Incest in folklore and mythology

The pattern of a mother-goddess coupling with a young male deity was widespread in the entire pre-Aryan and pre-Semitic cultural zone of Orient from Southwest Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean. In this pattern, the Mother, like a goddess of fertility, was often accompanied by a young male deity who was both her son and later her husband after his father's demise: Astaroth with Tammuz, Kybele with Attis, etc. Often from sexual unions with their son-husbands, some goddesses bore numerous offsprings.[2]

In Greek mythology, Gaia (earth) had 12 children with her own son Uranus (sky).[3] In some versions, one of their daughters, Rhea coupled with the young Zeus, Rhea's youngest son.[2] The Titans were not the only offsprings Gaia had with her son, Uranus. She also bore him the Cyclopes, Stereotypes, and Arges. Uranus with his mother Gaia then further produced three monstrous giants, the Hecatonchieres.[3]

In Egyptian mythology, Geb challenged his father's, Shu's, leadership, which caused the latter to withdraw from the world. Geb either forcefully copulated with his mother, Tefnut, or she willingly became his chief queen.[4]

Horus, the grandson of Geb, had his own mother, Isis, become his imperial consort.[5]

As studied by Griaule and Parin, the Dogon have the deity Amma who created the Earth. The Earth bore sons and she committed incest with her first son, resulting in her giving birth to the evil bush spirits.[6]

In the Shakti worship of ancient India, the Mother-Goddess is usually equated with Mahādevī, the wife of Shiva, but in some texts she is also mentioned to be his mother. That is to say, being simultaneously the wife and mother of Shiva. Through sexual union with her son, she gave birth to multiple other deities.[7]

Narratives of intentional incest (both averted and consummated) give an additional lens through which to view incest stories. An example of this story type is a mother casting out her son's wife and donning the wife's clothing to deceive her son into sleeping with her, his own mother. The activity of incest is intentional from the mother's side but unintentional for the son.[8]

In Parthenius of Niacea's Love's Woes, one of the many tales featuring incest, recounts the story of Periander, whose mother Cratea (Krateia) told him of a married woman who was desperately in love with him. However, this lady had conditions and they were that they could only meet in a room with no light, and he could not make her to speak to him. He accepted them and told Cratea to facilitate a nighttime encounter with this woman. Their first silent encounter was so pleasurable that Periander requested his mother to setup a meeting again and again. They would have an erotic relationship under the cover of darkness, enjoying making love in the evenings before he let her return to her husband's home. Periander, falling in love and wishing to make her his own wife, wanted to converse with her her and look upon her face.[9] However, Cratea continued to protect her identity.[10] As in all such stories, one day he concealed a lighted lamp in his bed chamber. Then after he delighted in her, he exposed the lamp and was horrified to discover his lover to be his own mother, who was sleeping unclothed beside him. Periander was deeply traumatized by the fact that his own mother had tricked him into incest, and he became mad. Seeing the state Cratea brought her son to, cried and begged him for forgiveness. She confessed that she had long had an untameable passion for him. Unable to conquer her desire, she had to resort to this deception. She tried to kill herself as an atonement, but Periander intervened and stopped her. The tale ends with Periander forgiving his mother and them continuing their secret affair.[11][12][13]

A couple of African tales have this motif where a mother (the queen) gets rid of her son’s wife (the prince's wife) and puts on the wife’s clothes to have sexual intercourse with her son.[14][15]

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 again.[16]

In a Nupe tale, a man gave his mother money and told her to use it to get a wife who he planned to sleep with. While she was out searching, a man she owed money too took the amount her son gave her. With no other means, she returned home and when he asked her for his wife. She assured him that his wife would come some other day, not today. Since then, everyday he would keep asking for the whereabouts of his wife. After many days, the mother knew he was no longer believing her lies so she told him that his wife would come that night. She washed herself and put on fresh clothes. When it was dark, she poured water on the fire and went to his bed. The son laid with his mother, who he thought was his wife. When they woke up in the morning, the son was furious at his mother's deceit. The mother blamed his impatience for forcing her to do this. They both agreed to tell no one of the deed. However, because they had lain together just after her period was over, she had become pregnant with her son's child. So he married his mother, as she was now the mother of his child.[17]

Sophocles' tragic play Oedipus Rex features the ancient Greek king Oedipus inadvertently consummating an incestuous relationship with his mother Jocasta. His mother bore him four children: Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, and Ismene.[18] Oedipus-type tales are stories that are remarkably similar to the Greek tale of Oedipus the King. The most important points are: A (A) youth is separated from his birth mother and (B) reared by adoptive parent(s). The (C) youth unwittingly married his mother.[19]

In the ancient Indonesian legend of Tangkuban Perahu, princess Dayang Sumbi wanted to test the skill of her son. So she ordered him to build a dam on the river Citarum and to build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang summoned mythical creatures to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi considered this as cheating as she expected him to do it with his own abilities so she called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban Perahu from the hull of the boat. As punishment for this failure, she striked Sangkuriang at his chest, leaving a huge scar, and banished him. After many years of expulsion, Sangkuriang, a now famous hunter, came home and fell in love with Dayang Sumbi, who he did not know was his mother as she had long been granted the power of eternal youth. However, she was uninterested in marrying him until her counsel made her see that he was an attractive young man and a famous warrior. She lost her weaving needle and she was too lazy to find it. Instead, she promised Sangkuriang that she would marry him if he found her needle. When her son found the needle and brought it back to Dayang Sumbi, she became his wife. Years later, she recognized the scar on Sangkuriang’s chest while in bed with him and they realized they were mother and son. However, nothing could be changed as she was already pregnant with his child.[20]

In a Minahasan myth, a significant event is that of the sexual relation between a mother and son. The story narrated that they were both separated, and met years later with neither recognizing the other. They married after conducting a trial which demonstrated that the two were fated to become husband and wife. The incident was present in nearly the exact same form in the island of Lombok, and also in Nias, except a ring was used instead of a staff for the trial.[21]

In King Degaré, a Middle English romantic story, a hermit found a cradle that had an abandoned infant, gold, silver, a pair of gloves, and a letter informing that the infant was a noble born out of wedlock. The hermit named the infant Degaré, and had his sister help raise him. At seventeen, he left the hermit to search for a wife. When he saved an earl from a dragon's attack, he was forthwith knighted. While in the castle he saw a beautiful lady with attendants, and she is revealed to be the princess. The young boy learned that the king, for years, was willing to give his daughter's hand in marriage to any suitor who could defeat him, but no suitor had ever succeeded. Having fallen in love with her, Degaré unhorsed the king in a challenge and so is granted marriage. Degaré conducted himself courteously in the wedding banquet, but the princess did not speak to him. That night when they went to their bedchambers to consummate their marriage, she expressed no desire to have relations with a young boy. So she instead made him lay down on their bed and with the music of the harp, subsided Degaré's desire to ravish her and lulled her husband to sleep. She did not lay beside him, and slept in her old bedchambers for the night. Next day, he learnt that the king, his father-in-law had been killed, leaving the castle undefended. His wife promised that she will spend the nights in his arms if he avenged her father's murder and defended their castle. Motivated by her promise, he did exactly that, including slaying his father-in-law's killer. Degaré was crowned the new king, and the princess, now queen, kept her promise to fulfill her marital duties and even grew to love him. One night, after letting her husband enjoy her to satisfaction, the queen, while Degaré was fast asleep, wanting to know more about her husband, searched his belongings for clues. When she found her gloves that she had left with the baby she gave birth to, she realized that she had married her own son. Knowing she was going to be bearing Degaré a child soon and not wanting to destroy their happy marriage, she decided to take this truth to her grave.[22]

The Indian (Marathi) story, ‘Mother Marries Son’, is about the daughter of goddess Satwai, the goddess who marked the future on the heads of all children on the fifth night from their birth. The daughter is informed by her mother that it was her destiny to join in marriage with her own son. Intent on outwitting destiny, she decided to never get married, never even look at a male. She went into the forest and made a shack there. Several years passed, when she had grew into a young woman, destiny interceded. A king, out on a hunting activity in that very forest, drank from a river and having gargled with the water, spat it back into the river. Magically, his spit transformed into sperm in the water and a while later when drunk by the unaware woman, made her conceive. The woman attempted to beat destiny once more, by dropping her infant boy, swathed in her sari, down a mountain. However, the baby lived and was raised by a childless gardener and his wife. After many years, when Satwai’s daughter, bored of her lonely life in the forest, decided to go back to civilization, she inevitably came to meet the young man of this exact family and they fell in love. Assured that her son was dead, she married the now adult son of the gardener (as she believed him to be). However, soon after their consummation, the truth was discovered by her as she came across in his room the very exact sari in which she had swathed her infant son with before throwing him away. However, the woman decided to keep it her secret and “lived on with her husband happily, blessed by her old parents-in-law, to whom she was always kind and dutiful.”[14]

