Incest in folklore and mythology

Oedipus-type tales are very similar to Oedipus Rex, which is the most famous tale of mother–son incest. They have a common secular adventure story trope which often includes foundlings and split families: the hero may or may not identify his mother in time to avoid incest. The potential for romance—the hero's search for his parents, his marriage to his unrecognised mother, etc.—has inspired several writers as well. In fact in later vernacular romances, mother–son incest and its culmination are predicted outcomes for the foundling heroes, who are looking for their roots.[1]

These tales 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 she 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. 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.[1]

If the mother and son learn the truth about their relationship, it is usually after they wed.[5] 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.[6] 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.[7]

Another way the mother-wife discovers the incest in the wedding bed is by an object that she had kept with the baby. 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.[1]

A rare example of an Oedipus myth from Montenegrin folklore, has the mother, still young and vigorous, sleeping with her unrecognised young son—who is very pleasing in her eyes—before they get married.[7]

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 original tale, for example, Jocasta has already bore her son four children: Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene.[8][7]

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.[1]

The Albanian version of the Oedipus folktale ends with a lady, who learns she has unknowingly married her older son, singing the following quatrain to their child:

Albanian Nina nina hir! I hiri i t' em hir! I hiri i s'em re! S' ati vjehe'rr i ke Ie!

translation Hush thee, hush thee, son! Son of my son! Son of my daughter-in-law! Born to thy father-in-law!

[7]

The first two lines' meanings need no gloss, and that of the third little; as her elder son's wife the lady is daughter-in-law to his mother, that is to say, to herself. The fourth line is very involved. The lady is the mother of her married son and mother-in-law of his wife, again herself. She is her own mother-in-law, and as her older son is her husband, he is her father-in-law where she is mother-in-law. So the baby is the child of a man who is son, husband, and father-in-law of the same lady, who is also her own daughter-in-law and mother-in-law.[7]

This core plot of a lost son unknowingly sleeping with the mother who bore him is found in folktales of various nations like Greece, Indonesia, India, Albania, Britain, Malaysia, Iran, etc.[9][1]

There is evidence to suggest that the bed trick and incest are closely related. Like the bed trick, incest may occur when the forbidden partners (parent and child or siblings) do not recognize one another. Moreover, masquerade may displace the guilt of incest. The need to weaken the incestuous taboo often provides the narrative device of the bedtrick, reasonable ignorance: that is, the excuses of "not knowing", "not seeing", and "not recognizing" the parent or child or sibling.[10]

Many bed tricks, especially incestuous bed tricks, rely on the failure of siblings (or parents and children) to distinguish one another from the other due to their mutual resemblance. So when one family member poses as another that he or she resembles, the trick is far more likely to work.[10]

Many myths, from the Admiralty Islands and Tanna Island in New Hebrides (Vanuatu), have a son who fails to recognise his mother when she sheds or sloughs her skin so as to masquerade as a young lady. Géza Róheim, one of the most important anthropologist-psychoanalyst, explains these myths; "A child does not recognize the rejuvenated mother in the young woman. In the last version quoted above and belonging to this group the difficulty lies in the Oedipus complex. If mothers were to cast their skins and hence mankind were to live forever, sons would want their mothers for their wives." Often the unnatural suspension of aging leads to the transformed mother to sleep with her son, thus an incestuous bedtrick.[10]

A man's mother may also vie with his wife for his love, posing incestuous issues for her son. Some masquerading mothers-in-law play the role of the "Substitute Bride," as it is known in folklore. Experts of Palestinian folklore, Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, tell a tale about a mother who replaces her own eyes with her stolen daughter-in-law's eyes and succeeds, for a time, in sleeping with her own son. Anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod records a more complex, modern Bedouin version, where the husband, after a long absence, mistakes his mother for his wife.[10]

A classic bedtrick is the tale of the son whose mother mistakes him, at the very least, for someone who is not her son (as in Sophocles' Oedipus the King) or, if a son looks too much like his father, at the very most, his mother may mistake him for his father, both of which could lead to incest. In a Tamil tale, a naïve princess, who is led to believe she does not have a living son, falls in love with him when she later meets him. In the popular Greek tale "The Life of Secundus", a man gets a woman to accept his offer of fifty gold pieces if she would sleep with him. She is willing and has him sneak into her home at dusk so that they can go to bed to have sex. After the first rays of dawn come, she asks about him and learns that he is her own son who had left home years ago.[10][11]

