenthetically by Frazer as one possible identity of the corn-spirit
whose death and return are invoked in the harvest cry.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: Corn-bride and Corn-bridegroom
description: Javanese representations associated with the first ears of rice.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: Russian mistress reaping first sheaf
description: The woman who reaps the first sheaf, takes it home, places it by holy
pictures, and later threshes it separately.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: fig:7
name_or_label: Linus or Ailinus
description: A youth for whom the Phoenician song is explained as a lament; one
story says he was raised by a shepherd and torn apart by dogs.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: fig:8
name_or_label: Adonis
description: Named as the figure mourned by the Phoenician cry that Frazer associates
with Linus or Ailinus; Sappho is reported to have regarded Adonis and Linus as
equivalent.
role_refs:
- role:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: fig:9
name_or_label: Mariandynian reapers
description: Bithynian reapers who chanted the mournful song Bormus or Borimus and
called for the missing youth.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:10
name_or_label: Bormus or Borimus
description: A handsome youth, son of King Upias or of a wealthy distinguished man,
who disappeared after going to fetch water for reapers.
role_refs:
- role:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: fig:11
name_or_label: Lityerses
description: A Phrygian harvest figure, described as a son of Midas, who compelled
strangers to reap, killed them with a sickle while wrapped in sheaves, and was
later slain.
role_refs:
- role:9
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:11
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- id: fig:12
name_or_label: Strangers or passers-by in the harvest-field
description: Persons entering or passing the corn-field whom Lityerses feeds, compels
to reap, wraps in sheaves, and kills; in Frazer’s interpretation, possible embodiments
of the corn-spirit.
role_refs:
- role:11
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:15
- ev:16
- id: fig:13
name_or_label: Hercules
description: The figure who slays Lityerses and throws his body into the river.
role_refs:
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- id: fig:14
name_or_label: Stronger reaper
description: In another version, the stronger reaper who slays Lityerses after a
reaping match.
role_refs:
- role:10
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
roles:
- id: role:1
label: harvest lamenters
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:9
basis: These reapers perform plaintive songs or cries in connection with first sheaves
or a missing harvest youth.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:10
- id: role:2
label: discoverer or patron of corn
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The passage says Egyptians invoked Isis as the goddess to whom they owed
the discovery of corn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: corn-spirit or vegetation embodiment
assigned_to:
- fig:2
- fig:4
- fig:12
basis: Frazer identifies Isis or Osiris as the corn-spirit mourned in the reaping
cry and interprets strangers as possible embodiments of the corn-spirit in a Phrygian
harvest custom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:15
- id: role:4
label: lamented dead youth
assigned_to:
- fig:3
- fig:7
basis: Maneros and Linus are each explained by Greek stories as youths whose deaths
were lamented in song.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:8
- id: role:5
label: paired grain representatives
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The first ears of rice are said to represent the Corn-bride and Corn-bridegroom.
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: role:6
label: first-sheaf ritual handler
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The mistress reaps, places, threshes, and preserves grain from the first
sheaf for seed-corn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: role:7
label: mourned vegetation-related figure
assigned_to:
- fig:8
basis: Frazer connects the Phoenician cry with mourning for Adonis and notes an
equivalence with Linus in Sappho.
evidence_refs:
- ev:9
- id: role:8
label: vanished water-fetching youth
assigned_to:
- fig:10
basis: Bormus disappears after going to fetch water for reapers, who thereafter
call for him in plaintive strains.