In a Bengal folktale, a pregnant woman got lost from her husband while they were travelling. She gave birth to their child alone in a forest away from human habitation. Her weeping eventually led her to sleep with her newborn in her arms. At that time, the Kotwal (prefect of the police) of the kingdom was passing that way. Every child his wife presented him with died quickly after birth, and he was going to bury the last infant on the banks of the river. He saw a woman sleeping with a baby in her arms. The Kotwal quietly took it up, put in its place his own dead child. He returned his wife to show that the child had revived. The real mother on waking found her baby dead. In her grief she resolved to drown herself in a nearby river. An old Brahman noticed the woman going far into deep waters, some suspicion arose in his head. He ordered the woman to come to him and she came to him. On being asked what she was about to do, she said that she was going to make an end of herself. At the request of the old Brahman she related to him her tragic situation. She was received into the Brahman’s family, where she was treated by the Brahman’s wife as her own daughter. Years passed, and she still could not find her husband. The Brahmin and his wife would urge her to remarry as she still looked beautiful, but she would not. Meanwhile, her son, who was raised as the son of the Kotwal, grew into a vigorous, robust lad. One day, the Kotwal’s son noticed a beautiful older woman who passed for the Brahman’s daughter, who was in actuality his own mother. The lad desired to marry her. He spoke to his father about her, and the father spoke to the Brahman. The Brahman’s anger knew no bounds. A dwarf may as well wish to catch the moon! Dejected, the Kotwal’s son walked many a mile in darkness, when an elephant, beautifully caparisoned, came across his path, and gently lifting him up by his trunk, set him on the rich howdah on its back. The Kotwal's son knew that every morning a king was elected, for the king of yesterday was always found dead in the morning in his bedchamber. What caused the death of the king no one knew. And the elephant who took hold of the Kotwal's son was the king-maker. Early in the morning it went about and whosoever was brought was accepted as king. The elephant majestically marched through the streets amid the acclamations, entered the palace, and placed him on the throne. He was proclaimed king amid the rejoicings of some and the lamentations of others. In the course of the day he recalled the strange deaths which overtook every night the elected king, but being possessed of great discretion and bravery, he took every measure to avoid the unwanted disaster. Yet he barely knew what expedients to adopt, as he did not know what the danger was. He resolved, however, to make the Brahmin's daughter his wife so he had to survive and keep his position as king which he so fortunately obtained. The Kotwal's son kept awake that night on his bed. In the dead of night he saw a thread several yards long was coming out out of the wall, and assumed the form of a huge serpent. He cut off the head of the serpent, slaying it. Early next morning the ministers came expecting as usual to hear of the king’s death; but were astonished to see him come out. It was then known to all how a terrible snake killed the king every night, and how it had at last been slain by the brave Kotwal's son. The entire kingdom rejoiced in the prospect of a permanent king. This time when he spoke to the Brahman about marrying his daughter, he happily sent her to him. She was reluctant to this marriage as her heart still belonged to her missing husband and dead child, but she did not want to disgrace the Brahmin who generously took care of her. The young king married her and made her the queen of the kingdom. On the night they were to consummate, the queen was of exquisite beauty, and so guileless and benevolent was the expression of her face. The king spent a very agreeable night with his mother as his wife, satisfying himself while also giving her the great pleasures of a woman. As the night advanced, the queen thought less and less of her tragic past and by the time the exhausted queen fell asleep on her husband's chest, she could only think of wanting to experience this joy everyday with him. She lived very happily as the king's faithful wife and soon also became the nurturing mother of the heirs she bore him. Neither the king nor queen nor anyone else in the kingdom ever came to know that the father of the queen's children was her own son.[23]

Many legends of Mahadeva, a disputed figure in the histories of early Buddhism, exist. His greedy father, a merchant, left him and his mother by themselves when he was a child. The boy grew good-looking and began to engage in commercial trade. His mother had unmet passions that she could no longer hold in so she asked an old woman to set her up with a man she could be intimate with. She fed the old woman and gave her new garments as payment. The old woman saw the young attractive son and told him of a desirable woman he could enjoy and make love to, but she will not expose her body and neither should he know who she is. The old woman pointed out to her house, where their liaison will be, to him. Then the old woman went to his mother to tell her a man and place had been arranged. In the evening, the youth told his mother that he was sleeping at his friend's house. His mother was happy that he would be gone, and the boy went to that old woman’s house. In the quietness of night, his mother went right to that very house he was eagerly waiting for her. Secretly, in the dark of night, when the senses were blinded, they enjoyed each other and she dispelled her lust with him. And at the end of the night, having had her desires fulfilled by her son, she went back to her own house. When morning came, the son too, having loved the pleasure, went to his shop for work. After six years of these repeated encounters, one night, having achieved satisfaction with her son, she returned home, forgetting her head covering. In the morning, the boy recognized the cloth she left next to him as his mother's. He confronted her and they realized their illicit deed. However, the mother was not as shaken as her son as she saw that her son was attractive and felt impure affections for him. She responded, “I’m still your mother, but we should continue our enjoyable kissing and embracing while looking upon each other's face.” She aroused his intense lust and he energetically took her to his bed, joining their bodies likes beasts again.[24] From that time, they engaged in carnal pleasure in their own house. However, his mother was unsatisfied with the secrecy. So they left for another land where they lived openly as husband and wife. He had physical relations, lovemaking and mated with his mother as his wife, and from that union, passion and mating a son was born.[25][26]

In a Muisca myth, Bechué, the maize goddess of a small river had lost her infant son. A farmer and his wife found the baby and raised him as their son. He grew up, and one day, when he went to hunt for fish in the river he was born, he encountered Bechué in her human form and was enamoured by her beauty. Since that day they would frequently meet as she also took a liking to the charming handsome youth, not realizing he was her son. They eventually married and from their union, Bechué bore her son six children. They soon had a large family that inhabited the land. One day, when Bechué realized that her beloved husband was her own dear son, she took him back to the river with her and told their children to lead peaceful lives.[7]

In a Himalayan story, the misadventures of a mother and a son are narrated where they unwittingly commit incest. After sleeping together, they are filled with shame when they wake up at dawn and recognize each other.[27]

‘Sikhalól and his Mother’ is a story from the Pacific Atoll (coral island) of Ulithi. Lisor, a gorgeous young lady who was married to Chief Sokhsurum, bore a baby prematurely at seven months. Since the infant was still covered with amniotic fluid, Lisor did not notice a baby inside and set it adrift on the river. However, this infant was rescued. A fisherman named Rasim took the baby to his home and used magic that in just a month the infant grew into a young boy. Rasim deduced the identity of his parents, since only one woman was known to be pregnant in the village at the time and he realized she must have unknowingly delivered a premature baby. However he decided to keep this truth to himself. This young boy, who the fisherman named Sikhalól, while out on a canoe with some companions stumbled upon Lisor in her menstrual hut (place that separated women from the rest of functioning society while on their menstrual period). Lisor found herself attracted to this handsome boy and made him feel likewise by seducing him. She had an affair with him and made love with this boy numerous times, not wishing to depart from her menstrual house even when, after ten days, her irritated husband came to take her back. When Risam told Sikhalól who his parents were and Sikhalól revealed this to Lisor, neither of them were bothered by the incest. Instead of expressing mortification or disbelief, not only Sikhalól but also (and specially) Lisor was very keen on keeping their nightly trysts going. Ultimately, Sokhsurum was slain by his own son and the story concluded thus “Sikhalól then took Lisor back to his village, and they lived together from then on."[14]

The general outline of this theme is that all humans perish in a flood but one biologically related couple survives. After the flood settles they search for mates, but they find none, so they marry each other.[28] Their union and its resulting procreation prevents the extinction of the human race. These incestuous narratives are widespread throughout the world. Moreover, the recitation always contains some justification for the incestuous act.[7]

The theme of incestuous marriage following the flood comes under two different groups, one involving a brother-sister marriage, the other a mother-son marriage. However, the two distinctions show much more commonality than difference. The central motifs are:

1. Deluge (A1010)
2. Escape from deluge (A1020)
3. Brother-sister incest (T415.5), or mother-son marriage (T412)
4. New race from incest after global catastrophe[28]

Geographically, this theme appears in these countries or continents:

In an African legend, a goat was licking the flour this girl was making. She chased it away, but it quickly came back. Feeling sympathy for the animal, the girl allowed the goat to eat as much of the flour as it wanted. When the goat was done, out of gratitude for her kindness, it warned the girl of a huge flood. It advised her to take her younger brother and get away as far as they could from this place. She and her brother picked up a few necessities and departed as the goat had advised. On their way, as they looked back, they saw a sheet of water engulf their entire village. They finally arrived at a habitable location and lived there all by themselves. Many years passed without them encountering any other person. Her brother wanted to leave in pursuit of a wife. She was against his decision as she did not want them to be separated but he had already made up his mind and would not budge. The night before he planned to embark on his journey the girl had been weeping out of sadness when the same goat from years ago reappeared to her. It told her that her brother's journey would be futile as there were no other humans alive so it advised her to marry her younger brother as only they could reproduce the human race. However, it also told her that they had to break the bottom of a clay pot and hang it onto to the sharp corner of the roof. Once that was done, 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.[29]

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.[30]

In some variations of the flood myth, Fu Xi and Nüwa were these two siblings. It went like this: A disastrous flood erased all of humanity except for Nüwa and her younger brother, Fu Xi, who both happened be on a boat at just the right time. After the floodwaters receded, they found out that they were the only people that remained. As the sole survivors, it was their duty to not allow their race to go into extinction. It was their responsibility to continue the survival of mankind and there was only one known way. They realized that they would have to procreate, but they were very uncomfortable with the idea since they were siblings. Fu Xi and Nüwa decided to look for nature's guidance so they came to the decision that they had to go through a trial that could prove whether they were fated to be man and wife. Fu Xi and Nüwa each climbed a different mountain that faced each other. They each lit a fire on their respective mountain. If the smoke blew straight up, they would take it as sign that they should not get married. However, to their great astonishment, the smoke trails from their fires intertwined with one another. It was a definite sign that they should get married. So Fu Xi and Nüwa became man and wife and through their union, the earth was repopulated.[31]

