§ 1. _Diana as a Goddess of Fertility_—Dramatic marriages of gods and
goddesses as a charm to promote vegetation; Diana as a goddess of the
woodlands; sanctity of holy groves in antiquity; the breaking of the
Golden Bough a solemn rite, not a mere piece of bravado; Diana a goddess
of the teeming life of nature, both animal and vegetable; deities of
woodlands naturally the patrons of the beasts of the woods; the crowning
of hunting dogs on Diana’s day a purification for their slaughter of the
beasts of the wood; as goddess of the moon, especially the yellow
harvest moon, Diana a goddess of crops and of childbirth; as a goddess
of fertility Diana needed a male partner.
§ 2. _The Marriage of the Gods_—Marriages of the gods in Babylonia and
Assyria; marriage of the god Ammon to the Queen of Egypt; Apollo and his
prophetess at Patara; Artemis and the Essenes at Ephesus; marriage of
Dionysus and the Queen at Athens; marriage of Zeus and Demeter at
Eleusis; marriage of Zeus and Hera at Plataea; marriage of Zeus and Hera
in other parts of Greece; the god Frey and his human wife in Sweden;
similar rites in ancient Gaul; marriages of gods to images or living
women among uncivilised peoples; custom of the Wotyaks; custom of the
Peruvian Indians; marriage of a woman to the Sun among the Blackfoot
Indians; marriage of girls to fishing-nets among the Hurons and
Algonquins; marriage of the Sun-god and Earth-goddess among the Oraons;
marriage of women to gods in India and Africa; marriage of women to
water-gods and crocodiles; virgin sacrificed as a bride to the jinnee of
the sea in the Maldive Islands.
§ 3. _Sacrifices to Water-spirits_—Stories of the Perseus and Andromeda
type; water-spirits conceived as serpents or dragons; sacrifices of
human beings to water-spirits; water-spirits as dispensers of fertility;
water-spirits bestow offspring on women; love of river-spirits for women
in Greek mythology; the Slaying of the Dragon at Furth in Bavaria; St.
Romain and the Dragon at Rouen.