Gods

Mythic patterns from the The Golden Bough seem to recur in many Wolfe works. There is a conflict between a man representing Spring and a man representing Winter over a woman/Goddess. One man causes the death of the other, but there is a cycle of resurrection in view. This is like the mythic pattern of Venus and Adonis, among many others. (Graves elaborates on this a great deal in The White Goddess, but Wolfe is known to consider that a crackpot theory).