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: role:9
label: harvest-field killer
assigned_to:
- fig:11
basis: Lityerses compels strangers to reap, wraps them in sheaves, and beheads them
with a sickle.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: role:10
label: slayer of the slayer
assigned_to:
- fig:11
- fig:13
- fig:14
basis: Hercules or a stronger reaper slays Lityerses; Lityerses himself slays strangers
in the field.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
- id: role:11
label: harvest victim or captive reaper
assigned_to:
- fig:12
basis: Strangers are fed, compelled to reap, wrapped in sheaves, and killed in the
Lityerses story.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: first sheaf or first ears
literal_form: first sheaf cut; first ears reaped; first ears of rice
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:4
- fig:5
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: sym:2
label: harvest lament or cry
literal_form: plaintive song or cry; Maneros; Linus or Ailinus; Bormus or Borimus;
Lityerses
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:3
- fig:7
- fig:9
- fig:10
- fig:11
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:10
- ev:11
- id: sym:3
label: return formula
literal_form: mââ-ne-hra, translated as “come thou back”
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:4
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: sym:4
label: sickle
literal_form: sickle used to cut corn and to behead Lityerses’ victims
associated_figures:
- fig:11
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:12
- id: sym:5
label: sheaf wrapping
literal_form: stranger wrapped in a sheaf or body wrapped in corn stalks
associated_figures:
- fig:11
- fig:12
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:15
- id: sym:6
label: water or river
literal_form: drink of water; river; water used in Frazer’s proposed rain-charm
interpretation
associated_figures:
- fig:10
- fig:11
- fig:12
- fig:13
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- ev:13
- ev:15
- id: sym:7
label: seed-corn continuity
literal_form: grain from first sheaf mixed with next year’s seed-corn
associated_figures:
- fig:6
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: sym:8
label: reaping match
literal_form: challenge to a reaping match; stronger reaper
associated_figures:
- fig:11
- fig:14
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:14
- ev:16
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Egyptian first-sheaf lament
summary: Egyptian reapers lament over the first sheaf, invoke Isis, and the cry
is interpreted by Frazer as a dirge for the corn-spirit and a prayer for return.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
- fig:4
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
- sym:3
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
- id: scene:2
label: First ears and first sheaf treated as grain representatives
summary: The passage compares first ears of rice in Java, represented as a Corn-bride
and Corn-bridegroom, with a Russian practice in which the first sheaf is honored,
separately threshed, and mixed into seed-corn.
figure_refs:
- fig:5
- fig:6
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:7
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- ev:6
- id: scene:3
label: Phoenician Linus lament
summary: A Phoenician plaintive song at vintage and probably harvest is called Linus
or Ailinus by Greeks, explained as mourning for Linus, and linked by Frazer to
a cry of mourning for Adonis.
figure_refs:
- fig:7
- fig:8
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:9
- id: scene:4
label: Bormus disappearance and search
summary: Bormus goes to fetch water for reapers, disappears, and is thereafter called
for by reapers in a mournful song.
figure_refs:
- fig:9
- fig:10
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:10
- id: scene:5
label: Lityerses compels and kills strangers
summary: Lityerses feeds strangers, compels them to reap, wraps them in sheaves,
beheads them with a sickle, and carries away their bodies wrapped in corn stalks.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:5
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- id: scene:6
label: Lityerses slain
summary: Lityerses is slain either by Hercules, who throws his body into the river,
or by a stronger reaper after reaping contests.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:13
- fig:14
symbol_refs:
- sym:6
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- ev:14
- id: scene:7
label: Frazer’s proposed harvest-custom interpretation
summary: Frazer proposes that the Lityerses stories may preserve a harvest custom
in which strangers were treated as embodiments of the corn-spirit, bound in sheaves,
killed, and cast into water as a rain-charm, and he frames comparison with European
harvest customs.
figure_refs:
- fig:11
- fig:12
symbol_refs:
- sym:5
- sym:6
- sym:8
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- ev:16
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: harvest lament for dying and returning corn-spirit
taxonomy_refs:
- dying_and_returning
- seasonal_cycle
basis: Frazer interprets the first-sheaf cry as a dirge for the death of the corn-spirit
and a prayer for its return.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: This is Frazer’s scholarly interpretation of the evidence, not a directly
quoted ancient ritual text in the passage.