In another brother-sister flood myth, there was once a girl and her younger brother. Every day, on their way to school, they would give food to a stone turtle. One time, while they were giving it food, the turtle warned them of a great flood that was to come. They concealed themselves in the belly of the turtle, making them the only two survivors of the severe flood. After several years had passed, the boy told his older sister to become his wife and help him reproduce the human race. She understood her younger brother's rationale, but she still considered it improper for her to marry her own younger brother so she adamantly refused. After a long argument, her brother came up with a suggestion. He proposed that they have a trial of fate. First, they would have to climb up a mountain. When they reached the summit, they would each roll a half of the same millstone down a different side of the mountain and if the halves connected, it would be a sign that they should marry. The girl, understanding how improbable it would be for that to happen, said it was a fair trial and agreed. When they came down from the mountains to check the result, they were astonished to find one half on top of the other looking as if it had never ceased to be a whole. After such an obvious sign, they immediately married. With the younger brother on top, like the millstones, they joined their bodies to become as one and the older sister conceived. With the birth of their children, they had become the ancestors of the entire human race.[32]

In another myth, which went around among the Miao people in the Yunnan Province, after a great flood, only a mother and her son survived. A deity transformed the mother into a young woman, and ordered her to marry her son. Meanwhile, the young man went searching for his mother only to come across a young beautiful woman who he immediately took a liking to. He took her that very night and she bore him many children. Even until his final breath, he never found out that he had made his own mother the mother of his children.[32]

A popular Hmong origin myth narrates how the clans came out from a marriage between a brother and his older sister. The siblings survived the flood by staying in the hollow of a wooden funeral drum. When the flood died down, the younger brother deceptively convinced his older sister into becoming his wife. Each one of his children bore by his older sister became the ancestor of a unique clan.[33]

In a version from the Ch'uan Miao, the younger brother dropped a thread from one side of the mountain and the older sister tossed a needle from the other side. To their astonishment, they found the needle threaded. Thus they became man and wife.[28]

Incestuous marriage between a mother and her son is a motif which is widespread in the circumpacific area and has been preserved in the tradition of Hachijō Island. Long ago, a tidal wave had hit the island. It drowned all life except a pregnant lady called Tanaba, who survived by clinging to a wax tree. She brought forth a boy, he grew up, and they married each other. Tanaba bore her son-husband many children, making the both of them the ancestors of the islanders.[7]

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. [28]

In an Udege myth, a girl and her younger brother were the sole survivors of a great flood. They became the progenitors of the entire human race.[34]

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.[35]

Among the Taiwanese aboriginals, only the Sedec tribe preserved the tale of mother-and-son incest. In this tale, there were no men and only one woman. She was pregnant and gave birth to a boy. When her son became old enough, he took his mother as his wife. His mother bore him many children, who became the ancestors of the Taroko clan.[7]

In Formosa, seven variants of this myth come from three ethnic groups. A variant from the Ami narrates that when the flood came, a girl and her younger brother were saved by a wooden mortar which floated them to a mountain. After finding no survivors, they became woman and husband and became the progenitors of the tribe.[28]

In a Filipino folklore, a huge flood once killed all the planet's inhabitants except a single pregnant woman. She gave birth to a boy. When her son, who she named Uacatan (Watakan), grew up, he married his mother, and it was said that all Mandayas were descended from them.[36][7]

In the Philippines, brother-sister marriages following a flood are reported from the Ifugao, Isneg, and Igorot.[28]

The Ifugaos describe a great drought which evaporated all the waters. The elderly men recommended digging up the river which had been buried in its grave in order to find the soul of the river. For days they dug until one day a great spring bursted forth. It surged out so quickly that numerous men drowned before they could escape from the hole. To celebrate the water, the Ifugaos had a great feast. However, while they were all jubilating, heavy rains fell and the water levels greatly rose. The river spirits had been angered. There were two mountains, one at each end of the village. They tried fleeing to them for safety but none were able to make it except for two, a brother and his older sister, Wigan and Bugan respectively. Wigan was safely settled on the summit of Mount Amuyao and Bugan on the top of Mount Kalawitan. The water levels kept rising until all the land was covered except the peaks of the two mountains. There were many fruits and nuts on both of the mountain tops to sustain them. Finally, after six long years, the waters had receded. They descended down their respective mountains and hugged as soon as they found each other. Wigan was happy be reunited with Bugan, and she was delighted to see her younger brother all grown up. They settled down at the valley together. A couple of months later, Bugan realized that she was carrying her younger brother's child. However, she felt ashamed with doubts and second-thoughts about their relationship. Feeling guilty, she ran away from their home and followed the course of the river. Exhausted after a long journey and overcome with sorrow, she collapsed on the ground only to be consoled by the spirit Maknongan who appeared before her disguised as a kind elderly man with a long silver beard. He convinced her that her mortification held no water and that she had done no wrong with her younger brother. For it is by having relations with her younger brother that the world would be repeopled once more.[29]

In a Korean legend, a great flood drowned all the inhabitants of the planet except for two siblings, who married and become the progenitors of the human race. Long, long ago, a huge flood transformed the whole planet into a vast sea, leaving just a brother and his older sister on a single mountain peak. When the water subsided, the siblings descended from the mountain, only to find no other person alive. The siblings were concerned that this would be the end of the human race, and realized that only they could repopulate the earth. Unsure about breaking the incest taboo, they decided to test their compatibility. Each of them went up two mountain peaks that were positioned near to each other. The girl rolled down the bedstone (female stone) of a millstone, and her younger brother rolled down the runner stone (male stone). When they came back down to check the result, they saw that their two stones had collided and stuck together in the center of the valley. (In another variation, they put the pine branches on fire and smoke intertwined in mid-air.) The siblings considered this as an indication that their fate permitted them to marry. With the fruit born of their sexual union, mankind persisted, making the siblings the progenitors of mankind.[37][38]

The Kammu tradition in northern Thailand included flood myths, which were stories characterized by a sexual union of the sole two survivors, often a brother and an older sister, after the diminishing of the flood waters in order to repopulate the earth. The young siblings were initially reluctant to have sexual intercourse, not until some omen persuaded them of the necessity of their coupling.

In one version of the narrative, a brother and his older sister went to dig out a bamboo rat. As they dug on and on, the bamboo rat went deeper and deeper down until at one point it stopped and asked, "Why are you trying to dig me out? A huge flood is coming and it will destroy all your villages and land, which is why I must go deep deep down to survive. You both should go and make your own protective shelter." They asked the bamboo rat how they should do it, then the two youngsters followed its instructions and made a drum. When the water came, they crawled into the hollow and caulked it with wax along the rim. One day they looked outside, and saw that the water had finally dried up. As a result of the flooding of the villages and the whole land, when they came out, they found no one alive. They decided to split and look around for other people. The older sister told her brother to go north to search for a wife while she would head south to search for a husband. The brother travelled and travelled, but no mater where he went, he saw no one. At long last, he finally saw a woman walking on a mountain in the distance. He thought he would convince her to become his wife, but when he approached, he realized that it was his own older sister. The older sister had also initially thought that there was finally a man she could marry when she saw him approaching until he drew closer and she recognized him. She told him she could not find anyone either. The younger brother suggested that they marry, but his older sister was against it. When they discussed it they agreed that as siblings, that could not be done. One day, the older sister stumbled across a malkoha cuckoo. Delightfully surprised to see one, she went closer to it. As she did, it began cooing to her, "You must embrace your younger brother!" Soon after, she rushed to find her younger brother and tell him of this news. They embraced each other that very night. From that union, she conceived and it was in the seventh year after they first emerged out of the drum that she bore her younger brother's first child.[29]

In Greek mythology, Gaia (earth) 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. The male Titans each picked a female sibling for a wife and mated with them, producing offspring of their own.[3]

Uranus imprisoned the offsprings he detested deep in the earth. Gaia, mourning their loss, plotted revenge against him and got Cronus to support her. At night, while she laid with her son-husband, Uranus, Cronus crept into their bedchamber and castrated his father with the sickle, throwing his testicles into space.

From the union of Uranus's and Gaia's youngest offspring, Cronus, with his older sister, Rhea, the six Olympian deities (Hestia, Hades, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, and Zeus) were born. Two of them, Zeus and his older sister Hera, followed the footsteps of their parents and also became husband and wife.[5] Through his older sister, Zeus fathered several Olympians. In one version, Zeus and Hera had their first sexual experiences as youths while still living in their parents' abode. Zeus compared subsequent intercourse with his older sister to that first encounter ("unforgettable first experience" or "unforgettable first intercourse"). Zeus also fathered a daughter, Persephone, with his other older sister, Demeter.[39]

In a Greek cautionary myth about incest, a just young man with a taste for older woman is deceived into incest with his own mother through the malice of another young man, who was the son of one of his mistresses. The tale described a young man, Neophron, who was interested in sleeping with his mother, Timandra, and so was secretly jealous when another young man, Aegypius, showed attention to her. To Neophron's great relief, Timandra would always reject the other younger man's advances. However, one day Neophron learnt that his mother had allowed Aegypius to debauch her, and became one of his many mistresses. Heartbroken and furious, he plotted revenge against Aegypius by tricking him into laying with his very own mother, Bulis, who Aegypius believed to be Timandra, in a proverbial (or mythological) “dark chamber”. Similar themes of incestuous entrapment or of unwitting incest often recur in Greek folklore.[11][40][41]

Cronus and Rhea's siblings, the other Titans, were all also married siblings like Nyx and Erebus. Sea god Phorcys fathered many offspring by his sister Ceto. Myrrha committed incest with her father, Theias, and bore Adonis.

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.

Byblis fell in love her younger brother, Caunus, and tried to convince him into having a sexual relationship with her by pointing out how many immortals also had incestuous relationships. Having failed to seduce him, she changed into a spring in her grief over her unrequited love for her younger brother.

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.

