Page:Frazer (1890) The Golden Bough (IA goldenboughstudy01fraz).djvu/127

I folk-custom and from the facts of ancient ritual and mythology, we are justified in concluding that the archaic forms of tree-worship disclosed by the spring and midsummer festivals of our peasants were practised by the Greeks and Romans in prehistoric times. Do then these forms of tree-worship help to explain the priesthood of Aricia, the subject of our inquiry? I believe they do. In the first place the attributes of Diana, the goddess of the Arician grove, are those of a tree-spirit or sylvan deity. Her sanctuaries were in groves, indeed every grove was her sanctuary, and she is often associated with the wood-god Silvanus in inscriptions. Like a tree-spirit, she helped women in travail, and in this respect her reputation appears to have stood high at the Arician grove, if we may judge from the votive offerings found on the spot. Again, she was the patroness of wild animals; just as in Finland the wood-god Tapio was believed to care for the wild creatures that roamed the wood, they being considered his cattle. So, too, the Samogitians deemed the birds and beasts of the woods sacred, doubtless because they were under the protection of the god of the wood. Again, there are indications that domestic cattle were protected by Diana, as they certainly were supposed to be by Silvanus. But we have seen that special influence over cattle is ascribed to wood-spirits; in Finland the herds enjoyed the protection of the wood-gods both while they were