Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.
fertility rites

Fertility rites are ceremonies of a magic-religious nature performed to ensure the continuity of life.  From earliest time humans have performed these rites in an attempt to control the environment.  Expressed as invocations, incantations, prayers, hymns, processions, dances, and sacred dramas, these ritual activities were believed to be closely connected with the processes of nature.  If the enactment of fertility rites could induce fertility in the animal and human worlds, the vegetable world would also be stimulated to reproduction, resulting in an abundant harvest.  The basis for such rites was usually a belief in sympathetic MAGIC, based on the assumption that the principle of life and fertility, whether animal or vegetable, was one and indivisible. 

A persistent theme of primitive fertility rituals was the freeing of the waters and the subsequent regeneration of the earth.  Many hymns of the Rig-Veda are supplications to Indra, in his role as god of weather and war, to slay the giant who had imprisoned the great rivers of India (see VEDAS).  Such personification of natural phenomena was common.  Another prevalent myth of pastoral societies, often enacted as sacred drama, was the search of the earth goddess for her lost lover, brother, or child who either has been killed or has disappeared from Earth.  Symbolizing death and the return of vegetation and life, this myth was recorded as early as 3000 BC in the Babylonian cult of ISHTAR (Innina) and Tammuz, and it is traceable through the Sabaeans at Harran (present-day Yemen). Another example, recorded by 700 BC, is the death and resurrection of the Phoenician-Greek deity ADONIS, beloved of Aphrodite.  The Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone (Kore) represents the same theme, as does the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis. 

Sacred marriages frequently have formed part of the fertility ritual;  the effectiveness of this symbolic union at times depended on the chastity of the participants.  Ritual prostitution, human and animal sacrifice, and displays of phallic symbols were also sometimes believed to stimulate fertility.  In a number of preliterate societies the role of the god was combined with that of the king, and the fertility of the land and people was linked with the king's state of perfection and purification. 

Processions and dances also play a fundamental part in fertility rites:  the sword dance of the Maruts in the Rig-Veda;  of the Greek Kouretes, a band of youths of semidivine origin;  and of the Corybantes, Bacchantes, and Maenads are all intimately linked with the worship of the vegetation spirit.  In Britain, May Day celebrations and the MAYPOLE DANCE originate in spring fertility festivals.  The Grail romances are believed by some scholars to be the fragmentary records of the secret rituals of a fertility cult. Many of these rites are recalled in the folk traditions of various European nations. 

Bibliography:  Frazer, James G., The New Golden Bough, ed. by Theodor H. Gaster (1959;  repr.  1975).