Sir James George Frazer (18541941). The Golden Bough. 1922. § 3.
The Roman Saturnalia WE have seen that many peoples have been
used to observe an annual period of license, when the customary
restraints of law and morality are thrown aside, when the whole
population give themselves up to extravagant mirth and jollity,
and when the darker passions find a vent which would never be
allowed them in the more staid and sober course of ordinary
life. Such outbursts of the pent-up forces of human nature, too
often degenerating into wild orgies of lust and crime, occur
most commonly at the end of the year, and are frequently
associated, as I have had occasion to point out, with one or
other of the agricultural seasons, especially with the time of
sowing or of harvest. Now, of all these periods of license the
one which is best known and which in modern language has given
its name to the rest, is the Saturnalia. This famous festival
fell in December, the last month of the Roman year, and was
popularly supposed to commemo