Incest in Ancient Greece
While I was listening to one of the presentations one minor detail caught my ears. While Odysseus was in the under women, meeting women that are famous in Greek myths, I heard that some women married her son after he killed his father. I was like "Hold up, it's actually time to actually read the book and not look at SparkNotes". After like 30 minutes of struggling, I finally found the passage: "I saw fine Epicaste, Oedipus' mother, who did a dreadful thing in ignorance: she married her own son. He killed his father, and married her. (Book 11. Lines 271-275). I was aware that there was some incest happening in the book, but a son-mother relationship? I decided to take a further look.
After Googling "Incest in Ancient Greece" at school (probably my deepest regret ever), I didn't have to look very far after when I was informed that Hera, was Zeus' first wife, AND ALSO HIS SISTER! So I made some conclusions. If the "main" god marries another god, then incest is probably not looked down in Ancient Greece. But the problem with incest is inbreds, and inbreds have on average more recessive traits that non-inbreds, which means there is a higher chance that the inbred has some sort of disability, whether it is mental or physical. I like to say that the French Revolution probably happened because of inbreeding. Louis XIII (13th) married his second cousin, had Louis XIV, whose son and grandson is Louis XV and Louis XVI respectively. All 3 kings after Louis XIII screwed over France, and that is why France doesn't have the monarchy anymore.
Anyways, back to the Odyssey. I believe that some of the suitors are inbreds, and maybe some people on Odysseus's crew, just based on facts that some of them are mentally challenged. Odysseus is a descendant of a god on the other hand. So is the Odyssey just a story about a "mini-god" against inbreds? What do you guys think?
After Googling "Incest in Ancient Greece" at school (probably my deepest regret ever), I didn't have to look very far after when I was informed that Hera, was Zeus' first wife, AND ALSO HIS SISTER! So I made some conclusions. If the "main" god marries another god, then incest is probably not looked down in Ancient Greece. But the problem with incest is inbreds, and inbreds have on average more recessive traits that non-inbreds, which means there is a higher chance that the inbred has some sort of disability, whether it is mental or physical. I like to say that the French Revolution probably happened because of inbreeding. Louis XIII (13th) married his second cousin, had Louis XIV, whose son and grandson is Louis XV and Louis XVI respectively. All 3 kings after Louis XIII screwed over France, and that is why France doesn't have the monarchy anymore.
Anyways, back to the Odyssey. I believe that some of the suitors are inbreds, and maybe some people on Odysseus's crew, just based on facts that some of them are mentally challenged. Odysseus is a descendant of a god on the other hand. So is the Odyssey just a story about a "mini-god" against inbreds? What do you guys think?
Although inbred individuals can be born from incest, this kind of behavior was mostly done because they wanted to keep the bloodline "pure" so they married in the family. This behavior was incredibly common in royalty. Therefore, having Zeus and Hera marry and have children is to keep the Olympian bloodline "pure". This kind of behavior isn't really seen as much in lower class individuals, so Odysseus's crew probably aren't the descendants of siblings, at least not their immediate family. I don't know if so many people that you claim to be inbred, such as the suitors, actually are. If Odysseus isn't the product of incest, I think very few of the suitors (people of good enough standing to marry his wife) are "mentally challenged". They're probably just not smart or nice people. I doubt that you can just assume that wide groups of characters are mentally challenged by saying they're products of incest, or the other way around.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the title of this post, I was sure you were going to be writing about the backstory of Alcinous and Arete, king and queen of Phaeacia (Arete is Alcinous's niece: 7.59-68). The mortals' royal bloodlines often imitate this tendency of the gods, although it's clear that incest was still a taboo in general Greek society. The whole plotline of Oedipus Rex entails the horror of an unintended and unknowing incestuous marriage between a son and his mother, and the horror is enough to cause him to gouge out his own eyes.
ReplyDeleteAnd also: never read the SparkNotes for any book assigned in an English class! There are concise plot summaries of every book of _The Odyssey_ in the back of the Wilson translation, which can be useful for context as you read the text itself.
So why is Aelous "BLESSED BY THE GODS" when he's marrying his kids to one another?! Whereas Oedipus' whole life is ruined?
DeleteFor some reason, Greeks tended to marry their relatives and I still wonder why they do that. It just doesn't seem morally right. Although, it may suggest why Odysseus' crew is so incompetent. They killed the animals when they were instructed not to and open the bag of air without Odysseus' permission. It's very likely that Odysseus would have made it home earlier if it weren't for his crew.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of incest in the Odyssey is that the guy who controls the wind (I don't remember his name) has six sons and six daughters and they're all married to each other. As Harmen points out, I think this behavior mostly applies to upper class people (including the wind guy's kids) to keep wealth and power consolidated and so the suitors and Odysseus's crew probably weren't affected by it. Also, Homer mentions these relationships because they were noteworthy not because they were the norm. I'm also not sure that a single generation of inbreeding would have severe effects. The French kings you mention were the product of many generations of inbreeding among Europe's royalty. In any case, I don't think we can attribute the actions of the suitors or Odysseus's crew to inbreeding.
ReplyDeleteYea incest in Greek culture was a huge problem. There have been quite a few characters in the book who have mixed blood lines like Alcinous and Arete, but that doesn't mean that everyone is part of an inbred family. Maybe a few of the suitors are and potentially some of Odysseus' crew, but I don't think that that is the cause for either groups lack of rational thinking.
ReplyDelete