Incest in folklore
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Incest in folklore is found in many cultures.
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. Myrrha committed incest with her father, Theias, as bore Adonis.
Sophocles' tragic play Oedipus the King features the ancient Greek king inadvertently consummating an incestuous relationship with his mother.
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 legal among the Vanir.
In Egyptian mythology, Osiris and Isis were brother and sister as well as husband and wife. As were Nephthys and Set, Nut and Geb, and Tefnut and Shu. [1]
In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi was a god-king who took his sister Nüwa as his bride.
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 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 Helgi and Yrsa.
One tragic tale from the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic) is that of Kullervo, a warrior-magician who unknowingly meets and seduces his long-lost sister on his travels. J.R.R. Tolkien later mirrored this story in his mythology of Middle Earth, The Silmarillion. In the story, ill-fated Túrin Turambar has been enchanted by the dragon Glaurung and flees north, being convinced by the spell that his love Finduilas and his mother are in danger. Through a convoluted series of events, his sister Nienor ends up bewitched by Glaurung as well. She is found by Túrin wandering in the wild and he falls in love with and marries her. The secret is later revealed when Túrin kills the dragon. When Nienor realizes what they've done, she jumps to her death in the river, and Túrin later kills himself upon his own sword.
In some versions of the medieval British legend of King Arthur, Arthur accidentally begets a son by his sister Morgaine le Fay 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 Sri Lankan folklore, there are at least three significant instances where incest is mentioned. The forefather of the Sinhala race, "Sinhabahu", is a king who married his own sister "Sinhaseevali". Incest is again mentioned when King Vijaya's son and daughter fled to the jungle together in protest of their father's second marriage. Also, the brother "Dantha" and the sister "Hemamalini" who brought the sacred tooth relic of Lord Buddha to the island, seemed to also have a married relationship. Despite the liberal mentioning of incest in folklore, Sri Lankan culture regards incest as a taboo. Then again, contemporary Sri Lankan culture is heavily influenced by the cultures of former colonial rulers, during the last couple of centuries.
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 The Bonny Hind and Sheath and Knife, for example), but always brings about a tragic end.
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").
