Golden Bough
The golden bough is the branch Aeneas must pluck before he may enter the underworld, the passport of his descent in the sixth book of the Aeneid. The Sibyl of Cumae tells him the bough grows in a dark wood, is of gold like mistletoe in midwinter, and can only be plucked if Fate allows: no human strength can break it, but if the Fates consent it yields at the touch, and it is the gift that Proserpina, queen of the dead, demands before any living man may pass the gate of Dis. Aeneas finds the bough on the tree, plucks it, and carries it down through the underworld, leaving it at last on the thre