Taboo and Related Topics

Persephone

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Daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

Persephone or "the deceased woman" holding a pomegranate. Etruscan terracotta cinerary statue. National archaeological museum in Palermo, Italy

Seated goddess, probably Persephone on her throne in the underworld, Severe style c. 480–460 BC, found at Tarentum, Magna Graecia (Pergamon Museum, Berlin)

Sarcophagus with the abduction of Persephone. Walters Art Museum. Baltimore, Maryland

The Rape of Proserpina by Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1621–22) at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

The Return of Persephone, by Frederic Leighton (1891)

From L-R, Artemis, Demeter, Veil of Despoina, Anytus, Tritoness from the throne of Despoina at Lycosura. National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Head of Persephone. Earthenware. From Sicily, Centuripae, c. 420 BC. The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, UK

Fragment of a marble relief depicting a Kore, 3rd century BC, from Panticapaeum, Taurica (Crimea), Bosporan Kingdom

Persephone opening a cista containing the infant Adonis, on a pinax from Locri

A mosaic of the Kasta Tomb in Amphipolis depicting the abduction of Persephone by Pluto, 4th century BC

A fresco showing Hades and Persephone riding in a chariot, from the tomb of Queen Eurydice I of Macedon at Vergina, Greece, 4th century BC

Gold ring from Isopata tomb, near Knossos, Crete, 1400–1500 BC. Depicted are female figures dancing among blossoming vegetation; Heraklion Archaeological Museum

Rape of Persephone. Hades with his horses and Persephone (down). An Apulian red-figure volute krater, c. 340 BC. Antikensammlung Berlin

Triptolemus and Kore, tondo of an Attic red-figure bowl by the Aberdeen Painter, c.470/60 BC. (Louvre, Paris)

The Eleusinian trio: Persephone, Triptolemus and Demeter on a marble bas-relief from Eleusis, 440–430 BC. National Archaeological Museum of Athens

Kore, daughter of Demeter, celebrated with her mother by the Thesmophoriazusae (women of the festival). Acropolis Museum, Athens

Pinax of Persephone and Hades from Locri. Reggio Calabria, National Museum of Magna Graecia.

Cinerary altar with tabula representing the abduction of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century Rome, Baths of Diocletian

Hades abducting Persephone, wall painting in the small royal tomb at Vergina. Macedonia, Greece

Italy. Renaissance relief, Rape of Persephone. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection

Of the four deities of Empedocles' elements, it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo – Nestis is a euphemistic cult title – for she was also the terrible Queen of the Dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was euphemistically named simply as Kore or "the Maiden", a vestige of her archaic role as the deity ruling the underworld.

Hades

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God of the dead and the king of the underworld, with which his name became synonymous.

Hades (right) and Persephone (left). Detail from an Attic red-figure amphora, ca. 470 BC. From Italy

Pinax with Persephone and Hades Enthroned, 500-450 BC, Greek, Locri Epizephirii, Mannella district, Sanctuary of Persephone, terracotta – Cleveland Museum of Art

Red figure volute krater with scene of the Underworld, follower of the Baltimore Painter, Hermitage

Cinerary altar with tabula representing the rape of Proserpina. White marble, Antonine Era, 2nd century CE.

Persephone and Hades: tondo of an Attic red-figured kylix, ca. 440–430 BC

Oil painting of Hades abducting Persephone. 18th Century. Oil on wood with gilt background. Property of Missing Link Antiques.

Hades abducting Persephone, fresco in the small Macedonian royal tomb at Vergina, Macedonia, Greece, c. 340 BC

Hades abducts Persephone, pot made and found in Taranto, 350-325 BC

The Abduction of Persephone by Pluto, Amphipolis, Greece.

Hades and Cerberus, in Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1888

Fresco of Hades and Persephone, Tomb of Orcus II, Montarozzi, Tarquinia, 4th century BC

Aeneas's journey to Hades through the entrance at Cumae mapped by Andrea de Jorio, 1825

Demeter, however, suspects that Persephone may have eaten food while down in the underworld, and so she questions Persephone, saying:

Eurydice

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Character in Greek mythology and the Auloniad wife of Orpheus, who tried to bring her back from the dead with his enchanting music.

Charles-François Lebœuf, Dying Eurydice (1822), marble

Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, Orpheus and Eurydice, 1806, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Statue of Eurydice at Schönbrunn Palace; note the snake biting her foot

Either way, the condition was attached that he must walk in front of her and not look back until both had reached the upper world.

The Creation of Adam depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo, 1508–1512

Adam and Eve

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Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman.