Phlegyas slept with his own mother and begot Coronis. Menephron of Arcadia lived incestuously with both his mother and his older sister.[13]

There was a boy in a frat and his older sister came to Athens to visit him for a weekend. The frat was having a big party so he thought she would enjoy it. (In another version, the brother is a freshman and the sister is a sophomore in another sorority.) The brother and sister were hanging out in the party, and getting really "ripped". His sister excused herself for the john. A good while later, she had not yet returned, so he went to look for a girl to hook up with, thinking his sister was with some guy. While stumbling around the frat house, completely soused, he happened upon a dark room with a girl. The boy joined her inside, lifted up her dress, and soon he was "enjoying" her. When he had his fun and the girl passed out, he switched on the light to see who she was. When he looked at her face, the brother realized with horror that he had just unintentionally participated in incest with his older sister. The message of the legend is a reminder that every woman is somebody's sister, daughter, or mother.[42]

In Norse mythology, Loki accused Freyr and Freyja of committing incest, in Lokasenna, as they were the son and daughter of Njörðr, the sea deity. It seemed that their father, Njörðr, and their mother were also brother and sister. This is also indicated in the Ynglinga saga, which says that brother-sister marriages were traditional among the Vanir before their alliance with the Aesir, and it was customary for them to produce offspring.[5]

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.

In Beti-Pahuin Mythology, Bela Mindzi had sexual relations with her younger brother. The child produced from their union became the leader of Engong, Akoma Mba. The epic hero, Akoma Mba, was carried by his mother in her womb for 150 years, after which he was born. To protect her brother's reputation, Bela Mindzi said that Mba, a man who married her, was the father.[43]

In an ancient African folk tale, a girl called Diirawic was extremely beautiful. Everyone in the tribe listened to her words. Men would frequently ask her to become their wife, but she had no interest in them so she would always refuse. She would get so sick of men constantly asking her the same question that she knew she needed to find a better reason for rejecting them than just simply refusing them as it did not stop them. One day, a man, who introduced himself as Teeng, wanted to marry her. Her younger brother also had the name Teeng, and this gave her an idea. She refused the stranger Teeng's proposal, and then pointed at her younger brother Teeng, who was at a distance, and said that she was engaged to be married to him. Not a lot of people knew that he was her brother, and they would often see her with him so it was convincing. Since then no men approached her, and Diirawic was happy that her lie worked. One day, someone congratulated Teeng and asked when the big celebration for the marriage was, gesturing to Teeng's sister who was playing with children at a distance. Teeng thought it was some kind of joke, but soon he learnt a lot of people thought the same thing and that it was his own sister Diirawic who told them that. He began to wonder if perhaps his sister wanted to marry him. He had always seen men asking his sister for her hand in marriage and some even offered a hundred cows for her bride-wealth, but she would still refuse. Their mother thought it was because Diirawic was in love with someone, and now Teeng wondered if that someone was himself. Teeng always admired his sister, but the idea of marrying was not something he could consider because he did not think she felt the same way. Teeng then asked his mother, “Can Diirawic, my older sister, and I marry?” His mother said, “I have never heard of such a thing. You should go and ask your father.” He went to all his relatives and they all told him to ask someone else. Finally his mother’s sister said, “My child, if you want each other, what can I say! Marry if that is your wish. You are brother and sister.” Diirawic did not know about this. One day she called all the girls and said, “Girls, let us go fishing.” When she asked, everyone obeyed. So all the girls went, including little children. In the meantime, her brother Teeng took out his favorite ox, Mijok, and slaughtered it for a feast. He was very happy that he was allowed to marry his older sister. All the people came to the feast. Diirawic’s little sister was aware that Diirawic was only telling a lie and she had also overheard Teeng so she knew what was happening. A kite flew down and grabbed up the tail of Teeng’s ox, Mijok. Then it flew to the river where Diirawic was fishing and dropped it in her lap. “This looks like the tail of my brother’s ox, Mijok, “she said. “What has killed him? I left him tethered and alive!” The girls tried to console her, saying, “Nothing bad has happened.” Diirawic was still troubled. She stopped the fishing and suggested that they return to find out what had happened to her brother’s ox. They went back. As they arrived, the little sister of Diirawic came running to her and embraced her, saying, “My dear sister Diirawic, do you know what has happened?” “I don’t know,” said Diirawic. “Then I will tell you.” “Come on, Sister, tell me,” said Diirawic. “Teeng believes that you want to marry him, “her sister said. “He has slaughtered his ox, Mijok, to celebrate your engagement to him.” Diirawic cried and said, “So the punishment of my lie is to make it the truth. So be it. If I were to admit I was lying, I would break my brother's heart, lose everyone's respect, and get shunned by the whole village. There is nothing I can do.” As it was the custom, she went and milked the cows. People drank the milk. But when she gave Teeng, her husband-to-be, the milk, he refused. And when he was given food, he refused. His heart was on his sister. That is where his heart was. After their marriage, when it was now their bedtime, he said, “I would like to sleep in that hut. Diirawic, dear older sister, let us share the hut.” Not in a position to refuse her husband in front of everyone, Diirawic said, “Nothing is bad, my young brother. You are my husband now. We can share the hut.” As she gave into his desires and slept with him in the hut, he forgot she was his older sister and as he bedded her, she forgot he was her younger brother. Diirawic learned the consequence of telling only a single lie. However, she did live a wonderful and happy life with Teeng. She gave birth first to Teeng's son and then to Teeng's daughter. She made her younger brother proud by bearing him twelve children in all.[17]

In Egyptian mythology, the gods frequently married their siblings. For example, Shu and Tefnut were brother and sister and they produced another pair of gods, Geb and Nut. Geb and Nut were siblings, who like their parents, were also in love with each other, but were forced to remain separate by their father, Shu, to maintain the order of the cosmos. The led Geb to challenge Shu's leadership, which caused the latter to withdraw from the world. Geb subsequently either forcefully copulated with his mother, Tefnut, or she willingly became his chief queen; thus Geb separated Shu from his sister-wife, as Shu had previously separated Geb from his sister-wife, Nut.[4]

Geb and Nut produced Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys. Two of these deities, Isis and her younger brother, Osiris, ruled jointly as husband and wife, and they brought fertility to the Nile valley. Their other two siblings, Set and Nephthys, also married. According to some myths, Osiris also had physical relations with his other sister, Nephthys, by mistaking her for his sister-wife, Isis. However, Set was jealous of Osiris so he killed him by dismembering his body. Isis managed to resurrect her brother-husband long enough for them to have sexual intercourse for the first time. Via a magical phallus, Isis conceived her younger brother's son, and named him Horus. Horus himself later had his own mother, Isis, become his imperial consort.[5]

In an Egyptian tale, a woman fled from home because her younger brother desired to marry her. Years later, the brother found his sister and without her recognizing who he was, he persuaded her to climb down from a tree in which she sought refuge. She took a liking to this man who she believed to have never met before, and slept with him as his wife. They lived in prosperity and stability with the woman begetting her younger brother's sons and daughters without even realizing it.[39]

In an Egyptian story, there was once a widowed woman with a daughter and son. When they grew a little, the mother died and they were alone. Before she died, she told her daughter to look after her brother as he was younger than her. Each year the girl would ask him what he would do with their parents' money if she were to give it to him, and every time she would find his answer to be childish. After many years she asked him the same and this time he answered that he would get them both married. Finally acknowledging her brother to be a grownup man, she handed the money, clothes, house, and all the possessions over to him. One day he found a girl he was interested in marrying, but his sister did not approve of her character. He married her anyway and brought her to their home. The sister decided to accept her and hope for the best. At first, her brother's wife would treat her well, but soon she started to despise her brother's wife. One day, the brother's wife found a vendor selling "pregnancy eggs". She cooked it and fed it to her husband's sister. The sister's abdomen immediately rose and rounded. When her brother noticed this, he was disgusted that his sister allowed this to happen while unmarried but he kept quiet until the day the both of them went to visit their parents' grave. He made up his mind that he would kill her that day, but when they reached a deserted place he did not have the heart to do it so he abandoned her there. His sister waited and waited patiently for her beloved younger brother as she had great trust in him. However, when it got dark, she began crying and wailing for the son of her parents to return and she finally realized he was not coming for her. The compassionate dwellers of the place asked her what was wrong, and she told them her story of what her sister-in-law had done to her and her brother's desertion. They built her a palace surrounded by all kinds of fruits. One day, she sneezed and two pigeons came out of her nostrils and her swelling abdomen retracted. The pigeons flew to her brother's house, and started hitting the wheat that the brother's wife was measuring. The brother came out and asked the pigeons why they were doing this. The pigeons greeted him referring to him as the one that their mother loves and flew to the direction of where he left his sister. He hurried to that place in horseback, and found that the landscape had transformed. His sister saw him from her window and told the pigeons to welcome him in. She put on a disguise and he asked her for her story. She told it to him, and he was surprised to find that it was the same as his sister's. He wanted to know where she was so that he could ask for her forgiveness. She unveiled herself and her brother rushed over to her and kissed her face. They embraced and cried in each other's arms as her brother admitted he made a grave mistake. He went back and burned his wife as he now knew her wickedness. The dwellers of the place transferred his sister's palace in place of their parents' house. Their happy lives included him kissing her and her taking him into her bosom. Soon the love she had with her younger brother bore fruits, begetting him both boys and girls. They lived with their children in both stability and prosperity.[44]