In Bandello's French tale, a noblelady's son asks a maidservant to bed; so at midnight, he assumes the lady on his bed is the maidservant, but it is really his mother, who had taken the maidservant's place to confirm the maidservant's complaint and to disgrace her son. However, due to her youth, she briefly forgets she is his mother for her rage at his lust had instead turned into pleasure. He, a virgin, cannot tell a maiden from a seasoned lady so she is able to give into his embrace without exposing who she is.[1] Despite this, she conceives that night. In order to bear their child without her son finding out she had lain with him, she sends him away for a time.[10]

Parthenius tells the classic tale of Periander, who is persuaded to sleep with a lovely woman who demands total secrecy and anonymity. Periander agrees to the terms and enjoys the affair, but after some time decides to hide a light in his bedroom to see his mysterious lover only to discover that she is in fact his own mother.[1] [12]

Aegypius, a young guy with a taste for older women, is tricked into incest with his own mother, Bulis (Boulis). Themes of incestuous entrapment or of unwitting incest often recur in folklore.[12][13]

Purposely inflicted marks are a device by which the passive target of the deceit suddenly becomes active and inflicts upon the bedtrickster a mark that later reveals the trickster's identity, either publicly (when the mark is on his face) or privately (when, since the mark is in an intimate place, knowledge of it proves sexual intimacy). Thus so occurs in an Inuit tale: When it is dark and she can not see him, a man visits a woman at night and sleeps with her. When he visits her again, she soot-marks the left side of her seducer's face, and the next day she sees the same mark on her younger brother.[10]

Intoxication is a state where inhibitions are released, including those against incest.[10]

This occurs when the person is with another and pretends that they don't know it's a blood-relative (eg: their mother or sister) in order to do the forbidden act guilt-free.[10]

In Greek mythology, after Cronus weds his older sister Rhea, he is deposed by Zeus, who then weds his own older sister Hera and casually couples with another of his older sisters, Demeter, as the other Olympians ardently imitate him.[1] Cronus's brothers (Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion), like Cronus, each also consorted with one of their sisters.[14] Crius married his half-sister Eurybia.[15] Nyx and Erebus were also married siblings.

Virgil, one of the finest Roman poets, candidly recounts Juno as, Iovis et soror et coniunx (translation: both elder sister and consort of Jupiter),[16] 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.[17]

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

In Egyptian myth, the brothers, Osiris and Set, both wed their elder sisters, Isis and Nephthys.[1]

The patron deity of the Incas, Inti, is married to his elder sister Mama Quilla.

There also are myths of incest between Amaterasu and her younger brother, Susanoo.[18]

In classical mythology, an amorous relationship between a male deity and his mother, who is typically the mother goddess, may succeed if it is initiated by the male. A fully consummated incestuous union is inevitable if a violent goddess gives birth to her consort.[19] However, before a goddess becomes a consort of her son, her son must tame her into a bride or wife that is befitting him. In the myth of Prthu, for example, he is not only a goddess's son but also her lover, who tames and governs her, turning her from the bad mother who withholds food into the mother who yields food. The concept of a goddess who weds her son, however, is not unique to Indo-European mythology; it is found in a variety of cultures.[20]

Among an array of mother-son unions in Greek mythology, the first occurs when Gaia (earth) mates with her own son Uranus (sky).[14] Others were the agricultural goddess Demeter with her son Plutus, the fertility goddess Rhea with her son Zeus, and the goddess Agdistis (Cybele) with her son Attis.[21]

In Egyptian mythology, Horus, the grandson of Geb, had his own mother, Isis, become his imperial consort.[22] The goddess Hathor was simultaneously considered to be the mother and wife of the sun god Ra.[23] Hathor was also occasionally seen as the mother and wife of Horus.[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]

In the Sākta Purānas, Mahadevi births Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva and vows to become the wife of each of them. However, Śiva wishes to have her as his wife alone so he woos her with asceticism. Then she is pleased with him and vows to become Śati in order to wed him.[20]

