Английская Википедия:Incest in folklore and mythology

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Файл:Helgi and Yrsa.jpg

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

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

Polytheistic deities

Greek

In Greek mythology, Gaia (earth) had 12 children with her own son Uranus (sky). She bore six male and six female Titans to her son, Uranus (sky). The male Titans were Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus. The female Titans were Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion and Cronus each consorted with one of their sisters and mated with them, producing offspring of their own, while Themis and Mnemosyne became wives of their nephew Zeus, Iapetus married his niece Clymene, and Crius married his half-sister Eurybia.

Zeus also fathered a daughter, Persephone, with his other older sister, Demeter. However, the orphic sources claim that Persephone was instead the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea.

Nyx and Erebus were also married siblings. The sea god Phorcys fathered many offspring by his sister Ceto.

Among the many lovers of Zeus, some were his daughters. 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. Other examples include Zeus's relations with the Muse Calliope, Aphrodite (his daughter in some versions) and Nemesis (his daughter in one tradition).

Virgil, one of the finest Roman poets, candidly recounts Juno as, Iovis et soror et coniunx (translation: both elder sister and consort of Jupiter), without further remarks on this odd union. Ovid, a canonical poet of Latin literature, highlights Juno's dual relationship to Jupiter:

Latin est aliquid nupsisse Iovi, Iovis esse sororem: fratre magis, dubito, glorier, anne viro.

translation It is something to have married Jupiter and to be Jupiter’s older sister. I am uncertain whether I am prouder of my younger brother or of my husband.

After Juno’s boasting about her incest, she wonders if lineage through blood ancestry trumps lineage gained by marriage.

Egyptian

Horus, the grandson of Geb, had his own mother, Isis, become his imperial consort.

The goddess Hathor was simultaneously considered to be the mother, wife, and daughter of the sun god Ra. Hathor was also occasionally seen as the mother and wife of Horus.Шаблон:Rp

In Egyptian mythology, there are frequent sibling marriages. For example, Shu and Tefnut are brother and sister and they produce offspring, Geb and Nut.

Inca

The patron god on the Incas, Inti, is married to his elder sister Mama Quilla.

Oedipus-type tales

Oedipus-type tales are stories that are very similar to Oedipus Rex, which is the most famous tale of mother–son incest. They start with the warning of the fated incest and, in response, the mother deserts her child. If his mother is a queen, princess, or an aristocrat, the son distinguishes himself among her suitors by accomplishing a certain task, thereby earning her hand in marriage as a part of the reward. However, the hero's desertion as a child makes plausible that neither the son nor mother recognize each other, leading to an inadvertent, incestuous consummation. For example, in the Indonesian legend of Tangkuban Perahu, Princess Dayang Sumbi weds a warrior, unaware he is her son, when he succeeds in recovering a prized weaving needle she lost, and the ancient Greek king Oedipus and his mother Jocasta are also setup for marriage in a similar way. If the mother and son learn the truth about their relationship, it is usually after they wed.

For example, in the aforementioned Indonesian legend, Princess Dayang Sumbi, while laying aside her sleeping husband, recognizes the scar on his chest as her son's. In a Javanese story explaining the origin of the Kalangs, the woman finally recognizes her son-husband by the scar of a gash she inflicted on his head with a wooden spoon when he was younger.Шаблон:Rp

Another way the mother-wife discovers the incest in the wedding bed is by an object that she had kept with the baby. The timing of the discovery varies from one night to many years and in some cases, as far as after multiple children are born. In the Middle English Sir Degaré, the foundling is left a pair of gloves with a note that said only his "beloved" will be able to fit them. Degaré reads this to mean that these gloves will only fit his future wife. After he weds a lady he champions from a fight, he remembers to make her try on the gloves. When they fit, he thinks he chose the right wife only for her to correct him and explain that he had misunderstood the directions for they were really about finding his mother, who is actually her—the lady he wedded. After Degaré and his mother discover their unexpected incest, the narrator notes that anyone proposing to marry a stranger far from home should always be careful to ask about the future spouse’s family first, in case they turn out to be related. In the original tale, for example, Jocasta bears her son four children: Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene.Шаблон:Rp

The core plot, having entered into the world of folklore, is found in folktales of various nations like Greece, Indonesia, India, Albania, Britain, Malaysia, Iran, etc.

