Incest in folklore and mythology

Halga seducing his own daughter Yrsa, by Jenny Nyström (1895).

Incest in folklore and mythology are found in many countries and cultures in the world.

Greek

In Greek mythology, Zeus and Hera were brother and sister as well as husband and wife. They were the children of Cronus and Rhea (also married siblings). Cronus and Rhea, in turn, were children of Uranus and Gaia (a son who took his mother as consort, in some versions of the myth). Cronus and Rhea's siblings, the other Titans, were all also married siblings like Nyx and Erebus. Sea god Phorcys fathered many offspring by his sister Ceto. Myrrha committed incest with her father, Theias, and bore Adonis.

Sophocles' tragic play Oedipus Rex features the ancient Greek king Oedipus inadvertently consummating an incestuous relationship with his mother Jocasta. When the truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus blinds himself.

Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and her brother Zeus, and becomes the consort of her uncle Hades. Some legends indicate that her father impregnated her and begat Dionysus Zagreus.

Byblis changed into a spring in her grief over her unrequited love for her brother Caunus. In some versions of the story of Auge and her son by Heracles, Telephus, the two were nearly married before Heracles revealed the truth of their relation.

Nyctimene was seduced or raped by her father, King Epopeus of Lesbos. In her shame, she avoided showing herself by day, and Athena turned her into an owl.

Orestes married his uncle Menelaus' daughter Hermione.

Norse

In Norse mythology, Loki accuses Freyr and Freyja of committing incest, in Lokasenna. He also says that Njörðr had Freyr with his sister. This is also indicated in the Ynglinga saga, which says that incest was traditional among the Vanir.

In Norse legends, the hero Sigmund and his sister Signy murdered her children and begot a son, Sinfjötli. When Sinfjötli had grown up, he and Sigmund murdered Signy's husband Siggeir. The element of incest also appears in the version of the story used in Wagner's opera-cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, in which Siegfried is the offspring of Siegmund and his sister Sieglinde.

The legendary Danish king Hrólfr kraki was born from an incestuous union of Halgi and Yrsa.

Egyptian

In Egyptian mythology, the gods frequently married their siblings. For example, Shu and Tefnut are brother and sister and they produced another pair of gods, Geb and Nut. Their children were Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys; Isis married Osiris, and Set with Nephthys.

Chinese

In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi was a god-king who took his sister Nüwa as his bride.

In another myth, which went around among the Miao people in the Yunnan Province, after a great flood, only a mother and her son survived. A deity transformed the mother into a young woman, and ordered her to marry her son.

In a myth discovered with the Han and an additional 40 other ethnic groups, the human population is restored by the sexual union of a brother and his older sister after the entire human race had perished from a catastrophe, like a flood (most common), fire, snow, etc.

Japanese

In Japanese mythology, stories about incest between a brother and sister are quite common. In old Japanese literature, the definition of incest was restricted to only marriages between a brother and his younger sister. This would seem to permit marriage between a brother and his older sister. For this reason, it has been thought that the brothers and sisters that married in these myths were younger brothers and older sisters. The divine siblings Izanagi and Izanami were married, along with Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi in some versions.

Icelandic

In Icelandic folklore a common plot involves a brother and sister (illegally) conceiving a child. They subsequently escape justice by moving to a remote valley. There they proceed to have several more children. The man has some magical abilities which he uses to direct travelers to or away from the valley as he chooses. The siblings always have exactly one daughter but any number of sons. Eventually the magician allows a young man (usually searching for sheep) into the valley and asks him to marry the daughter and give himself and his sister a civilized burial upon their deaths. This is subsequently done.

Indonesian

In the ancient Indonesian folklore of Tangkuban Perahu, Dayang Sumbi expelled her son, Sangkuriang, for his disobedience. After many years of expulsion, Sangkuriang came home and he saw Dayang Sumbi, who had long been granted the power of eternal youth by the gods. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi. Sangkuriang intended on marrying Dayang Sumbi without realising she was his mother. However, Dayang Sumbi recognised Sangkuriang's birthmark. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to build a dam on the river Citarum and to build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang meditated and summoned mythical ogre-like creatures – buto ijo or green giant(s) – to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat.

In a Minahasan myth, a significant event is that of the sexual relation between a mother and son. The story narrated that they were both separated, and met years later with neither recognizing the other. They married after conducting a trial which demonstrated that the two were fated to become husband and wife. The incident was present in nearly the exact same form in the island of Lombok, and also in Nias, except a ring was used instead of a staff for the trial.

