batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l8339-l8394
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l8339-l8394
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 8339-8394
start: '8339'
end: '8394'
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: "“a passing stranger is regarded as a personification of the corn”"
summary: Frazer describes European harvest customs in which a stranger, the maker
of the last sheaf, or the last sheaf itself is treated as an embodiment of a crop-spirit.
Examples include pursuit and partial burial of a stranger during the madder harvest,
last-sheaf figures called poor or beggar figures, and mock treatment of the corn-spirit
representative by binding, threshing, killing in mimicry, and throwing into water.
Frazer compares these customs with the Lityerses story and introduces the claim
that human beings have been killed as agricultural fertility ceremonies.
language: English
quote_policy: quoted
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The passage states that in some harvest-field and threshing-floor customs
a passing stranger is treated as a personification of the corn or corn-spirit.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The passage describes a custom in Zealand during the madder harvest in which
runners pursue a stranger who insults the workers, bring him back if caught, bury
him at least up to the middle in the field, jeer at him, and defecate before his
face.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:3
text: The passage states that the spirit of corn and cultivated plants may be conceived
as an owner whose property is taken by harvest, root-digging, or fruit-gathering.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:4
text: The passage lists several last-sheaf figures or names associated with poverty,
including Poor Old Woman, Poor Woman, Beggar-man, Rye-beggar, and Beggar.
category: object
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:5
text: The passage states that the madder stranger is buried like the madder-roots
in the ground.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
- id: obs:6
text: The passage cites Homer for the idea that gods in the likeness of foreigners
roam cities.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
- id: obs:7
text: The passage states that the person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn
may be wrapped in sheaves, killed in mimicry by agricultural implements, and thrown
into water.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: obs:8
text: The passage states that modern harvest parallels omit actual killing or enact
it only in mimicry, then introduces examples of human killing as agricultural
ceremonies to promote field fertility.
category: sequence
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: passing stranger
description: A stranger passing by harvest work who may be treated as a personification
or representative of the crop-spirit.
role_refs:
- role:1
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:5
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: madder-diggers / harvest workers
description: People digging madder-roots who pursue and punish the passing stranger
in the described Zealand custom.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: corn-spirit or cultivated-plant spirit
description: A being represented as either immanent in crops or as owner of crops
and other cultivated plants.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:3
- id: fig:4
name_or_label: last-sheaf poor or beggar figures
description: Last-sheaf figures or labels including Poor Old Woman, Poor Woman,
Beggar-man, Rye-beggar, and Beggar.
role_refs:
- role:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:5
name_or_label: old woman carrying the Beggar sheaf
description: In the Olmütz district, an old woman receives the last sheaf called
the Beggar and must carry it home while limping on one foot.
role_refs:
- role:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: fig:6
name_or_label: gods in the likeness of foreigners
description: Figures cited from Homer as gods appearing in the form of foreigners.
role_refs:
- role:6
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
roles:
- id: role:1
label: crop-spirit representative
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The stranger is said to be regarded as a personification of the corn and
treated like the corn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:2
label: harvesters as takers of crop property
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: The passage explains harvesters as committing acts of spoliation against
the plant-spirit owner and says the madder-diggers act as if they are robbers.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: role:3
label: impoverished owner of cultivated plants
assigned_to:
- fig:1
- fig:3
basis: The crop-spirit is explained as an owner stripped of property by harvest;
the stranger is treated as the person robbed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: role:4
label: last-sheaf embodiment or named remnant
assigned_to:
- fig:4
basis: The passage names multiple last-sheaf figures associated with poor or beggar
labels.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:5
label: ritual carrier of last sheaf
assigned_to:
- fig:5
basis: The old woman in Olmütz is given the last sheaf and must carry it home limping.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: role:6
label: divine stranger
assigned_to:
- fig:6
basis: The passage cites the Greek idea that gods can appear as foreigners.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: last sheaf as poor or beggar figure
literal_form: small sheaf, puppet, dressed sheaf, or enlarged final sheaf called
Poor Old Woman, Poor Woman, Beggar-man, Rye-beggar, or Beggar
associated_figures:
- fig:4
- fig:5
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: sym:2
label: burial in cultivated earth
literal_form: a stranger buried in the madder-field up to at least the middle
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- id: sym:3
label: madder-roots as stolen crop property
literal_form: madder-roots dug from the field
associated_figures:
- fig:2
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:5
- id: sym:4
label: agricultural implements for mimic killing
literal_form: tools used to mow, bind, thresh, or kill the crop-spirit representative
in mimicry
associated_figures:
- fig:1
- fig:2
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:7
- id: sym:5
label: water as disposal of corn-spirit representative
literal_form: water into which the last-corn representative is thrown
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- water
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Stranger treated as corn in harvest customs
summary: The passage summarizes customs in which a passing stranger is regarded
as the corn-spirit and is treated like corn by mowing, binding, or threshing in
show or mimicry.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Madder-harvest pursuit and burial
summary: During the madder harvest in Zealand, workers may chase an insulting stranger,
return him to the field, bury him partly in the earth, jeer at him, and perform
a defecatory act before him.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs:
- sym:2
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:5
- id: scene:3
label: Last-sheaf poor or beggar naming
summary: The passage surveys examples where the last sheaf or its handler is named
as a poor woman, beggar-man, rye-beggar, or beggar, sometimes shaped as a puppet,
enlarged, clothed, or carried home by an old woman.
figure_refs:
- fig:4
- fig:5
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: scene:4
label: Mimic killing and disposal of last-corn representative
summary: The person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn is described as an
embodiment of the corn-spirit and may be wrapped in sheaves, mimically killed
with agricultural implements, and thrown into water.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
- sym:5
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- id: scene:5
label: Comparison to Lityerses and agricultural killing
summary: Frazer says the modern harvest parallels coincide with the Lityerses story
and then frames the need to show that human beings have been killed as agricultural
ceremonies for field fertility.
figure_refs: []
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:8
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: stranger as crop-spirit embodiment
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage explicitly says a passing stranger may be regarded as the corn-spirit
and treated like the corn.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
confidence: high
cautions: The passage reports comparative custom examples through Frazer’s interpretation
rather than documenting a single ritual text.