In a Sudanese tale, a young boy once helped a donkey by taking it to a river nearby his home. Lying there was a lock of hair, and the donkey said, "You'll marry the girl to whom this lock of hair belongs to." It did not take long for the boy to find out the owner of the hair. It belonged to his own older sister by a year, Fatimah. When he told his parents about what the donkey had said, they consented to their son marrying their daughter. However, Fatimah ran away from home, and no matter how much they searched they could not find her. The boy and his parents regretted their decision, but it was too late as no matter how long they waited, she did not return home. Ten years have passed, and the boy had grown into a man. He was travelling with the very donkey he helped all those years back. The donkey led him to a river, and there the man saw a woman collecting water and he was infatuated with her physical attributes. The donkey told him, "You'll marry this woman." However, the man did not believe it as the donkey's foretelling had failed once before already. Soon after, the donkey died. The man, saddened by its death, recalled the donkey's foretelling. He decided to pay another visit to the river where he saw the woman, and was delighted to see her there. Without her noticing, he followed her as she carried the water she collected. He found out that she lived with an old man, who was her father. He expressed his interest in wanting to marry his daughter to the old man. The old man agreed with the condition that they play a game first. The young man beat the old man, winning the right to marry his beautiful daughter. Just before the young man left with his new wife for his home, the old man revealed to the young man that she was not actually his daughter and that he had found her as a young runaway girl. He had taken pity for her so he took her in as raised her as if she was his own daughter. As the young couple were on their way, they began to talk and ask each other about their personal and family history. They were both surprised to find out that the woman's former home was at the same location his own was, and that led to their immediate realization. The years that passed had transformed their appearance so they were not able to recognized one another. His new bride was none other than his own lost older sister, Fatimah! The donkey's foretelling had never failed. It was absolutely correct on both counts. They cried tears of joy and were both happy to be reunited. Fatimah promised that now that they were married she would accept him as her husband as she now realized how foolish it was to try and run away from fate. They decided to keep Fatimah's true identity a secret, and she was only introduced as his wife to their parents. They lived in prosperity and stability, and it did not take long for Fatimah to begot boys and girls with her younger brother. The tale ended with a remark on how ironic it was that Fatimah had left as a daughter but had returned as a daughter-in-law.[39]

In a Berber variant, there lived two orphaned siblings. The girl magically raised her little brother to pre-adolescence; the age at which he could be a shepherd. Finding him desirable, she seduced him and slept with him in the shade of a tree.[44]

In a Nupe tale, a girl ran away from her family to another country. A woman seeing that the girl was alone told her husband that they should raise her as their daughter and he agreed. A year later, the birth mother of the girl gave birth to a son. When the boy was grown up, his dying mother told him that he had a sister who ran away from home. After her death, he left home in search for his sister. He arrived at another country and began working there. In the marketplace, the husband of the woman who took the girl into their house was thinking of finding a husband for the girl. He noticed the boy and decided he would be a good match. When the boy agreed, the girl was married to the boy. The boy gave up searching for his sister, and decided to take his wife home with him. When the boy's wife, recognized the boy's hometown and house, she knew she had married her own brother. However, she decided to keep it to herself as they had already consummated their marriage and she was pregnant with his child.[17]

In a Haya folk tale, a brother and his older sister while pasturing the goats, laid with one another in a moment of weakness. It was an act to never repeat again, but the consequence was unavoidable. In a few months, the girl had a swollen belly. Her pregnancy could not be hidden from her parents so to protect her younger brother from their parents' rage, she lied that the father was some traveller that had already long left. She gave birth to the child, and no one ever found out that her brother was the father.[17]

In Chinese mythology, Fu Xi was a god-king who took his older sister Nüwa as his bride.[31]

In the legend preserved among the Li tribe of Hainan island, a pregnant woman lived alone at Hainan Island after her husband died from an illness and there were no other inhabitants at the time. After a while, she gave birth to a boy. When he grew up, he would go out hunting while she would till the ground. One day, he told his mother that he wanted to marry her as there were no other woman around. She, greatly surprised, responded that her heart still belonged to his deceased father. Repulsed by her son, she told him that they could not live together anymore. After his mother left him, he decided to embark on a journey in search of a woman to marry. A year later he came to the central part of the island and was delighted to finally find a woman. She was actually his mother, but because of the tattoo marks on her face, he was unable to recognize her. However, she did, and she pretended like she did not know him. He tried to befriend her, but she would avoid him. After several months of this, it started to rain heavily, but she had a hut that provided shelter. Feeling concerned for her son who laid out at night without any shelter in the soaking cold, she told him he could share the hut with her only during the rainy nights. However, that night her inhibitions could not resist his advances, and she got to know her son like a husband. When the rainy season ended, she allowed him to continue staying with her as she now enjoyed his nightly company. They married, but he never got to know that the mother of his children was also his own mother. Their descendants are the Hiai Ao tribe and this is why they have tattoo marks on their faces.[7]

In Japanese mythology, stories about incest between a brother and sister are quite common. In old Japanese literature, the definition of incest was restricted to only marriages between a brother and his younger sister. This would seem to permit marriage between a brother and his older sister, and the ancient Japanese apparently saw nothing wrong in this.[45] For this reason, it has been thought that the brothers and sisters that married in these myths were younger brothers and older sisters.[46]

Male and female kami (deities) that were spouses were often also siblings. The divine siblings Izanagi and Izanami were married, along with Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi in some versions. According to the Shinto myth, the islands of Japan are the children of the copulating brother-and-sister deities, Izanagi and Izanami, who from their union also gave birth to Amaterasu and various other deities.[39]

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 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.

In the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, Clothra became the mother of Lugaid Riab nDerg through sexual relations with her three younger brothers (Finn Emna). Clothra would later commit adultery with her own son, and from that bore Crimthann Nia Náir.[47]

Danand, a minor character in Irish mythology, is said to have conceived three sons with her own father[48]

In Welsh mythology, Arianrhod bore two sons when asked to magically prove her virginity. Earlier sources imply that the father of her children was her younger brother, Gwydion.[1]

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").

There are folk stories about brother-sister love in each region of Kumaon and Garhwal. One story tells of a girl named Goridhana who had left her parents' house for her husband's house years ago, and yet not once did her husband, Kallnag, allow her to go back to pay a visit since then. There was no outside contact either so she had no idea of their wellbeing. He kept her at their village like a prisoner and she was very unhappy with their married life. As she watched the brothers of her sisters-in-law bring gifts for their sisters, Goridhana became very sad as she knew neither of her brothers could come. Her elder brother was in the military, and her younger brother was still a child. She wished out loud that "her husband would love her as much as a brother." A sparrow that overheard that assured her that her wish would come true. Goridhana was puzzled, but she thought that she imagined the sparrow speak so she did not think much of it. Several years passed, and Basaldev, the younger brother of Gordhanna, was living by himself. His parents had died, and the whereabouts of his elder brother were unknown. He knew he had an elder sister who was sent off to marriage in a far away land, but he was so young back then that his recollection of her was not much. He was now a young man who desired a wife, and he wished this out loud. He then heard a sparrow tell him the directions to the village where he would find the woman that would become his wife. So Basaldev started his long journey to that place with a basket of gifts on his back as the sparrow had instructed. He finally reached the border of the village and sat under a large tree, eating its fruits. From there, he saw a beautiful woman by herself and the sparrow told him she was the one. Goridhana saw a young handsome man, who she never saw in the village before, looking at her. Curious, she went over to him. They talked to each other, and he gave her the gifts he brought with him, making her very happy. Since then, everyday they would meet under the large tree and soon Goridhana fell in love with the charming stranger. He wanted to make love to her, but she was hesitant to do so with a man she was not married to, and she also feared her husband's wrath. One day, while Kallnag was home, he noticed Goridhana sneak out of the house. Suspicious, he followed after and saw her run towards Basaldev, who was under tree, and hugged him. Kallnag had long suspected the case that she was seeing another man. He transformed into a snake to bite his wife, but the sparrow warned the two before Kallnag drew close. When Kallnag went for a strike to his wife's heel, Basaldev was ready and he crushed Kallnag's head with a rock, instantly killing him. The sparrow told the two that they were now free to marry. With her husband now dead, Goridhana no longer had a reason to resist the feelings she had for Basaldev so they hand-in-hand ran away from the village before any of her in-laws learnt of Kallnag's death. They returned to Basaldev's old home, which Goridhana found vaguely familiar but she could not figure out why as it had been many years since she left her home. They married and had a night of passion. The morning sunlight woke Goridhana up with Basaldev, now her husband, still asleep beside her. She knew very little about her husband. In fact, she did not even know his name. Wanting to know more about his background, she quietly got out of bed without disturbing his sleep, slipped her clothes on, and searched the house for clues. She found her old belongings and things she recalled belonging to her parents and older brother. Goridhana immediately realized that the man she had spent the night and had fallen in love with was her own younger brother, Basaldev. And so the wish that Goridhana made ("her husband would love her as much as a brother") had indeed come true as the man she was loved by was now both her husband and younger brother.[49]

A Khasi-Jaintia folklore explains why there are spots on the moon and why it illuminates less than the sun by using an incest motif. The tale starts off by saying that in the old times, there was a lady who had four children - three daughters, Ka Sngi (Sun), Ka Um (Water), Ka Ding (Fire), and a son U Bynai (Moon). The moon was a lustful young man, for he wanted to marry his elder sister, Ka Sngi. He managed to persuade his mother for her approval, however, when Ka Sngi became aware of this, she was very angry but she also agreed to the marriage. After their consummation, as her younger brother slept beside her, she took some ashes in her hand and covered his brow with it. When he woke up and asked her about it, she said, "It is the punishment for your incestuousness and wickedness against me, your elder sister! You wicked and shameless one, be gone from the house!" U Bynai was ashamed. The moon was initially without any blemish and as bright as the sun, but from that time on he radiated a dull white light and had spots on his face because Ka Sngi covered him with ashes. The three sisters remained at home to take care of their mother.[50]