- id: motif:2
label: first sheaf as embodied grain power preserved for future sowing
taxonomy_refs:
- seasonal_cycle
basis: The passage associates the first sheaf or first ears with the presence of
the corn-spirit, grain-representatives, and seed saved for the following year.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage juxtaposes examples from Egypt, Java, and Russia; their equivalence
is an interpretive comparison.
- id: motif:3
label: lamented harvest youth
taxonomy_refs:
- death_rebirth
- seasonal_cycle
basis: Maneros, Linus, and Bormus are each connected with plaintive harvest or vintage
songs and stories of death, dismemberment, or disappearance.
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:8
- ev:10
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage often treats named youths as later explanations of ritual
cries; the degree of original mythic identity is uncertain.
- id: motif:4
label: stranger victim as corn-spirit representative
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
- seasonal_cycle
basis: Frazer proposes that strangers in the Lityerses story were regarded as embodiments
of the corn-spirit, wrapped in sheaves, beheaded, and thrown into water as a fertility
or rain charm.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:15
confidence: medium
cautions: Presented by Frazer as a supposition based on comparative grounds, not
as directly documented Phrygian ritual practice in this passage.
- id: motif:5
label: slayer overcome by stronger slayer
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: Lityerses kills strangers in the harvest-field and is later slain by Hercules
or by a stronger reaper.
evidence_refs:
- ev:12
- ev:13
- ev:14
confidence: high
cautions: This motif is narrative rather than explicitly tied to an available taxonomy
family.
- id: motif:6
label: water disposal as rain-charm
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
basis: Frazer infers that bodies bound in corn-stalks were thrown into water as
a rain-charm, and the Lityerses narrative includes Hercules throwing Lityerses’
body into a river.
evidence_refs:
- ev:13
- ev:15
confidence: low
cautions: The rain-charm function is explicitly conjectural in the passage.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage compares Egyptian Maneros and Phoenician Linus/Ailinus as Greek
names attached to plaintive agricultural songs and explained by stories of lamented
youths.
claim_level: same_function
target: Egyptian Maneros and Phoenician Linus/Ailinus harvest or vintage laments
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:9
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: Frazer argues both names arise from verbal misunderstandings; the passage
does not establish historical contact beyond broad regional comparison.
- id: claim:2
claim: The passage presents Maneros, Linus, Bormus, and Lityerses as corresponding
regional harvest or vintage songs connected with dead, missing, or slain youths.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolian plaintive harvest-youth songs
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:7
- ev:10
- ev:11
- ev:12
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The connection is constructed by Frazer’s comparative arrangement and
varies in details across examples.
- id: claim:3
claim: The Lityerses story is explicitly compared with European harvest customs
on points including reaping matches, binding persons in sheaves, killing the corn-spirit
or its representatives, and treatment of harvest-field strangers.
claim_level: same_function
target: European harvest customs involving sheaves, reaping contests, corn-spirit
representatives, and strangers
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
- ev:16
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage announces the comparison but does not provide the European
examples within this line range.
- id: claim:4
claim: The passage cautiously links the killing of human beings to agricultural
fertility through Frazer’s statement that such killings have commonly been used
to promote field fertility.
