Editing Taboo (section)

=== Greek ===

An example of an eating taboo in Greek mythology could be found in the tale of the [[Persephone#Abduction myth|rape of Persephone]]. [[Hades]], who had fallen in love with [[Persephone]] and wished to make her his queen, burst through a cleft in the earth and abducted Persephone as she was gathering flowers in a field.<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+2+4 4–20], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+2+414 414–434].</ref> When [[Demeter]], Persephone's mother, finds out of her daughter's abduction, she forbids the earth to produce (or she neglects the earth) and, in the depth of her despair, causes nothing to grow. [[Zeus]], pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other [[Twelve Olympians|deities]] who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone.<ref name="Theoi Project - Persephone">{{cite web|url=http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html |title=Theoi Project – Persephone |publisher=Theoi.com |access-date=6 July 2012}}</ref> It was explained to Demeter that Persephone would be released, so long as she did not taste the food of the dead. Hades complies with the request to return Persephone to Demeter, but first, he tricks Persephone, forcing her to break the eating taboo by giving her some [[pomegranate]] seeds to eat.<ref>The ''[[Homeric Hymns|Homeric Hymn to Demeter]]'', [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:398-448 411–412], has Persephone tell Demeter: "he secretly put in my mouth sweet food, a pomegranate seed, and forced me to taste against my will." Gantz, p. 65 describes this as a "trick".</ref> In other interpretations, Persephone is seen eating the pomegranate seeds as a result of temptation or hunger. In the end, Hermes is sent to retrieve her but, because she had tasted the food of the underworld, she was obliged to spend a third of each year (the winter months) there, and the remaining part of the year with the gods above.<ref>Gantz, p. 65.</ref> With the later writers Ovid and Hyginus, Persephone's time in the underworld becomes half the year.<ref>Gantz, p. 67.</ref>

The most notable [[looking taboo]] in Greek myth can be found in the story of [[Orpheus and Eurydice]]. [[Orpheus]], the son of [[Apollo]], was well-renowned as a legendary musician whose music could move anything and everything, living or not, in the world. While walking among her people in tall grass at her wedding, [[Eurydice]] was set upon by a [[satyr]]. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the humans, [[nymphs]], and [[List of Greek deities|gods]] learnt about his sorrow and grief and wept with him. On the gods' advice, Orpheus traveled to the [[greek underworld|Underworld]] wherein 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 guide her out and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. As he reached the upper world, Orpheus looked back toward Eurydice in his eagerness to reunite with her, tragically forgetting about the looking taboo given to him by Hades, and since Eurydice had not crossed into the upper world, she vanishes back into the Underworld, this time forever.

A speaking taboo in Greek myth can be found in the story of [[Anchises]], the father of the [[Troy|Trojan]] [[Trojan War|warrior]] [[Aeneas]]. [[Aphrodite]] had fallen in love with the mortal Anchises after Zeus persuaded [[Eros]] to shoot her with an arrow to cause these emergent feelings.<ref name=":5">Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=59}}</ref> One interpretation recounts that Aphrodite pretended to be a [[Phrygians|Phrygian]] princess and seduced him, only to later reveal herself as a goddess and inform Anchises that she will bear him a son named Aeneas and warns him not to tell anyone that he lay with a goddess. Anchises does not heed this speaking taboo and later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result, he is struck in the foot with a [[thunderbolt#In religion and mythology|thunderbolt]] by Zeus. Thereafter, he is lame in that foot so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy.<ref>{{cite book |author=Virgil |title=''Aeneid'' |translator-first=Theodore C. |translator-last=Williams |chapter=Book II |at=Lines 714–715 |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Verg.+A.+2.714-715&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0054 |website=[[Perseus Project|Perseus Digital Library]] |publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Co.]] |place=Boston |date=1910}}</ref>

Another, albeit lesser-known, speaking taboo in Greek myth can be found in the story of [[Actaeon]]. Actaeon, whilst on a hunting trip in the woods, mistakenly and haplessly happened upon the bathing [[Artemis]].<ref>Callimachus, ''Hymn v''.</ref><ref>Callimachus gives no site: a glen in the foothills of [[Cithaeron|Mount Cithaeron]] near Boeotian [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]], is the site according to [[Euripides]], ''[[Bacchae]]'' 1290–92, a spring sanctuary near [[Plataea]] is specified elsewhere.</ref> When Artemis realized that Actaeon had seen her undressed, thus desecrating her [[Artemis#Virginity|chastity]], she punished him for his luckless profanation of her virginity's mystery by forbidding him from speech.<ref name="Coulter-Harris">{{cite book |title=Chasing Immortality in World Religions |chapter=Ancient Greece: Defining Immortality in an Age of Gods and Mortals |first=Deborah M. |last=Coulter-Harris |date=2016-07-29 |isbn=978-0786497928 |page=60 |publisher=McFarland Inc. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eNPIDAAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name="Conner">{{cite book |title=The Everything Classical Mythology Book: Greek and Roman Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters from Ares to Zeus |chapter=Artemis: The Thrill of the Hunt |first=Nancy |last=Conner |date=2010-02-10 |isbn=978-1440502408 |page=140 |publisher=Adams Media |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsSnDgAAQBAJ}}</ref> Whether it be due to forgetfulness or outright resistance, Actaeon defied his speaking taboo and called for [[Actaeon#Names of dogs|his hunting dogs]].<ref name="Coulter-Harris"/><ref name="Conner"/> Due to his failure in abiding by his speaking taboo, Artemis turned Actaeon into a stag and turned his dogs upon him. Actaeon was torn apart and ravaged by his loyal dogs who did not recognize their former master.