In Khasi-Jaintia Hills, it is forbidden and frowned upon for non-married couples to dance together. In all festivals, unmarried boys and girls can only dance separately. Only married couples are allowed to dance as a pair. A tale is used to explain the consequence of not following this rule. Once upon a time, a dance was held where everyone participated. Soon a sister with her younger brother arrived to participate in the dance. Although they were unmarried siblings, they danced together in close proximity to each other and this led to people scorning at them. As punishment for violating the prohibition, they were forced to marry each other and so that night she sexually united with her younger brother. However, the siblings could not face the shame of their act after its completion. They fled away from the earth and up to the sky to become the sun and the moon.[50]

In a Jataka tale, a son returned to his parents' house after completing his education in Taxila. When his mother tested his awareness of worldly matters, she felt that he was unaware of anything regarding the nature of women. Then she told her husband to send their son again back to his teacher at Taxila to go and gain wisdom on women. The son distrusted his mother's intentions, and with the counsel of his teacher, he concocted a plan to test the nature of his mother. Several months passed since the son's departure when the father also departed for some work. While the mother was alone and on her way from the market, she encountered a young traveling merchant who praised her beauty and said that she must have been even more beautiful in her youth. The mother was enamoured with the young man, and invited him to her house to cook him a meal. She enjoyed his company and had a night of passion with him. When she woke up in bed the next morning, she was surprised to find her son next to where she laid. He asked her if this was the nature of women she spoke of. Realizing that the young man she slept with was her son in disguise, she became overwhelmed with shame.[51]

In a different of the Mahadeva legend, when Mahâdeva was a boy, after his father had abandoned him and his mother for a commercial venture, he thought: “I will look for the woman who is the fairest of face and most surpassingly beautiful in the world,” and though he looked for her, he never found her. He went home, and noticed that his mother was "fair of face and surpassingly beautiful." In his mind, there was no woman finer than her. However, she was unwilling to have intercourse with him. After six years of him continuously asking her, she finally agreed with the condition that he must marry her as she did not want to share a bed or be embraced in the arms of a man that was not her husband. So she became her son's wife.[24]

In the Aṅguttara Nikāya, a poor lady initiated her son as a monk in Savatthi. For this reason, they were not allowed to see each other often even though they yearned to. They would use moments they would share things they procured as opportunities for meeting. They would happily meet morning and evening looking after each other's health. From making efforts to meet often, rapport blossomed, from rapport, intimacy and the end of their familial relationship. Without making their feelings conspicuous to others, with love-struck sentiments, they crossed the line and consummated their affectionate bond.[24]

In a story about the exile of the sons of a particular king Okkaka, the king exiled the sons and daughters born from his former head queen as he now had a new bride and promised to make the children from his new marriage the successors to the throne. However, before the left, their father reminded them of the prohibition of marrying anyone outside of their caste. The former princes alongside their older sisters, the princesses, arrived at the river Bhagirathi. The former princes constructed shacks from trees and resided there, surviving by hunting animals for them and their sisters. There were princes who did not find any girls who were suitable to be their wives or any boys for their older sisters. Mindful of their father's belief that offsprings produced from such unions would be defective, they did not wish to blend the castes. But they found their youthful desires to overwhelming and were seriously burdened by ardors and cravings so they approached a respected elderly man for advice. The elderly man told them that their sisters were of the same caste and nothing in their father's prohibition extended to them. So they returned to their sisters, and each of the former princes took one of their older sisters as their wife all the while adhering to the rites of marriage. The former princesses soothed the fervors and yearnings of their younger brother and in place gave them delight and bliss by having very enjoyable relations with their now husbands. On a later occasion, the king fondly recalled his exiled children and asked what happened to them. His counsellors informed him that his children had kept to his instructions regarding marriage and his older daughters had married his younger sons, bearing their younger brothers both boys and girls.[24]

In a Jataka tale, a king and queen persistently urged their son to marry as they wished for him to succeed as king, but he did not. At last, he made a golden image of a woman and informed his parents that if they found a woman who was as pretty as the image, he would take the throne. They posted the image all over India, but without success. The king and queen had a daughter, who was older than their son, and she was considered the most beautiful woman in the kingdom. Finding no one else, they ornamented her and she reluctantly agreed to be presented before her brother. He was initially puzzled as to why she was sent to him, but he understood when he saw her stand next to the image and outclass it. He was forced to hold to his agreement and his older sister was made the principal consort in his rulership. The siblings made a pact between themselves that even as husband and wife they would live together in total chastity. So they lived this way in the same bedchamber, sleeping next to each other without any physical intimacy. However, after several years, desire began to burn in them leading them to lay eyes on the other. Losing control of their senses, they finally consummated their relationship and his older sister bore him a daughter.[24]

In a Russian fairytale titled "Prince Danila Govorila", a young prince was given a magic ring by a fairy, with the stipulation that he must marry none but the woman whose finger the ring fits and she told him that there was only one woman whose finger the ring fits. The king issued a decree for a search for this bride among their noblewomen, the princesses of foreign kingdoms, and the kingdom's own common folk, and yet the ring was found to fit no one. The prince lamented of their fruitless search to his older sister, the princess of the kingdom. Knowing how his older sister admired the beauty of the ring since they were young, he gave it to her as he had lost hope of ever finding this woman. She adamantly refused and tried cheering him up, telling him to not give up as the fairy had never been wrong before. She told him as much as she loved the ring, it would never fit her finger as it could only fit the finger of the woman he would marry. However, the young prince was not as optimistic and forcefully had her keep it. Later, while she was alone and marvelling at how gorgeous the ring was, she could not help wish to wear it even though it was something that her parents had always forbade her from doing. She rationalized that there was no harm in trying and she expected it not to fit her anyway. However, to her great astonishment, it was a perfect fit. She immediately realized that the reason why the kingdom could never find her brother's fated wife despite the greatest of their efforts was because they did not test the one woman that was outside the radar of their expectations, his own sister. She had unwittingly qualified as the bride of her younger brother, and he had unwittingly qualified as her bridegroom. She tried to remove the ring off her finger but it was immovable and fixed. She informed her brother that she had found a woman whose finger the ring fitted. Thereupon, her younger brother immediately wanted to setup the marriage. Hearing the delight of her brother, she was unable to bring herself to reveal that the bride would be her, his own sister. She began to weep out of worry about the immorality of the marriage and how her dear younger brother's heart would be crushed if he were to learn the truth. The fairy appeared to her and comforted her and told the princess not to worry and do as she said. When the prince summoned to the wedding his bride, the princess went to the wedding under a magical disguise made by the fairy and it seemed that the prince was unable to tell that he was wedding his own older sister. As the two left the ceremony, a man came running to the prince and stabbed him to the side with a knife, and he fell down appearing dead. The princess threw herself upon her younger brother with a great cry, whereupon the prince sprung up and hugged her. The fairy had already told him that his bride was none other than his older sister prior to their wedding. The prince had faked his death by having a pretend assassin stab a bag of blood that he had hidden under his clothes. It was an idea the fairy came up with to test the true love between a husband and wife. He grasped her hand and confirmed that she wore the ring. The princess confessed that she hid the truth from him because she thought she was unsuitable to be his wife and did not want to sadden him. He replied that she was the most suitable bride he could have ever asked for. They spent the night kissing, necking, and embracing as lovers. That was the first of many times she was in her younger brother's bedchamber as his wife.[39]

In an Inuit mythology, an unknown man visited this woman every night. Every night she awoke to find him having sexual intercourse with her but she could never identify him as the darkness always obscured his face. However, one night, in order to discover his identity, the woman prepared a soot-oil mixture which she applied all over her bosom. He came again that night as he usually did. The next morning she saw that her younger brother’s face was darkened with soot. Faced with the undeniable truth that it was her own younger brother who had been having physical contact with her body all those many nights, she was mortified and ran away from their village. However, her younger brother went after her and in the course of their long chase, the older sister transformed into the sun and the younger brother transformed into the moon. She stayed away from him the best she can, coming out only when he was not present. She was faster than him and always kept well ahead of him despite his non-stop pursuit of her. However, in extremely rare occasions, the younger brother would catch up with his older sister and couple with her again, forming the solar eclipse.[52]

A myth narrated by the Iroquois and Algonkian had four main characters: a woman ("Woman"), her younger brother ("Brother"), her younger brother's lookalike ("Double"), and the lookalike's mother ("The Witch"). Some unidentified man tried to sneak into Woman's room in order to sleep with her. Woman caught a glimpse of the man's face and saw that the resemblance matches Brother. When she confronted her younger brother about it, he denied that it was him. To prove his innocence, he stayed awake the next night and in the presence of his older sister successfully caught the true culprit, Double. Brother then killed Double. However, Brother would be in danger if The Witch, Double's mother, were to learn of her son's death. So Woman gave Brother an idea. She told him to pretend to be The Witch's son and so he did. However, The Witch began to grow suspicious of her son's sudden change in demeanor and she was also aware of the fact that her son had a double. One day, she asked her son why he was no longer pursuing Woman, the girl he was in love with. Fearful for her younger brother's life, Woman married Brother, believing that their marriage would put a stop to The Witch's suspicions. Years passed and the two had no children. The Witch was once again suspicious. Seeing no other choice, Woman and Brother reluctantly had sexual intercourse and she bore him a child. After that, The Witch no longer had a reason to think that he was Brother and she finally accepted that Brother was her son, Double.[53]

In a foundational myth of the Inca, Inti, the sun deity, married his older sister, the moon deity Mama Killa. Manco Cápac with his older sister, Mama Ocllo (Oello) as his wife, were sent to the planet to create the Inca kingdom.[39]