claim_level: same_function
target: human killing to promote fertility of fields
evidence_refs:
- ev:15
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The statement is broad and unsupported by specific cases in the supplied
passage.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: lines 7981-7985
quote_or_summary: Ancient Egyptian reapers lamented over the first sheaf cut and
invoked Isis as the goddess credited with the discovery of corn.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 7985-7990
quote_or_summary: The Greeks named the Egyptian reapers’ cry Maneros and explained
it by a story in which Maneros, only son of the first Egyptian king, invented
agriculture and died untimely, causing popular lament.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:3
type: quote
locator: lines 7990-7994
quote_or_summary: The formula mââ-ne-hra is translated as “come thou back” and is
said to occur in Egyptian writings, including the dirge of Isis in the Book of
the Dead.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote from supplied passage.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 7994-8001
quote_or_summary: Frazer supposes that the cry over cut corn was a dirge for the
death of the corn-spirit, identified as Isis or Osiris, and a prayer for return;
the first corn cut is said to contain the corn-spirit and to die under the sickle.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 8001-8003
quote_or_summary: In Java, the first ears of rice are said to represent the Corn-bride
and the Corn-bridegroom.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:6
type: summary
locator: lines 8003-8008
quote_or_summary: In parts of Russia, the first sheaf is reaped by the mistress,
set in a place of honor near holy pictures, threshed separately, and some grain
mixed with the next year’s seed-corn.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 8010-8016
quote_or_summary: In Phoenicia and Western Asia, a plaintive vintage and probably
harvest song was called Linus or Ailinus by Greeks and explained as a lament for
a youth named Linus.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 8016-8018
quote_or_summary: One story says Linus was raised by a shepherd but torn to pieces
by his dogs.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:9
type: quote
locator: lines 8018-8024
quote_or_summary: Frazer connects Linus or Ailinus with the cry ai lanu, “woe to
us,” probably uttered in mourning for Adonis, and says Sappho seems to have regarded
Adonis and Linus as equivalent.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quote from supplied passage.
- id: ev:10
type: summary
locator: lines 8026-8033
quote_or_summary: In Bithynia, Mariandynian reapers chanted Bormus or Borimus; Bormus
was a handsome youth who went to fetch water for reapers, disappeared, and was
thereafter sought in plaintive song.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:11
type: summary
locator: lines 8035-8038
quote_or_summary: In Phrygia, the corresponding song sung by harvesters at reaping
and threshing was called Lityerses.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:12
type: summary
locator: lines 8038-8047
quote_or_summary: Lityerses, a son of Midas, gives strangers food and drink, compels
them to reap, wraps them in a sheaf, beheads them with a sickle, and carries away
their bodies wrapped in corn stalks.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:13
type: summary
locator: lines 8047-8051
quote_or_summary: Hercules slays Lityerses and throws his body into the river; Frazer
infers Hercules probably slew him in the same way Lityerses slew others.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:14
type: summary
locator: lines 8051-8057
quote_or_summary: Another version says Lityerses challenges people to reaping matches,
thrashes defeated opponents, and is finally slain by a stronger reaper.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:15
type: summary
locator: lines 8059-8068
quote_or_summary: Frazer proposes that Lityerses stories may describe a Phrygian
harvest custom in which strangers were regarded as corn-spirit embodiments, seized,
wrapped in sheaves, beheaded, and thrown into water as a rain-charm; he cites
resemblance to European harvest customs and killings for field fertility as grounds.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
- id: ev:16
type: summary
locator: lines 8070-8075
quote_or_summary: 'Frazer identifies three comparison points with European harvest
customs: reaping matches and binding persons in sheaves; killing the corn-spirit
or representatives; and treatment of visitors or strangers to harvest-fields.'
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summary generated from supplied passage.
confidence:
extraction: medium
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is itself comparative scholarship, so many motifs are Frazer’s
interpretations or reported summaries of traditions rather than primary-source
ritual descriptions. The supplied locator says lines 7981-8057, but the provided
passage text continues into Frazer’s comparative setup beyond that endpoint; evidence
locators follow the supplied text sequence and include those later supplied lines
where used.
reviewer_status:
status: needs_review
reviewer: ''
reviewed_at: ''
notes: Machine-generated draft from OpenAI Batch; not human-reviewed.
extracted_by: openai_batch:gpt-5.5
extracted_at: '2026-04-28'
notes: |-
Used only the supplied passage and metadata. Taxonomy references are limited to available motif families and symbols; unsupported taxonomy links are left empty.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg__l7981-l8057
passage_sha256=2fe1cd530f2855e0fa464a8631d23d4e94d9d71d765f6abe5fe7f43b01e653c5