The Fall of Adam and Eve as depicted on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

Adam and Eve in an illuminated manuscript (c. 950)

Adam, Eve, and the (female) serpent (often identified as Lilith) at the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris

Painting from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve. From Maragheh in Iran, 1294–99

God Judging Adam by William Blake, 1795, Tate Collection

Early Christian depiction of Adam and Eve in the Catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter

Detail of a stained glass window (12th century) in Saint-Julien cathedral - Le Mans, France

Depiction of the Fall in Kunsthalle Hamburg, by Master Bertram, 1375-1383

alt=Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden|Adam and Eve, engraving by Albrecht Dürer, 1504 (National Gallery of Art)

Adam and Eve in paradise (The Fall), Eve gives Adam the forbidden fruit, by Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1533

Adam and Eve from a copy of the Falnama (Book of Omens) ascribed to Ja'far al-Sadiq, c. 1550, Safavid dynasty, Iran

Adam and Eve by Maarten van Heemskerck, 1550

Adam and Eve Driven From Paradise by James Tissot, c. 1896-1902

Adam and Eve depicted in a mural in Abreha wa Atsbeha Church, Ethiopia

1896 illustration of Eve handing Adam the forbidden fruit

Adam and Eve by Frank Eugene, taken 1898, published in Camera Work no. 30, 1910

The Woman, the Man, and the Serpent by Byam Shaw, 1911

alt=|"The Old Adam and Eve" by E. J. Sullivan, 1898, for Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle

Adam is told that he can eat freely of all the trees in the garden, except for a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Orpheus

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Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet in ancient Greek religion.

Orpheus (left, with lyre) among the Thracians, from an Attic red-figure bell-krater (c. 440 BC)

Orpheus mosaic at Dominican Museum, Rottweil, Germany, 2nd c. AD

Gabriel Thomas, Orpheus (1854), Paris, Cour Carrée, Louvre Palace

Important sites in the life and travels of Orpheus

Orpheus with the lyre and surrounded by beasts (Byzantine & Christian Museum, Athens)

Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre (1865) by Gustave Moreau

Cave of Orpheus's oracle in Antissa, Lesbos

Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1900) by John William Waterhouse

Nymphs Listening to the Songs of Orpheus (1853) by Charles Jalabert

Orpheus charming the beasts. Engraving by Regius for Ovid's Metamorphoses Book X, 143

Death of Orpheus by Mexican artist Antonio García Vega

His music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone, who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world.

Eve

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Figure in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.

Creation of Eve
Marble relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy

The Creation of Eve, from the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo

William Blake's pencil illustration of The Creation of Eve in response to the line "And She Shall Be Called Woman". The object was created c. 1803–1805 and currently is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Adam and Eve expelled from Eden, by Hans Heyerdahl, 1877

Adam, Eve, and the (female) serpent at the entrance to Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, is the portrayal of the image of the serpent as a mirror of Eve was common in earlier iconography as a result of the identification of women as the source of human original sin.

Eve in paradise. Armenian icon, 1305. Bodleian Library

F. Best after Marcantonio Raimondi, Adam and Eve, 19th century, engraving, Department of Image Collections, National Gallery of Art Library, Washington, DC

The snake in this piece, by the Workshop of Giovanni della Robbia, has a woman's face that resembles Eve's.<ref>{{cite web|publisher= The Walters Art Museum|url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/35961|title= Adam and Eve}}</ref>

Adam is charged with guarding and keeping the garden before her creation; she is not present when God commands Adam not to eat the forbidden fruit – although it is clear that she was aware of the command.

The number next to each box indicates the degree of relationship relative to the given person.

Incest

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Human sexual activity between family members or close relatives.

Table of prohibited marriages from The Trial of Bastardie by William Clerke. London, 1594

Egyptian king Tutankhamun married his half-sister Ankhesenamun

Maya king Shield Jaguar II with his aunt-wife, Lady Xoc AD 709

Charles II of Spain was born physically disabled, possibly due to centuries of inbreeding in the House of Habsburg

Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor married his first cousin Maria of Spain.

Common fruit fly females prefer to mate with their own brothers over unrelated males.

The incest taboo is one of the most widespread of all cultural taboos, both in present and in past societies.

Taboo on the dead

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The taboo on the dead includes the taboo against touching of the dead, those surrounding them and anything associated with the dead.

Incest taboo

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Any cultural rule or norm that prohibits sexual relations between certain members of the same family, mainly between individuals related by blood.

All human cultures have norms that exclude certain close relatives from those considered suitable or permissible sexual or marriage partners, making such relationships taboo.