μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Death for breaking tabu.

Tabu. · Punishment for breaking tabu. · Death for breaking tabu. · view the constellation · filed as C920

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“He likewise gave her an egg and said, " Preserve the egg carefully for me, and carry it continually about with thee, for a great misfortune would arise from the loss of it." She took the keys and the egg, and promised to obey him in everything. When he was gone, she went all round the house from the bottom to the top, and examined everything. The rooms shone with silver and gold, and she thougnt she had never seen such great splendour.”

— Grimm's Household Tales: With the Author's Notes, Tale 46 · served from our shelf uncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
Scholars’ trail — 11references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • IcelandicBoberg
  • IndiaThompson-Balys
  • HawaiiBeckwith Myth 68, 118, 134, 138, 371, 508
  • MarquesasHandy 60, 67, 138
  • TuamotuStimson MS (t-G 3/912, z-G 13/127, 317, z-G 3/1174)
  • Eskimo (Greenland)Rink 341, Rasmussen II 341, (Mackenzie Area): Jenness 51, 58, (Central Eskimo): Boas RBAE VI 600
  • Calif. IndianGayton and Newman 101
  • S. Am. Indian (Toba)Métraux MAFLS XL 47
  • general Type 311
  • general BP I 398ff (Grimm No. 46). – Irish myth: Cross → on our shelf: Grimm's Household Tales: With the Author's Notes, Tale 46
  • general African (Angola): Chatelain 219 No. 39, (Ekoi): Talbot 178, (Kaffir): Kidd 237 No. 6, (Wakweli): Bender 43.
Within the index
11 finer motifs beneath it
Death of children for breaking tabuDeath of wife for breaking tabuImmediate death for breaking tabu. (Cf. C52, C51.3, C453, C533.)Death by smothering for breaking tabu. Man given secret box conveying the power of making women love him. He disobeys warning and opens it. The women smother him to death. (Cf. C321.)Death by drowning for breaking tabuDeath by thirst for breaking tabu. (Cf. C949.4.)Death from rattlesnake bite because of breaking tabuMan (woman) vanishes on breaking of tabuBurning as punishment for breaking tabuDeath from insanity as punishment for breaking tabuDeath for breaking tabu
Travels with
Cutting elder tree fatal to man. (Cf. C920.)Cutting white thorn tree fatal to man who cuts it. (Cf. C920.)Death or bodily injury by magic. (Cf. C920f., D1207.1, D1400, D2089.3.)Inexorable fate: death from violating tabus. (Cf. C920.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Bloody egg as sign of disobedienceEgg becomes bloody
Carried in tale types

wander