From the close family relationships in Egyptian mythology and the fact
that Egyptians seemed to have no taboo against incest, many have
concluded that incest was rife in ancient Egypt.
There were probably some brother and sister marriages, but more likely
than not, the siblings in question would have been half-brothers and
half-sisters. The problem arises from the limited Egyptian terms of
kinship, which are very confusing. A 'father' could refer to the actual
father, the grandfather or male ancestors, while 'mother' could be the
same, but for the females of the family. 'Sister' could mean a lover, a
wife, a mistress or concubine, niece or aunt!
The royal family, on the other hand, did have more incestuous marriages.
The royal blood ran through the females, not the males. To become
pharaoh, a man had to marry a royal princess... which would be his
sister or half-sister.
The prevalence of brother-sister marriages within the New Kingdom royal
family, a custom in obvious contrast to contemporary non-royal marriage
patters, appears to have been an attempt to reinforce the links between
the royal family and the gods who themselves frequently indulged in
brother-sister unions.
Comments