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For although men now attributed
the annual cycle of change primarily to corresponding changes in
their deities, they still thought that by performing certain magical
rites they could aid the god who was the principle of life, in his
struggle with the opposing principle of death. They imagined that
they could recruit his failing energies and even raise him from the
dead. The ceremonies which they observed for this purpose were in
substance a dramatic representation of the natural processes which
they wished to facilitate; for it is a familiar tenet of magic that
you can produce any desired effect by merely imitating it. And as
they now explained the fluctuations of growth and decay, of
reproduction and dissolution, by the marriage, the death, and the
rebirth or revival of the gods, their religious or rather magical
dramas turned in great measure on these themes. They set forth the
fruitful union of the powers of fertility, the sad death of one at
least of the divine partners, and his joyful resurrection. Thus a
religious theory was blended with a magical practice.


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