batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l9858-l10043
---
record_id: batch.motif.comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg-l9858-l10043
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
passage_locator:
label: CHAPTER II. THE PERILS OF THE SOUL. / HEINE. / CHAPTER III. KILLING THE GOD.
/ FOOTNOTES; lines 9858-10043
start: '9858'
end: '10043'
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: ''
summary: 'The passage is chiefly a sequence of footnotes. The substantive note 350
recounts a Wotjak response to bad harvests: they attributed the calamity to the
wrath of the god Keremet because he was unmarried, processed to a sacred grove
in decorated wagons, feasted overnight, cut and carried home a square piece of
turf, and a cited interpretation suggests they may have intended a marriage between
Keremet and the fruitful earth-wife. Note 351 cites Greek sacred-marriage attestations
at Cnossus, Samos, and Athens.'
language: English
quote_policy: summarized
literal_observations:
- id: obs:1
text: The Wotjaks of Russia were described as distressed by a series of bad harvests.
category: setting
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:2
text: The Wotjaks attributed the bad harvests to the wrath of one of their gods,
Keremet, because he was unmarried.
category: relationship
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: obs:3
text: They went in procession to a sacred grove, riding on gaily decorated wagons
as when fetching home a bride.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:4
text: At the sacred grove they feasted all night.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: obs:5
text: The next morning they cut a square piece of turf in the grove and took it
home.
category: action
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: obs:6
text: The reporting writer says the meaning of the ceremony is not easy to determine,
and cites Bechterew’s suggestion that the rite may have been intended to marry
Keremet to the fruitful earth-wife.
category: speech
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- id: obs:7
text: A following footnote cites sacred-marriage attestations at Cnossus, Samos,
and Athens.
category: other
evidence_refs:
- ev:5
figures:
- id: fig:1
name_or_label: Wotjaks of Russia
description: A community described as suffering bad harvests and carrying out the
procession, feast, and turf-cutting rite.
role_refs:
- role:1
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: fig:2
name_or_label: Keremet
description: One of the Wotjaks’ gods, described as wrathful because unmarried.
role_refs:
- role:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
- id: fig:3
name_or_label: mukyl’c in, the earth-wife
description: A kindly and fruitful earth-wife named in the cited interpretation
as a possible spouse for Keremet.
role_refs:
- role:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
roles:
- id: role:1
label: ritual community responding to harvest failure
assigned_to:
- fig:1
basis: The Wotjaks are said to experience bad harvests and to perform the procession,
feast, and turf-cutting actions.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: role:2
label: unmarried wrathful god
assigned_to:
- fig:2
basis: Keremet is identified as a god whose wrath at being unmarried was blamed
for the calamity.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: role:3
label: fruitful proposed divine spouse
assigned_to:
- fig:3
basis: The cited interpretation suggests Keremet was to be married to the kindly
and fruitful earth-wife.
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
symbols:
- id: sym:1
label: sacred grove
literal_form: A sacred grove visited by the procession and used as the site of feasting
and turf-cutting.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs:
- tree
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- ev:3
- id: sym:2
label: gaily-decked wagons
literal_form: Decorated wagons used in a procession likened to fetching home a bride.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: sym:3
label: square piece of turf
literal_form: A square piece of turf cut in the sacred grove and carried home.
associated_figures:
- fig:1
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: sym:4
label: earth-wife
literal_form: The kindly and fruitful mukyl’c in, described as an earth-wife in
the cited explanation.
associated_figures:
- fig:3
taxonomy_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
scenes:
- id: scene:1
label: Harvest failure attributed to divine unmarried status
summary: The Wotjaks are described as suffering repeated bad harvests and blaming
the wrath of Keremet because he was unmarried.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
- fig:2
symbol_refs: []
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- id: scene:2
label: Bridal-style procession to sacred grove
summary: The community travels to the sacred grove in decorated wagons, in a manner
compared to fetching home a bride, and feasts there overnight.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:2
evidence_refs:
- ev:2
- id: scene:3
label: Turf carried home after grove rite
summary: The next morning the participants cut a square piece of turf in the grove
and take it home.
figure_refs:
- fig:1
symbol_refs:
- sym:1
- sym:3
evidence_refs:
- ev:3
- id: scene:4
label: Interpretation as divine marriage
summary: A cited explanation proposes that the rite may have been intended to marry
Keremet to the fruitful earth-wife so that she might influence him favorably.
figure_refs:
- fig:2
- fig:3
symbol_refs:
- sym:4
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
candidate_motifs:
- id: motif:1
label: sacred marriage to remedy agricultural distress
taxonomy_refs:
- sacred_marriage
basis: The passage explicitly frames the ceremony as possibly intended to marry
Keremet to the fruitful earth-wife after bad harvests were attributed to his unmarried
state.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:4
confidence: high
cautions: The passage reports this as an interpretation, not as a certain explanation
of the rite.
- id: motif:2
label: ritual response to harvest failure
taxonomy_refs: []
basis: The actions are introduced as a response to a series of bad harvests and
culminate in a possible divine marriage involving a fruitful earth-wife.
evidence_refs:
- ev:1
- ev:2
- ev:3
- ev:4
confidence: medium
cautions: The passage does not state that the rite was seasonal or recurring; it
only links it to bad harvests in this reported instance.
comparison_claims:
- id: claim:1
claim: The Wotjak rite as interpreted in note 350 can be cautiously compared with
the sacred-marriage references cited for Cnossus, Samos, and Athens in note 351
at the level of a shared sacred-marriage motif.
claim_level: same_motif
target: Greek sacred-marriage attestations at Cnossus, Samos, and Athens cited in
note 351
evidence_refs:
- ev:4
- ev:5
counter_evidence_refs: []
confidence: low
limitations: The Greek examples are citation-only in this passage, with no narrative
details provided here; the passage does not claim historical contact or direct
dependence.
evidence:
- id: ev:1
type: summary
locator: footnote 350
quote_or_summary: The Wotjaks of Russia, distressed by bad harvests, ascribed the
calamity to the wrath of Keremet because he was unmarried.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
- id: ev:2
type: summary
locator: footnote 350
quote_or_summary: They processed to the sacred grove in gaily-decked wagons, as
when fetching home a bride, and feasted there all night.
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: footnote 350
quote_or_summary: The next morning they cut a square piece of turf in the grove
and took it home.
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: quote
locator: footnote 350
quote_or_summary: "“Perhaps, as Bechterew thinks, they meant to marry Keremet to
the kindly and fruitful mukyl’c in, the earth-wife.”"
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; short quotation.
- id: ev:5
type: summary
locator: footnote 351
quote_or_summary: The note cites sacred-marriage references at Cnossus in Crete,
Samos, and Athens.
source_text_path: texts/public-domain/comparative/project-gutenberg/golden-bough-volume-1-frazer.md
rights_note: Public domain source; summarized.
confidence:
extraction: medium
motif_candidates: medium
comparison_claims: low
notes: Most of the supplied range is bibliographic footnotes. Extraction relies
mainly on the substantive content of footnote 350 and the citation-only comparison
material in footnote 351.
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: |-
No taxonomy IDs beyond the supplied lists were added. The sacred grove was linked to the available symbol taxonomy term 'tree' because the literal form is a grove; this should be reviewed.
batch_run_id=motif-extraction-2026-04-28-high-priority
custom_id=motif_extract:comparative-golden-bough-volume-1-frazer-gutenberg__l9858-l10043
passage_sha256=6d36a3b80422f882bcfd9bcfbe09a7eeda41ec786b205ad367b9b76597f5cb40