There is a Yaghan/Yamana folk literature about a brother and his sister. From their earliest youth they lived with their parents and were raised together. When the brother had grown a bit older, he fell in love with his own older sister. He therefore tried in every way possible to try and get her to sleep with him. His sister had long noticed his intention. She avoided him every time, because the people around them considered intercourse with her younger brother to be prohibited. Yet she was of two minds, half-willing, half-unwilling. The brother realized he had to find a way to get her to willingly be with him without embarrassing her so he considered what pretext he should use to get her to be alone with him without arousing suspicion from their parents or the other people. In the forest, he befriended a couple of black birds and he shared his problem with them. They led him to some big berries in an isolated clearing in the forest. This gave him a sly idea. If he accompanied his sister here to pick up these berries, it will not be strange to his parents. He promptly ran back to his hut and told his family: "I have found big berries in a certain place in the forest." Their mother told his sister to go there with her brother. The girl took her basket and hurried to the woods with her brother. Once they were far from everybody, he began caressing her. By the time they reached the place, they both laid down, embraced each other, and yielded to their desires. Since then, they would use their time picking up the big red berries as an opportunity to carry out their pleasure secretly.[17]

There is also a Yaghan/Yaman tale about a mother and her son. The mother was awed when she one day discovered the size of her young son's penis, and that he could successfully have intercourse with her. The tale emphasized on the pleasure the mother derived from the secret relations she had with her son.[17]

A folk tale told by the Cree Indians of North America is about a son trying to return to his mother while she assists and safeguards him from individuals that are trying to obstruct his task. The tale begins with a man, who had a wife and a son. He was paranoid and jealous of the affection between them. The father took his son faraway from home, and abandoned him. However, the son tried to make his way home by himself. Two witches, the dangerous representatives of the father and enemies of the son's growth, worked to prevent the reunion of the mother and son. In the journey, he was aided by benevolent individuals and he became a powerful man, capable of displacing his father in the end. He reunited with his mother, and then ironically, the father's fears came true. The mother and son became lovers, and spent the rest of their life happily together.[17]

There are several Ojibwe stories that contain incest:

A girl's parents died so she raised her brother who was a fair bit younger. She was asked for her hand four times - she refused, saying she had to look after her brother. Men then began talking, "Let her wed her own brother then." When her brother grew up, she was ready to marry but no man was willing to marry her and no one was willing to give their daughter to her brother. People would laugh at them and they were shamed. Having no other choice she married her own brother, and they had three boys and one girl. When her children found out people talking about them, they asked their mother if the claims were true. "If our father is from here, where did you come from?" they would ask. "I came from the Hudson Bay," she would answer them. Their children believed her. They then moved to camp at Duck Lake as no one they knew passed there.[54]

A woman was lived with her son in the same tent. Her youthful son was growing into a fairly skilled hunter. After putting their meat for drying in their camp, the adolescent went to bed. Now there were fewer people in the old times, nearly all relatives faced more temptation than now. He thought of the womanly charms of his mother, and invited her to sleep with him. She called him crazy for asking his mother that. As he slept on his bed, he felt frustrated that his mother refused him. He wanted a woman no matter who she was. In the morning, he told her that he was leaving. When she asked, "Where to?" He said that if she was not going to give him what he wanted, he had to search elsewhere. She told him he can't even cook his own food. But he said he was fine with that even if it meant starving to death. She then begged him to not leave her as she would be all alone without any of his great support. When she realized he was firm in not saying with her, she yelled at him and said that she regretted raising him. So she watched her young boy leave and felt sorry that she refused him. She waited the night, thinking he would come back to her. When he did not, she cried, cried, and cried. The next evening, she was so glad because he came back! She cooked the meat he brought back and they merrily ate together. She then went into their tent and he followed after her. Her bed stayed empty for the rest of the night. At dawn, she quietly left her son's bedside without disturbing his sleep and slipped on her clothes. She had finally let her son get what he wanted from her. She started to worry now after the intimacy she had with her son. The next night when her son expected the same, she told him that what they did was not right and if he wanted her as a woman again, they must first marry. She was not very old so no one ever guessed her son's sensible wife was his own mother.[54]

There is a legend about the North Wind. Pindakik [Biindakik], one winter, came from the north to visit his mother while his father was away somewhere. Some time after her son left, people started to realize she was pregnant; a baby was birthed subsequently. By then, her husband returned after nearly a year. He gave her a chance to explain how this happened. She told him it was blown into her by the North Wind. The father inquired from the neighbors and they all told him the only contact she had with a male was Pindakik, their son. Whenver he would ask her again, she would always blame the North Wind. He then sent his wife away. After a while, he got curious about his wife's whereabouts and did some investigation. He found out that his wife was living with a man in the North and she was pregnant again. He wondered if the northern man was the one who ruined their marriage and if that was what she meant by the North Wind. He travelled to the north and discovered the man who was looking after her was his own son, Pindakik. His wife never confessed about sexual relations with their son, but that was what her husband suspected. Since then women have invoked the "North Wind" to maintain secrecy of their sexual relations with their own sons.[54]

In an ancient Hawaiian myth, the cosmic couple who gave birth to the Hawaiian islands were a brother and his older sister. This became the basis for a custom called pi'o, intentional incestuous copulation within the upper class. Extensive genealogies were maintained in order to produce the most inbred (and thus, "powerful") chiefs possible. The commoners were forbidden to do this out of fear that they would begin producing offspring with chief-like levels of mana.

Incest legends depend for their effect on an assumed shared abhorrence of incest. As a result of this shared set of values, accusations of incest can be used as a way to denigrate a particular group of people. There are jokes told in Georgia which are used to put down other Southerners, including people from Alabama and Arkansas, mountain people, and "white trash". For example:

Q: "How do you know if an Alabama girl is on her period?"

A: "Her brother's dick tastes funny."[42]

Fraternity incest legends focus on the horrors of unintentional incest. In one version of the fraternity incest legend, a girl was being "banged" on a frat boy's bed, and the boy discovers when he turns on the light that it is his older sister. The foreboding warnings of the dangers of anonymous sex were given in the beginning of the story.[42]

In a Californian story known as The Girl Who Married Her Brother, the oldest sister of a large family left home at a young age. Twenty years later, she discovered a hair of a boy and developed a longing for the person to whom the hair may belong. Upon finding him, she led him to her bed and they enjoyed plenty of nights together. While inquiring about his family, she discovered that her lover was actually her younger brother, who was born after she left the house. Despite knowing they had committed incest, she decided to keep her realization a secret, and they eventually married.[55]

In a Korean legend about the origins of the "Dallae (Relief) River", a sister helps her brother with his incestuous impulses. Long long ago, the parents of a daughter and son met a sudden death. The daughter with help from her younger brother made a living farm land from the other side of the stream. One summer, the stream rose following heavy rains and the girl, to stop from getting her clothes soaked, removed them to cross the water. As her brother followed behind, lust stirred in his heart and he was appalled by the desire he had for his own blood. Overcome with remorse and shame, he picked up a stone to kill himself. However, before he struck himself his sister stopped him and expressed shock and grief at what he was about to do to himself. "Your desires are understandable. I am the only female around. You can talk to me and I would have given you relief, why do you have to die?" And so she wed her brother to soothe his lust.[56]

In one middle eastern folk tale, there is a theme of unwitting incest between a boy and his older sister. A boy met a girl of unknown genealogy and they married. Later, the boy found out that his wife was his older sister.[39]

A tale from Yemen narrates of a boy who lived alone with his older sister. The boy fell in love at a very young age and wanted to get married to this girl. However, his sister was opposed to it as she felt that her brother was still too young to marry, but he got married anyway despite his sister's wishes. His new wife, aware of his sister's earlier opposition against their marriage, held a grudge against her and disliked her greatly. One day, she put poison in his sister's food, and his unsuspecting sister ate it and died. The wife hid the nature of her death before her husband returned home. When he came and heard the news, his heart was filled with sorrow for the loss of his beloved sister. The couple buried her, and a palm tree grew from that spot. The tree helped all the women with their laundry except the man's wife, and she felt humiliated. At the insistence of the wife, the palm tree was cut down, but the tree transformed into an egg. A queen from a distant kingdom discovered this egg, and took it back with her. When the egg hatched, the boy's older sister emerged from it. Meanwhile, when the boy figured out the truth behind his sister's death and his wife's wickedness, he killed her. Depressed and filled with regrets and sorrow from the memories of sister as he stayed at their home, he travelled on foot far away from his home until he came across a great kingdom. By this time, years had passed and he his appearance was not that of a young, tall, and strong handsome man. The man began to work and one day he saw the king's daughter in the palace. It was actually his own older sister, who he found incredibly beautiful. He was unable to recognize her as she had, like him, also grown up. He had immediately fallen in love with her. The king took great favor in the young man, so one day the king promised to grant him any wish. He asked to marry his daughter and the king arranged for the two to wed. The Forces That Be used a white bird to warn the princess that she was about to marry her own younger brother. With this knowledge, the princess wished to teach her younger brother a lesson so she kept this to herself and did not tell her brother. The day came and her brother unknowingly wedded his older sister. Though they wedded, she had no intention of consummating their marriage. She requested The Forces That Be for a certain kind of bed material on their wedding night that made it uncomfortable to lay on. The next day her younger brother, who she now addressed as husband, wanted to return to his old home so with the king's permission she departed with him. When the first night of their journey arrived, they stopped to rest at an inn. Fully cognizant of his identity, she coquettishly led her brother to the bed, making him believe that it was the night they could finally consummate. However, once again, with the help of The Forces That Be, at the last moment, she made sure that he was unable to enjoy the night with his older sister as his wife. From night to night, inn to inn, and bed to bed, she and The Forces That Be did not allow her younger brother to have a single night of pleasure with her even though she was his wife. All throughout their journey, though, he never allowed his desires to make him forceful or aggressive nor did he pursue for a reason for her rejection of his advances. She took notice of this and was greatly impressed by his self-control and maturity. However, as they were finally arriving at their old home, he could no longer hold in his frustrations and he had to ask her why she would always act seductively and then deny him her body at the last second. No longer could she bear to hide the truth. She proceeded to reveal the identity of the woman he chose to marry. Rather than be angered or mortified, he was overjoyed to be reunited with the dear older sister he thought he had lost long ago. However, he wanted her to remain his wife, vowing to never disregard her again. During their journey together she had also grew feelings for him that were more than that of an older sister. The former princess, now convinced that her brother had changed for the better, agreed to still be his wife. They entered their old house and at dawn's first peek, in the room they slept as children, the siblings were asleep in each other's arms with uncovered skin against uncovered skin. From what seemed like endless nights to endless nights, infinite inns to infinite inns, and non-stop beds to non-stop beds, at long last she had granted her younger brother's long-held yearning, the consummation of their marriage. There was no denying that they now were truly man and wife. She settled with her younger brother at their old home, and it was not long before she found herself carrying her younger brother's first child. The young man finally had a good wife in his older sister.[39]