British/Irish

In the Old Irish saga Tochmarc Étaíne ("The Wooing of Étaín"), Eochaid Airem, the high king of Ireland is tricked into sleeping with his daughter, whom he mistakes for her mother Étaín. The child of their union becomes the mother of the legendary king Conaire Mor.

In some versions of the medieval British legend of King Arthur, Arthur accidentally begets a son by his half sister Morgause in a night of blind lust, then seeks to have the child killed when he hears of a prophecy that it will bring about the undoing of the Round Table. The child survives and later becomes Mordred, his ultimate nemesis.

In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Clothra became the mother of Lugaid Riab nDerg through sexual relations with her three younger brothers (Finn Emna). Clothra would later commit adultery with her own son, and from that bore Crimthann Nia Náir.

Vietnamese

In ancient Vietnamese folklore, there is a tale of a brother and a sister. As children, the brother and sister fought over a toy. The brother smashes a stone over his sister's head, and the girl falls down unconscious. The boy thinks he has killed his sister, and afraid of punishment, he flees. Years later, by coincidence, they meet again, fall in love, and marry without knowing they are siblings. They build a house along a seashore, and the brother becomes a fisherman while his sister tends to the house. Together they have a son. One day, the brother discovers a scar on his wife's head. She tells him about the childhood fight with her brother, and the brother realizes that he has married his own sister. Overwhelmed with guilt over his incest, the brother goes out on the sea. Every day, the sister climbs to the top of the hill to look for her brother, but he never comes back. She died in waiting and became "Hon Vong Phu" ("the stone waiting for her husband").

African

A couple of African tales have this motif where a mother gets rid of her son’s wife and puts on the wife’s clothes to have sexual intercourse with her son.

Indian

The Indian (Marathi) story, ‘Mother Marries Son’, is about the daughter of goddess Satwai, the goddess who marked the future on the heads of all children on the fifth night from their birth. The daughter is informed by her mother that it was her destiny to join in marriage with her own son. Intent on outwitting destiny, she decided to never get married, never even look at a male. She went into the forest and made a shack there. Several years passed, when she had grew into a young woman, destiny interceded. A king, out on a hunting activity in that very forest, drank from a river and having gargled with the water, spits it back into the river. Magically, his sperm combined with the water and a while later when drunk by the unaware woman, made her conceive. The woman attempted to beat destiny once more, by dropping her infant boy, swathed in her sari, down a mountain. However, the baby lived and was raised by a childless gardener and his wife. After many years, when Satwai’s daughter, bored of her lonely life in the forest, decided to go back to civilization, she inevitably came to meet the young man of this exact family and they fell in love. Assured that her son was dead, she married the now adult son of the gardener (as she believed him to be). However, soon after the consummation, the truth was discovered by her as she came across in his room the very exact sari in which she had swathed her infant son with before throwing him away. However, the woman decided to keep it her secret and “lived on with her husband happily, blessed by her old parents-in-law, to whom she was always kind and dutiful.”

Many legends of Mahadeva, a disputed figure in the histories of early Buddhism, exist. He was described as having sexual relations with his own mother.

Russian/Ukrainian

In an Udege myth, a girl and her younger brother were the sole survivors of a great flood. They became the progenitors of the entire human race.

Fillipino

In a Filipino folklore, a huge flood once killed all the planet's inhabitants except a single pregnant woman. She gave birth to a boy. When her son, Uacatan, grew up, he married his mother, and it was said that all Mandayas were descended from them.

Korean

In a Korean legend, a great flood drowned all the inhabitants of the planet except for two siblings, who married and become the progenitors of the human race. Long, long ago, a huge flood transformed the whole planet into a vast sea, leaving just a brother and his older sister on a single mountain peak. When the water subsided, the siblings descended from the mountain, only to find no other person alive. The siblings were concerned that this would be the end of the human race, and realized that only they could repopulate the earth. Unsure about breaking the incest taboo, they decided to test their compatibility. Each of them went up two mountain peaks that were positioned near to each other. The girl rolled down the bedstone (female stone) of a millstone, and her younger brother rolled down the runner stone (male stone). When they came back down to check the result, they saw that their two stones had collided and stuck together in the center of the valley. (In another variation, they put the pine branches on fire and smoke intertwined in mid-air.) The siblings considered this as an indication that their fate permitted them to marry. With the fruit born of their sexual union, mankind persisted, making the siblings the progenitors of mankind.