- id: motif:2
label: last sheaf as personified poor or beggar figure
taxonomy_refs:
- seasonal_cycle
basis: Multiple regional examples name or shape the last sheaf as a poor woman,
beggar, or similar figure at harvest.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: The taxonomy link to seasonal cycle is general; the passage emphasizes
harvest rather than a full annual cycle.
- id: motif:3
label: harvest as taking property from a plant-spirit owner
taxonomy_refs:
- sacred_theft
basis: The passage explains harvest, root-digging, and fruit-gathering as acts of
spoliation that strip the plant-spirit owner of property.
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- ev:5
confidence: medium
cautions: The available taxonomy term sacred_theft is broader than the passage’s
specific wording of spoliation or robbery.
- id: motif:4
label: mimic killing of crop-spirit representative for harvest ritual
taxonomy_refs:
- sacrifice
basis: The passage says the last-corn representative is treated as the corn-spirit,
killed in mimicry by agricultural implements, and that actual human killing as
agricultural ceremony will be discussed.
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
confidence: medium
cautions: Within this passage, actual killing is introduced as a general claim rather
than demonstrated by examples in the quoted range.
- id: motif:5
label: divine or numinous stranger
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The passage observes that Greeks were familiar with the idea that a passing
stranger may be a god and cites Homer on gods appearing as foreigners.
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
confidence: medium
cautions: This is a brief comparative aside, not the main harvest-custom argument.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The passage claims that modern European harvest customs coincide with the
Lityerses story and seem to support reading that story as a description of an
old Phrygian harvest custom.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Lityerses story / old Phrygian harvest custom
evidence_refs:
- ev:7
- ev:8
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: medium
limitations: The passage states Frazer’s inference but does not provide the Lityerses
narrative in this excerpt.
- id: claim:2
claim: The passage makes a limited comparison between the crop-spirit stranger and
the Greek idea that a passing foreigner may be a god.
claim_level: same_function
target: Greek divine stranger motif as cited from Homer
evidence_refs:
- ev:6
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The Greek comparison is only an observation in the passage and does
not establish historical contact or identity of custom.
- id: claim:3
claim: The passage groups several European last-sheaf customs as parallel treatments
of a crop-spirit or its representative.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Modern European last-sheaf poor/beggar customs
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:7
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: high
limitations: The passage presents examples from multiple regions but gives only
compressed descriptions.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: quote
locator: lines 8339-8345
quote_or_summary: "“a passing stranger is regarded as a personification of the corn,
in other words, as the corn-spirit”; a show is made of mowing, binding, and threshing
him like corn."
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short excerpt used.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: lines 8345-8354
quote_or_summary: During the madder harvest in Zealand, a stranger who calls the
workers a reproachful name may be chased, returned to the field, buried up to
the middle or more, jeered at, and defecated before.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:3
type: summary
locator: lines 8354-8362
quote_or_summary: The passage explains that the spirit of corn or other cultivated
plants may be conceived as the owner of the plants; harvest, root-digging, and
fruit-gathering are then acts that rob and impoverish him.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:4
type: summary
locator: lines 8362-8377
quote_or_summary: Examples name a remaining sheaf or last-sheaf figure as Poor Old
Woman, Poor Woman, Beggar-man, Rye-beggar, or Beggar; some are puppets, enlarged
sheaves, clothed sheaves, or carried by an old woman limping.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: lines 8377-8388
quote_or_summary: Frazer says the stranger represents the robbed owner of the madder-roots;
the workers’ act marks themselves as robbers, and the stranger is buried like
the madder-roots in the ground.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:6
type: quote
locator: lines 8388-8391
quote_or_summary: The Greeks are said to know the idea that a passing stranger may
be a god; Homer says gods in the likeness of foreigners roam cities.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized with brief close paraphrase from public
domain text.
- id: ev:7
type: summary
locator: lines 8391-8395
quote_or_summary: The person who cuts, binds, or threshes the last corn is treated
as an embodiment of the corn-spirit by being wrapped in sheaves, mimically killed
by agricultural implements, and thrown into water.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:8
type: summary
locator: lines 8395-8402
quote_or_summary: Frazer states that these modern parallels seem to support the
Lityerses story as an old Phrygian harvest custom, while noting that modern customs
omit actual killing or enact it only in mimicry and introducing human killing
as an agricultural fertility ceremony.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: high
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: medium
notes: The passage is explicit about harvest-custom figures and Frazer’s comparisons.
Motif taxonomy mappings are more tentative because the available taxonomy is broad
and Frazer’s argument is interpretive comparative scholarship.
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: |-
Line locators within the supplied range are approximate subranges based on the provided passage text.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg__l8339-l8394
passage_sha256=aa4427f647207625409427e0771b7e889ad9daa5c1d5c3c43063edcdc4de33b0