In a later Middle Iranian myth, Yimeh married her younger brother, Yima, and she gave birth to the humans.[6]

In one of the Persian courtly romances, Vis, a princess, was convinced to marry her younger brother Viru by her mother, who argued that no other husband was worthy of her. She was duly married to him, and the marriage was consummated.[57]

In an Iraqi folktale, a merchant and his wife died, leaving their daughter and son all by themselves. The daughter, being the older one, raised her brother up and he followed his father's footsteps, becoming a merchant, while she managed the house. A neighbor girl asked the sister to allow her to marry her younger brother, but the sister refused. Angered with the sister, the neighbor girl took the sister to a faraway place and plucked her eyes out. The sister is healed by a woman who then taught her the skill. The woman died and the sister took her place as a healer. The brother and to-be-wife (the neighbor girl) travelled from afar to meet the famous healer. The brother had become blind and the neighbor girl had elephantiasis. The sister without hesitation healed her younger brother, but told the neighbor girl to leave and trouble them no more. The neighbor girl sorrowfully left. The brother was overjoyed to see his sister who the neighbor girl convinced him was dead. The sister took her brother to the house that the woman physician had left for her, and they lived together there. The brother in his loneliness asked his sister to marry him as he did not trust anyone else. She agreed and became his lover. They had one son together.[44]

A brother wanted to marry his beautiful older sister, but she was reluctant. A mouse asked her for some bread (some meat), and in return advised the sister how to test if what her brother felt towards her was lust or love. The brother asked from behind the door whether his sister was ready yet, but her spittle answered instead of her. The mouse led the sister to a house where three girls who resembled her lived. The sister invited them back to her house with her. At home, the brother could not recognize his sister; and could not tell the four girls apart. This was the test: If it was lust, the brother would pick any one of the four as they all looked equally beautiful, but if it was love, he would make certain that his wife was his sister. The brother went to an old man for advise on how to know which of one of them was his beloved sister. He followed the old man's instructions and returned home with a wound that he himself made in his own hand. One of the girls immediately rushed to dress his wound as soon as she saw it, and was insisting to know how he got hurt. With that, he was able to tell that the girl who was worrying over him was his sister. Passing the test, his older sister agreed to marry him.[58]

A sister asked a crow on how to respond to her younger brother, who wanted to marry her as she was hesitant to become his wife. The crow told the sister to agree to the marriage only on the condition that he fulfilled a couple of her requested tasks. First, the sister sent the brother to fetch the milk (meat, fat) of wild animals (wolf, bear, lion). To the crow's surprise, not only did her brother manage to accomplish the task but he also brought the cubs of the killed animals. Then, the sister sent the brother to a haunted mill where his animal helpers remained locked up behind many (seven, twelve) locks. The crow, which was actually the devil in disguise all along, attempted to kill the brother; the hero was passing the time in the sauna, when a bird (dove) brought him news about the animals’ arrival. The animals kill the devil, but not before the devil sank its teeth into the brother's neck, killing him also. The sister regretted giving her brother that task, and promised that if he came back to her, she would become his faithful wife. The animals revived the hero, and the brother took his older sister as his wife.[58]

In a Trobriand myth, a girl made love magic and her younger brother accidentally brushed against it and some of the oil dropped on him. He asked his mother, 'Where is the woman? Where is my sister?' This was a dreadful thing to do, for no boy should inquire about his sister, nor should he speak of her as a woman. The brother ran after his sister and found her on the beach, bathing without her fibre skirt. He loosened his pubic leaf and, naked, tried to approach her. She ran away along the beach until a rock barred her way, and then ran back to another rock at the other end, with her brother in pursuit. After running three times along the beach the girl, exhausted, allowed her younger brother to catch hold of her. They fell down, embracing in the shallow water. Then, ashamed and remorseful, but with the fire of their love not quenched, they went to the grotto of Bokaraywata where they remained clasped in one another's arms! In the Trobriands, the repressed sexual attitude of a brother's incestuous temptation can be formed only towards his older sister. Men frequently dream of sexual relations with their sisters, especially older sisters. Such relations are regarded as incestuous, but also 'smart and desirable.'[59]

A detailed analysis of the culture (folktales, dreams, and songs) of the Normanby Islanders showed that while brother-sister incest was a preoccupation, it was secondary to a boy's powerful sexual yearnings toward his mother and a corresponding fear of being murdered by his father. In particular, there is a folktale about a boy whose mother was deserted by her husband and brothers as they escaped from a human-devouring monster who was slaughtering countless people. After many years of adventure, the boy slayed the monster and became a victorious hero. He took his mother to the other side of the sea, and they had a close union (sexual implied).[17]

In a German folktale, a mother of two children (a son and daughter) resolved not to love another man after her husband's death. Thus she had a wooden statue made that resembled her husband. She named it "Wooden Johannes," and it was to be her companion in place of her husband if he were to die. Her husband indeed died. After she had mourned for several months, her grief became easier to bear. One evening she was invited out by her friends, and she reminded her daughter to lay Wooden Johannes into her bed as soon as he was warm. It was her custom to put Wooden Johannes into her mother's bed every evening before her mother slept in bed. The daughter knew her younger brother desired their mother and so she thought that the time was right to look after her own kin, considering that her mother would be in a good mood after her evening out. Therefore she sent for her brother, who was a well-formed and good-looking young man just like their dead father. She told him her plan and he laid on his mother's bed. She then hid Wooden Johannes somewhere else and blew out the candle in her mother's bedroom. When the widow arrived home, she went to bed with what she thought was Wooden Johannes. She was surprised to find that this Johannes warmed her so well, that it did not lose its warmth even after they cooled down as it was with the other one. She did not remove him from her bed when she realized who it was, but kept him by her side until morning. The maid came in the morning, and asked if she should go to the market. The widow asked her to get good fish. However, the maid said that there was not enough dry wood in the house to fry them properly. The widow told her to chop up Wooden Johannes and use him as long as he lasts. Thus Johannes Jr became Johannes Sr for he warmed his mother so well that she married him.[60]

In a Latin story, there was a married woman in Ephesus of such well-known virtue that women even from the neighboring places gazed at her. When her husband was buried, she weeped night and day over the body, which was buried in an underground vault. No one could divert her from torturing herself. The officials gave up and left her. Everyone mourned for her as a lady of great character, and she was now passed her fifth day of starvation. Every person thought she was the one true example of a wife. Only a loyal maid sat by the widow and shed tears with her in sympathy. The widow's son, who was a soldier returning from the outskirts for being stationed to watch over some crucified robbers near his father's grave, heard of his father's demise and went to the vault where he found his mother, who he always thought was beautiful, in a terrible state. She was overjoyed to see him, but when he brought supper for her into the tomb and told his mother that this grief was useless and that he would love her from then on, she did not acknowledge his sympathy and weeped even more. Her son kept urging his poor mother to eat with similar encouragements, until her maid, at last gave in. Refreshed with food and drink, she too started to attack her mistress's stubbornness, and say that her dead husband would not want her to suffer like this. So the lady allowed her determination to fall, and filled herself with food. The son used the same suggestive words, which had convinced his mother to live, to make her see that he was desirable and dominant just like her late husband, his father. In her pure eyes, she saw a pleasing hero she could not stop from yielding to and so he won her over wholly. No one would have ever thought that this most chaste lady that was resolved to breathe her last over her husband's body had spent not only a wedding night on her son's bed, but a second and a third. The son delighted in his mother's beauty, and she in his alikeness to his late father in both youth and handsomeness. During their shared pleasure, the brother of one of the robbers, noticing that there was no watch guard, took his body down in the night. The next day, seeing one of the crosses without its corpse, the son was in fear of punishment, and told his mother what happened. He told her that this must be because wronged his father by taking his own mother as his wife, but would make right by punishing himself with his sword. His mother's pure heart was now tender for her son the way a wife's heart would and she replied, "No, I would rather make my dead love useful, than lose my living love." She ordered her first husband's body to be removed from the coffin and put up in place of the missing robber.[61]

In Alchemy, there are numerous incest symbols, especially the hierosgamos or coniunctio (literally meaning "sacred marriage" or "union"), a chemical marriage between a male and female, specifically a brother and sister. The rebus is commonly shown as an incestuous younger brother and his older sister, depicted as a joining of Sol and Luna, sun and moon.

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 Bonny Hind and Sheath and Knife, for example), but always brings about a tragic end.

In mythology, the following motifs have appeared:

• Girl exchanges form with sorceress in order to visit her younger brother and get a son by him
• Brother unwittingly qualifies as bridegroom of his older sister in a test
• Brother and older sister unwittingly in love with each other
• Brother-sister marriage
• Man unwittingly ravishes his own older sister[39]