American Indian

In an Inuit mythology, an unknown man visited this woman every night. Every night she awoke to find him having sexual intercourse with her but she could never identify him as the darkness always obscured his face. However, one night, in order to discover his identity, the woman prepared a soot-oil mixture which she applied all over her bosom. He came again that night as he usually did. The next morning she saw that her younger brother’s face was darkened with soot. Faced with the undeniable truth that it was her own younger who had been having physical contact with her body all those many nights, she was mortified and ran away from their village. However, her younger brother went after after her and in the course of their long chase, the older sister transformed into the sun and the younger brother transformed into the moon. The solar eclipse transpired whenever the younger brother would catch up with his older sister and couple with her again.

A myth narrated by the Iroquois and Algonkian had four main characters: a woman ("Woman"), her younger brother ("Brother"), her younger brother's lookalike ("Double"), and the lookalike's mother ("The Witch"). Some unidentified man tried to sneak into Woman's room in order to sleep with her. Woman caught a glimpse of the man's face and saw that the resemblance matches Brother. When she confronted her younger brother about it, he denied that it was him. To prove his innocence, he stayed awake the next night and in the presence of his older sister successfully caught the true culprit, Double. Brother then killed Double. However, Brother would be in danger if The Witch, Double's mother, were to learn of her son's death. So Woman gave Brother an idea. She told him to pretend to be The Witch's son and so he did. However, The Witch began to grow suspicious of her son's sudden change in demeanor and she was also aware of the fact that her son had a double. One day, she asked her son why he was no longer pursuing Woman, the girl he was in love with. Fearful for her younger brother's life, Woman married Brother, believing that their marriage would put a stop to The Witch's suspicions. Years passed and the two had no children. The Witch was once again suspicious. Seeing no other choice, Woman and Brother reluctantly had sexual intercourse and she bore him a child. After that, The Witch no longer had a reason to think that he was Brother and she finally accepted that Brother was her son, Double.

Thai

The Kammu tradition in northern Thailand included flood myths, which were stories characterized by a sexual union of the sole two survivors, often a brother and an older sister, after the diminishing of the flood waters in order to repopulate the earth. The young siblings were initially reluctant to have sexual intercourse, not until some omen persuaded them of the necessity of their coupling.

In the case of one version of the narrative, it was the malkoha cuckoo, which convinced the ancient pair to have a sexual relationship. The Malkoha cooed to the girl, "Embrace your younger brother!"

Other

In fairy tales of Aarne-Thompson folktale type 510B, the persecuted heroine, the heroine is persecuted by her father, and most usually, the persecution is an attempt to marry her, as in Allerleirauh or Donkeyskin. This was taken up into the legend of Saint Dymphna.

Several child ballads have the motif of incest between brothers and sisters who are raised apart. This is usually unwitting (as in The Bonny Hind and Sheath and Knife, for example), but always brings about a tragic end.

‘Sikhalól and his Mother’ is a story from the Pacific Atoll (coral island) of Ulithi. Lisor, a gorgeous young lady who was married to Chief Sokhsurum, bore a baby prematurely at seven months. Since the infant was still covered with amniotic fluid, Lisor did not notice a baby inside and set it adrift on the river. However, this infant was rescued. A fisherman named Rasim took the baby to his home and used magic that in just a month the infant grew into a young man. Rasim deduced the identity of his parents, since only one woman was known to be pregnant in the village at the time and he realized she must have unknowingly delivered a premature baby. However he decided to keep this truth to himself. This baby-turned young-man, who the fisherman named Sikhalól, while out on a canoe with some companions stumbled upon Lisor in her menstrual hut (place that separated women from the rest of functioning society while on their menstrual period). Lisor found herself attracted to this handsome boy and he likewise. She cheated on her husband and made love to this boy numerous times, not wishing to depart from her menstrual house even when, after ten days, her irritated husband came to take her back. When Risam told Sikhalól who his parents were and Sikhalól revealed this to Lisor, neither of them were bothered by the incest. Instead of expressing mortification or disbelief, not only Sikhalól but also (and specially) Lisor was very keen on keeping their nightly trysts going. Ultimately, Sokhsurum was slain by his own son and the story concluded thus “Sikhalól then took Lisor back to his village, and they lived together from then on."

See also

• Incest in the Bible
• Incest in popular culture

References

Notes