Incestuous desire for the mother is allowed to appear—often only by implication—in the classical Saiva Puranas, especially in myths of Ganesa, who is uninterested in all the country's damsels since none of them are as beautiful as his mother. During his fight with Surapadma, in order to expel the demon that had invaded his mother, Ganesa is said to have "sealed her yoni (female organ)" with the "lowest part of his own trunk". The explanation of the popular Vallabhagapapati icon, a clear sexual image, reveals Ganesa's partner as "his mother". The Ganesa myths clearly show the son's desire for his mother's love and Siva's jealousy at Parvati's love for this child.[19]

In Greek mythology, Gaia (earth) had 12 children with her own son Uranus (sky).[14][37] She bore six male and six female Titans to her son, Uranus (sky). The male Titans were Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Lapeteus, and Cronus. The female Titans were Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion and Cronus each mated with one of their sisters, producing offspring of their own.[14] Zeus, the son of Cronus and his older sister Rhea, also fathered a daughter, Persephone, with his own older sister, Demeter.[9] However, the orphic sources claim that Persephone was instead the daughter of Zeus and his mother Rhea.[38] The sea god Phorcys fathered many offspring by his sister Ceto. Poseidon pursued his older sister, Demeter, passionately until they finally had sex in a union which birthed Arion.[20]

In Egyptian mythology, there are frequent sibling marriages. For example, Shu and Tefnut are brother and sister and they produce offspring, Geb and Nut.[37][39]

The Irish goddess Clothra conceives the hero Crimthann Nia Náir by laying with her son, Lugaidh.[2]

In the Sākta Purānas, Mahadevi promises to bear each of her sons children if they pass her test, however, only Śiva passes. This myth is vague about whether she bears Śiva's children through sexual or asexual generation, but in a South Indian rendition, the incestuous overtones are quite clear: Devi gets enamoured with Śiva after deciding to wed only him out of all her other sons. In order to mutually fulfill both of their desires, she grants him her yoni (female organ) into which he then inserts his linga (male organ) to conceive his own children in the very same womb from which he emerged.[20]

In Greek mythology, Themis and Mnemosyne became the wives of their nephew Zeus,[40] Iapetus married his niece Clymene.[41]

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).

Brother–sister liaisons may be consenting, but typically coercion or deception achieves consummated incest.[1]

Menephron of Arcadia lives incestuously with both his older sister. Evopis falls in love with her younger brother.[1]

In Plautus' Curculio, the courtesan heroine's suitor learns that he is wooing his own older sister.[1]

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.[50]

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.[51]

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.

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.

In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi is a king who takes his sister Nüwa as his bride.[52][53][54]

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.[55]

In an Irish myth, King Cónchobar demands to use his unrefusable, well-known right to have sex with any lady he desires—the 'droit du seigneur'—on the lovely hostess of a house. He learns the next day that his older sister, Deichtíne, and her friends, had also been the residers of that house but while under an alternate human form. Deichtíne assures him that she was already pregnant at the time so she could not have been the one to sleep with him. However, nine months later, she could no longer lie when she delivers a boy who looks just like Cónchobar, confirming his suspicions that the lady who received him that night was indeed his own older sister in disguise.[20]

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").[56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]

In the Sanskrit version of the Renukā myth, the woman mistakes her younger brother for her husband, adding the issue of incest to the issue of adultery.[20]

Pūsan seducing his older sister is a Tamil example.[19]

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.

Phlegyas sleeps with his own mother and begets Coronis.[1]

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.

Ovid in his Metamorphoses briefly mentions Menephron who commits incest with his mother on Mount Cyllene "as wild beasts do".[1][12]

Overt incestuous implications are found in a riddle of a late Upanisad:

Yogatattva U (131-133) translation The breast that was sucked before he presses and finds joy: the vagina from which he was born before-he takes pleasure in that. She who was his mother before is now his wife, and she who is his wife is indeed his mother. [20]

In a particularly explicit myth, Skanda is said to have affairs with the wives of the other male deities until they complain to his mother, Parvati, who stops these affairs by impersonating her son's lovers, tricking him into sating his lust with only her from then on instead.[19]

Pūsan seducing his mother, and Nirukta 10.46 suggesting that Pururavas "joined" with his mother (Vac) are Tamil examples of this.[19]

Medieval authors had no trouble in picturing a mother who loved her adolescent son so much that she became pregnant by him.[1]

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.

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.

The legendary Danish king Hrólfr kraki was born from an incestuous union of Halgi and Yrsa.[66]

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.

Danand, a minor character in Irish mythology, is said to have conceived three sons with her own father[67][68]

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.[69]