Map

concept

Taboo

Beliefs & concepts

A prohibition charged with danger or sanctity. Polynesian tapu and other ban-systems are cousins in scholarship, not identical laws.

Also known as tapu

Shinto

  • Taboo appears in Shinto.

    The Kojiki charges Izanagi not to look at Izanami in Yomi, and breaks of that ban drive the underworld rupture. Named looking-taboo and related prohibitions in that narrative, not Polynesian tapu anthropology dump alone.

    from Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation) · Kojiki, 712 CE; Philippi trans. 1968

    appears in · sourced · documented

Roman religion

  • Taboo appears in Roman religion.

    Virgil’s Aeneid seats nefas and forbidden acts—broken burial duties, violated sanctuaries, and Proserpina’s barred gifts. Taboo as published concept for that prohibition speech, not Shinto taboo alone.

    from Virgil · Aeneid, 19 BCE (unfinished at the poet’s death)

    appears in · sourced · documented

sources

  • Kojiki · Ō no Yasumaro (compiler); Donald L. Philippi (translation)

    Donald L. Philippi, Kojiki.

  • Aeneid · Virgil

    Virgil, Aeneid.