In the Middle English poem Sir Eglamour, Degrebelle, a skilled knight, goes out to find a wife; he unknowingly weds his own mother, a king's niece, after winning in a joust. This is a totally chivalric tale, and so like most romances it has a happy ending for the mother and son. Similarly, in another chivalric Middle English, Sir Degaré sets out to find his parents and after some adventures, he wins a battle, thereby championing the princess, Degaré’s unrecognised mother, to wed as a prize. In a similar tale of this era, Richars li Biaus, a foundling grows up, meets his mother, and the two instantly fall in love.

The aftermath and conclusion varies. In the Spanish version published by Timoneda, here the hero learns the truth of his incestuous marriage, but, on the advice and urging of his mother-wife, keeps the scandal hidden.

Great Flood/Deluge

African

In an African legend, a girl chases away a goat for licking her flour, but it quickly comes back. Feeling sympathy for it, she allows the goat to eat as much of the flour as it wants. Out of gratitude for her kindness, it warns her of a huge flood. She and her brother pick up a few necessities and get as far as they could. As the goat warned, a flood engulfs their entire village. They find a habitable location and live there without meeting anyone else for years. Her brother wants to leave to find a wife. She does not want them to be separated, but he does not change his mind. The night before he was to depart, the goat reappears to the girl who is crying. It says that her brother's search would be futile as there were no other humans alive and that only the two of them could reproduce the human race. However, in order for them to get married, the goat told her that they had to break the bottom of a clay pot and hang it onto to the sharp corner of the roof. Then they must connect it to an empty hoe-handle. This would be an indication of their blood-relation. For this reason, when a person marries their own blood, the pair must have a cracked pot and a hoe-handle put up on their roof.

Chinese

In a myth discovered with the Han and an additional 40 other ethnic groups, the human population was 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.

In a myth of the Miao people, A-Zie and his older sister are the sole survivors of a great flood. When he asks his older sister to marry him, she keeps refusing but eventually agrees to a test to qualify their union. Each will roll a millstone from opposite hills into a valley, and if they meet there, she will wed him. The test is carried out, but A-Zie runs to the valley floor and sets his millstone atop her millstone just before she arrives. Still reluctant, she suggests a second trial. This time they will throw knives into the valley, and if both land in a single sheath she will wed her younger brother. Again A-Zie arrives early and puts both knives in one sheath. So they marry and have a child, and that is how the world is repopulated.

In another brother-sister flood myth, every day, a girl and her younger brother feed a stone turtle. One time, while feeding it food, the turtle warns them of a great flood that would be coming. They hide in the turtle's belly, making them the only two surviving humans. Years later, the turtle remarks that whether or not the human race continues to exist is up to them. They both understand what the turtle is implying, but the girl thinks it's improper for her to marry her own younger brother so she adamantly refuses the idea. The turtle proposes that they have a trial of fate. Each sibling should roll a half of the same millstone down a different side of the mountain and if the halves rejoin, it would be a sign that they should marry. The girl, knowing how unlikely that would be, agrees. When they come to check the result, she is astonished to find her younger brother's half on top of hers as if the two were never separated. She wonders what it means, and the turtle explains that this is how the siblings must consummate their marriage. So with her younger brother on top of her, they connect as one and she conceives. With the birth of their children, they become the ancestors of the entire human race.

In another myth, which went among the Miao people in the Yunnan Province, a great flood leaves only a mother and her young son alive. The mother accidentally eats a nut that transforms her into a young woman. Meanwhile, the young man searches for his mother only to find her in her transformed state. He does not recognise her and quickly takes a liking to her. She is flattered and so does not tell him who she is. She pretends as if this is her first time meeting him, and he invites her to live with him. Even until his last breath, he never finds out that his own mother is the mother of all his children.

A popular Hmong origin myth narrates about a boy and his older sister being the only ones to survive the flood by staying in the hollow of a wooden funeral drum. Each of their children become the ancestor of a unique clan.

In a version from the Ch'uan Miao, a boy drops a thread from one side of the mountain and his older sister tosses a needle from the other side. To their surprise, they find the needle threaded. Thus, the siblings likewise become threaded in marriage and their daughter is born the following year. A version of mother-son marriage after the deluge is known from the same area too.

Japanese

Incestuous marriage between a mother and her son is a motif which is widespread in the circumpacific area of Hachijō Island. In an ancient tale, a tidal wave kills all life except a pregnant lady named Tanaba, who survives by holding to a wax tree. She brings forth a boy. He grows up unaware of the taboo of producing children with a blood-relative and so his mother easily convinces him to be her husband. The two become the ancestors of the islanders.

Indian

Numerous variants of brother-sister unions following the flood are found from the Bhuiya, Maria, Bondo, Gabada, Kond, Saora and Kol among the tribal area of central India. A variant of mother-son union following the flood is reported from the Gabada of the same location too.

