Lewis's Istra and Frazer's Ishtar: cults and rituals in C.S. Lewis's Till we have faces(1956)
Abstract
This paper examines the influence of Sir James Frazer’s Golden Bough (1890-1915) upon Till We Have Faces (1956), the last novel of C. S. Lewis. The former is a research in anthropology subtitled ‘a study in magic and religion’, whereas the latter is a novel subtitled ‘a myth retold’. The main focus of this article is on the descriptions of religious beliefs and practices, particularly the motif of the divine-mother-andson/lover. The author argues that the Frazer-Lewis connection can be seen as a strong example of intimate links between nineteenth-century scholarship and twentieth-century mythopoeia. Thus both Frazer and Lewis appear to be mythmakers and anthropologists: Frazer starts as an anthropologist, but ends up writing what in a way can be seen as a literary collection of myths, whereas Lewis-the-mythmaker becomes an anthropologist in his own imaginary world.
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