Fertility Rites

The Return of Persephone, 1891. Oil on canvas.
Frederic Leighton depicts Hermes helping Persephone to return to
her mother Demeter after Zeus forced Hades to return Persepone.
Wikipedia.In The Golden Bough, James Frazier argues that much of European folklore is influenced by agricultural rites rooted in the cycle of the seasons. Rituals involving sexual intercourse guarantee a rich harvest. The sacrificial king ensures the "virility" of the harvest ("Fertility," par. 1). Stories based on the agricultural cycle include Earth goddess myths where the mother/wife searches for a lost child/lover such as the stories of Isis and Osiris, Demeter and Persephone, or Ishtar and Tammuz ("Fertility Rites"). "Among agricultural customs actually recorded in England, some do explicitly aim at ensuring success for crops or fishing (see Plough Monday, wassailing apple trees), and many others bring a more vague and general good luck, and/or joyfully celebrate natural processes such as the return of spring or the completion of harvest" ("Fertility," par. 2). Many fertility rites use what "have been classified as the two laws of sympathy: (i) the law of similarity ensures that 'like acts on like', 'opposites act on opposites.' . . . and (ii) the law of contact [which] dictates that objects once joined share a special sympathetic relationship, even when separated" ("Fertility," Beaver, par. 5). Fertility rites can include "kindling of fires (symbolizing the sun) and scattering the reproductive organs of animals on the fields, displays of phallic symbols, and ritual prostitution" ("Fertility Rites").

Some fertility rituals survive in our modern marriage ceremonies. The giving of the ring, originally to the woman, who wore it on her left hand, was a sign of submission to her husband. Now it is a more common practice to have a double ring ceremony, symbolizing mutual commitment (Chesser 205). The diamond represents innocence (Chesser 205), which may be the reason it became popular for the engagement ring. The giving away of the bride by the father and the carrying of the bride over the threshold also originally symbolized the bride as property (Chesser 206). The participation of children in the wedding ceremony were originally as symbols of fertility (Chesser 206-207). Other fertility symbols in the marriage ceremony include the veil, the throwing of rice, the cake, the white gown, and the flowers. The veil was particularly significant, representing the bride's purity (Chesser 207). The removal of the veil symbolized the taking of the bride's virginity. The white gown also represented the bride's virginity (Chesser 207). In fact, until very recently in American culture, women marrying a second time were not supposed to wear white (since they were no longer virgins). Finally, for ancient cultures, cutting the wedding cake, like the removal of the veil, was also a symbol of fertility and of the bride's loss of virginity (Chesser 207).

Works Cited

Beaver, Dan. "Fertility Rites." The Oxford Companion to the Body. Eds. Colin Blakemore and Sheila Jennett. Oxford UP, 2001. Oxford Reference Online. Web. 31 August 2011.

Chesser, Barbara Jo. "Analysis of Wedding Rituals: An Attempt to Make Weddings More Meaningful." Family Relations 29.2 (Apr., 1980): 204-209. JSTOR. Web. 1 Sep. 2011.

"Fertility." A Dictionary of English Folklore. eds. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud. Oxford UP, 2000. Oxford Reference Online. Web. 31 August 2011.

"Fertility Rites." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th Ed. (2010): 1. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 1 Sept. 2011.

HUM 2130 World Mythology