Siberia

In an Udege myth, a girl and her younger brother are the sole survivors of a great flood. They became the progenitors of the whole human race. There are also many Udege tales about the trouble of finding a spouse from another clan as distances are large, resources are uncertain, and people are always moving. When the search fails, a girl may make a family unit with her brother. The children they have together becomes the future of the clan.

Taiwanese

From Taiwan alone come twenty-eight versions of a brother-sister pair living as husband and wife to become the progenitors of mankind after a great flood.

Among the Taiwanese aboriginals, only the Sedec tribe preserved the tale of mother-and-son incest. In this tale, there are no men and only one woman. She is pregnant and bears a boy, but he later reaches the age when he desires the touch of a woman. He has only one option and his mother is willing as she sees it as a way of fulfilling her own desires of having more children. They become the ancestors of the Taroko clan.

In a Formosan version of this myth, a brother and his older sister are saved from a flood by a wooden mortar that floats them up a mountain. They look for mates but finding none except each other, they marry. They bear healthy children, thereby becoming the tribe's ancestors.

In an Atayal myth, a brother and his older sister are the only humans to survive. They both have qualities that complement their relationship. The male youth is strong and hardworking, while the girl is clever and lively. One day, the boy tells his sister that as much as he enjoys her company, he wants a partner like the animals of the woods and skies do. His sister responds that it's impossible since there is no other human girl aside from her. Seeing her brother sad, she comes up with a plan. The next day, the boy spots a girl with face paintings near the cave at the base of the mountain. He approaches her and she warmly greets him. The boy immediately falls in love and since then, he meets her everyday. Soon, he realizes that he’s been spending more time with his new friend than his sister so he informs his sister of his desire to marry the girl. To his surprise, his sister opposes the marriage. After an argument, she tells him that if he proceeds with this decision, then he will never see his sister again. The brother upset, says he’s fine with that. The next morning, he is shocked to find his sister gone. After searching for days, he realizes that his sister was serious about never seeing her again. Although he felt regret, he invites the girl at the cave to move in with him. Thus, she became what would later be called his "wife" and they had many children together. Of course, the boy's bride was none other than his own older sister who had burnt sticks and applied the charcoal to her face as a disguise. That is why from that day on Atayal girls, before marrying, would always have their faces tattooed.

Fillipino

The Mandaya of Mindanao have a myth of a big flood killing all except a pregnant lady. A son, named Uacatan (Watakan), is born to her. When the son grows up, he weds his mother, and from this union all humans arise.

In the Philippines, brother-sister marriages following a flood are reported from the Ifugao, Isneg, and Igorot.

The Ifugaos describe a tale of a drought evaporating all the waters. Hoping to find the soul of the river, the villagers dig the ground. After several days of this, a great spring bursts forth. However, while they are all jubilating, the angered river causes water to cover the land. People try fleeing to either of two mountains peaks, one at each end of the village. None make it except for two, a brother and his older sister, Wigan and Bugan respectively. Wigan settles on the top of Mount Amuyao and Bugan on the top of Mount Kalawitan. There are fruits and nuts on both of the mountain tops to sustain them. After half a decade, the waters recede. The siblings come down from their respective mountains and settle down at the valley together. A couple of months later, Bugan realizes that she is carrying her younger brother's child. Feeling guilty, she runs away from their home. Tired after a long journey and overcome with sorrow, she falls to the ground only to meet the river who takes on the form of an elderly man. He comforts her, saying that her shame holds no water and that she has done no wrong. For through Bugan and her younger brother, the world will be repeopled again.

Korean

A Korean legend narrates how a huge flood transforms the planet into a big sea, leaving just a brother and his older sister on a mountain peak. When the water subsides, the siblings descend down, only to find no one else alive. The siblings realize this means only they can repeople the earth. Unsure about breaking the incest taboo, they decide to do a test. Each of them go up two different mountain peaks that are positioned near each other. The girl rolls down the bedstone (female stone) of a millstone, and the boy rolls down the runner stone (male stone). When they return down, they find their stones stuck together at the center of the valley. (In another variation, they put pine branches on fire and smoke intertwines in mid-air.) The siblings take this as an indication to marry and so mankind persists with the siblings as their progenitors.

Thai

The Kammu tradition in northern Thailand includes flood myths, characterized by a sexual union of the sole two survivors, often a brother and an older sister in order to repeople the earth. The young siblings are initially reluctant until some omen persuades them of the necessity of their coupling.

In one version, a brother and his older sister try to dig out a bamboo rat. As they keep digging, the bamboo rat keeps going deeper down until it asks, "Why are you trying to dig me out? A big flood will destroy all your land, which is why I must go deep deep down to survive." So the two youngsters make a drum. When the flooding starts, they crawl into the hollow and caulk it with wax along the rim. When they come out after the flood dries up, they find no one alive. The girl tells the boy to go north and marry the first girl he sees while she heads south to marry the first man she meets. The boy travels, but no matter where he goes, he sees no one until at last, he sees a lady at a mountain from a distance. The lady also sees him and proceeds to meet him. He thinks he finally got a wife but as she gets nearer, he realizes that it is his own older sister. The girl also initially thinks she could be becomes his wife until she recognizes her younger brother. With neither able to find anyone else, the younger brother suggests they marry each other, but his older sister convinces him that as siblings, that can not be done. One day, the girl stumbles across a malkoha cuckoo. Delightfully surprised to see one, she goes closer to it. It begins cooing to her, "You must embrace your younger brother!" Soon after, she rushes to tell the boy of this news. It is in the fifth year after they first emerged from the drum that she bears her younger brother's first child.

Miscellaneous

Greek

Mortal

Myrrha committed incest with her father, Theias, and bore Adonis.

Thyestes raped his daughter Pelopia after an oracle advised him that a son born of them would be the one to kill Atreus, Thyestes' brother and rival.

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

Njörðr is sometimes said to be married to Skaði, while other times he's said to be married to his unnamed sister. Ynglinga saga chapter 4, provides an example of the latter, characterizing their union as a Vanir custom:

Old Norse Þá er Njǫrðr var með Vǫnum, þá hafði hann átta systur sína, því at þat váru þar lǫg; váru þeira bǫrn Freyr ok Freyja.

Lee M. Hollander translation (1992) While Njorth lived with the Vanir he had his sister as wife, because that was the custom among them. Their children were Frey and Freya.

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.

Chinese

In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi is a king and creator god who takes his sister, the goddess Nüwa, as his bride.

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.

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.

Danand, a minor character in Irish mythology, is said to have conceived three sons with her own father.

Vietnamese

In an 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").

Ugandan

In a tale from Uganda, a youth called Uken was having a playful argument with his mother. "Now you are old, mother," said he. "But was I not a girl once too?" countered his mother, "surely if I dressed up the men young as you would look at me still! "Really, mother," answered Uken, "you who are all old now, who do you think would look at you?" Now when his mother heard what he said, his words sank deep in her heart. The next morning Uken was exchanging promises with a girl friend, and the girl promised that she would come to him that night. Meanwhile, Uken's mother wanted to disprove her son's earlier opinion of her. She stripped off all her old skin and there she was with complexion as clear as long ago when she had been a girl. Then she went to her son's sleeping place, and waited for him, wanting to see his reaction. She waited and waited but sleep began to overwhelm her and overwhelmed her it did. By the time the youth came back from his walk it was night. He found his mother asleep on his sleeping place. She looked so young and beautiful from head to foot, glistening with the oil she had used to anoint her body, and wearing beads of many kinds.' There she was lying on his sleeping place. So when her son came and entered the hut his eye lit up at the thought that perhaps the girl who had made him promises had really come. And so he lay with his mother that night. At first light his mother went out and left him on the bed. She had never intended for this to happen nor did she think her son knew he had spent the night sleeping with his mother as if he was her husband so she decided she would take this secret to her grave. She returned to her hut and put on her old skin. Then when morning came Uken got up and went to his mother's hut to ask her for food, and once again made some comment about her old age. Hearing that, she could not help herself and said "Your mother, your mother, did you know that just a few hours ago you were enjoying the night with this old lady?" Uken was shocked, and knew it to be true as he realized the moans and sighs of his woman last night matched the voice of his mother. Mortified and embarrassed, never again did he disrespect his mother's appearance.

Nupe

In a Nupe tale, a man gives his mother money and tells her to use it to get him a wife. However, a man she owes money to takes the amount her son gave her. When her son asks what’s taking so long, she tells him that his wife would come that night. She indeed comes and passes the night with him but she is nowhere to be found the next morning. When his mother becomes pregnant, he realizes the deceit. The mother blames it on his impatience. So he marries his mother, as she is now the mother of his child.

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. In addition, stories of tale type ATU 706, "The Maiden Without Hands", also show the motif of attempted fatherly incest connected with the mutilation of the heroine.

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.

See also

• Incest in the Bible
• Incest in popular culture