This article gives a list of individuals who have been romantically or maritally coupled with a sibling. This list does not include coupled siblings in fiction, although ones from mythology and religion are included.
Terminology
There are many terms used to describe a romantic bond between siblings, including formal nomenclature such as adelphogamy, specific hyponyms such twincest, or slang terms like sibcest.[2][3] In a heterosexual context, a female partner in such a relationship may be referred as a sister-wife.[4] A similar incestuous arrangement which is non-monogamous can be referred as sister-swapping or brother-swapping,[5] although this should not be confused with berdel, which describes the situation in which families exchange brides or bridegrooms.[6]
History
Sibling marriage was historically practiced among royalty in ancient through Ptolemaic Egypt, in the pre-Columbian Inca Empire of Peru, in pre-colonial Hawaiʻi, sporadically throughout Eurasia, and in various other places.
While cousin marriage is legal in most countries today (less often with regard to first cousins), and avunculate marriage is legal in several, sexual relations between siblings are considered impermissibly incestuous almost universally. Sibling marriage is legally prohibited in most countries worldwide,[citation needed] with a partial exception being Sweden, where marriages between half-siblings are legally permitted.
Innate sexual aversion between siblings forms due to close association in childhood, in what is known as the Westermarck effect. Children who grow up together do not normally develop sexual attraction, even if they are unrelated, and conversely, siblings who were separated at a young age may develop sexual attraction. Thus, many cases of sibling incest, including accidental incest, concern siblings who were separated at birth or at a very young age.
List of coupled siblings
Religion, mythology, and legend
Nüwa and her full brother Fuxi, in Chinese mythology[7]
^Rudmin, Floyd Webster (1992). "Cross-cultural correlates of the ownership of private property: A look from another data base". Anthropologica. 34 (1): 71–88. doi:10.2307/25605633. hdl:1974/2575. JSTOR 25605633.
^Cusack, Carmen M. (2017). "Double Glazed: Reflection, Narcissism, and Freudian Implications in Twincest Pornography". JL & Soc. Deviance (13): 1.
^ a b c d e fAger, Sheila L. (2005). "Familiarity Breeds: Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty". The Journal of Hellenic Studies. 125: 1–34. doi:10.1017/S0075426900007084. ISSN 0075-4269. JSTOR 30033343. PMID 19681234.
^Buckner, Jocelyn Louise (2010). Shady Ladies: Sister Acts, Popular Performance, and the Subversion of American Identity (PhD thesis). University of Kansas. hdl:1808/6412.
^Uysal, Cem; Kir, Ziya M.; Yaman Goruk, Neval; Atli, Abdullah; Bez, Yasin; Polat, Oguz M. (2014). "Being An Adolescent Mother". Acta Med Anatolia. 2 (1): 14–18. doi:10.15824/actamedica.64756.
^Leeming (2006), "Nuwa" & "Fuxi".
^"Pahlavi Texts, Part II: Appendix: III. The Meaning of Khvêtûk-das or Khvêtûdâd". www.sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2 January 2022.
^Larrington, Carolyne (2006). King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 127–135. ISBN 9780857714060.
^Bernhardt, Peter (2008). Gods and Goddesses in the Garden: Greco-Roman Mythology and the Scientific Names of Plants. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-8135-4472-4.
Bunson (2012), "Mentuhotep II (Nebhepetré)" & "Neferu (1)".
Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 85–86 & 89.
Tyldesley (2006), p. 67.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 92–93 & 97.
^Tyldesley (2006), p. 72.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 92–94 & 96–97.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 186, 190, & 192.
^Tyldesley (2006), p. 171.
^Dodson (2000), p. 158.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 200–202 & 207.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 200, 203–204, & 206.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 224, 226–227, & 229.
^Tyldesley (2006), pp. 181–182.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 236–237 & 240.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 244–246.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 234–237 & 239–240.
^Tyldesley (2006), p. 184.
^ a bSears, Matthew A. (2014). "Alexander and Ada Reconsidered". Classical Philology. 109 (3): 213. doi:10.1086/676285. ISSN 0009-837X. JSTOR 10.1086/676285. S2CID 170273543. Hecatomnus had several children, all of whom would rule at some point following his death. After his eldest son Mausolus, his other children were Artemisia, Idrieus, Ada, and Pixodarus. The children of Hecatomnus practiced monogamous sibling marriage, with Mausolus marrying Artemisia and Idrieus marrying Ada.
^Santiago (1973), pp. 35 & 43.
^Santiago (1973), p. 44.
^Tyldesley (2006), p. 192.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 266 & 271.
^Lloyd (2010), pp. 163, 168, & 976.
^Daryaee, Touraj (1999). "The Coinage of Queen Bōrān and Its Significance for Late Sāsānian Imperial Ideology". Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 13: 77–82. ISSN 0890-4464. JSTOR 24048959.
Lee, John W. I. (1 January 2016). "7 Cyrus the Younger and Artaxerxes II, 401 BC: An Achaemenid Civil War Reconsidered". In Collins, John J.; Manning, J. G. (eds.). Revolt and Resistance in the Ancient Classical World and the Near East: In the Crucible of Empire. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East. Vol. 85. BRILL. p. 103. doi:10.1163/9789004330184_008. ISBN 978-90-04-33018-4. LCCN 2016031890.
Middleton, John, ed. (2015). "Darius II (Ochus) (d. 404 B.C.E.)". World Monarchies and Dynasties. Vol. 1–3. London, England: Routledge. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-315-69801-4.
Santiago (1973), p. 36.
^Dodson & Hilton (2004), pp. 251 & 253.
^Dandamayev, Muhammad A. (1990). "Cambyses II". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Fasc. 7. Vol. IV. pp. 726–729.
^Brosius, Maria (2000). "Women i. In Pre-Islamic Persia". Encyclopaedia Iranica. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
^Roller, Duane W. (28 May 2020). "The Collapse of Pergamon". Empire of the Black Sea: The Rise and Fall of the Mithridatic World. Oxford University Press. pp. 74–94. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190887841.003.0006. ISBN 978-0-19-088784-1.
^Mayor, Adrienne (2009). The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 100, 114, & 326. ISBN 978-0-691-12683-8.
^Van Goethem, Ellen (2008). Bolitho, H.; Radtke, K. (eds.). Nagaoka: Japan's Forgotten Capital. Brill's Japanese Studies Library. Vol. 29. Leiden: Brill. p. 229. doi:10.1163/9789047433255_017. ISBN 978-90-474-3325-5. ISSN 0925-6512. OCLC 592756297. Kanmu's next consort was his half-sister Sakahito. She had been appointed high priestess of the Ise shrine in 772, but upon the death of her mother in 775, Sakahito returned to the capital and married Kanmu.
^ a b c dSpoehr, Anne Harding (1989). The Royal Lineages of Hawai'i. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press. ISBN 0-930897-33-1. LCCN 87-73394. OCLC 20390598.
^"Family tree of Kamehameha-Nui Ai'luau". Geneanet. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
Yzendoorn, Reginald (1927). History of the Catholic Mission in the Hawaiian Islands. Honolulu Star-Bulletin. ISBN 9781013603174. The number of people embarking on the canoes was 38: two cooks; the chief Pill and Hinaaukekele his wife, also known as Hinaauaku.
^Corley, J. Susan (2012). "Queen Kamämalu's Place in Hawaiian History". Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society: 37–60. hdl:10524/33793.
Sinclair, Marjorie (1969). "Princess Nahienaena". Hawaiian Journal of History. 3. Hawaiian Historical Society: 3–30. hdl:10524/247.
^Vaughan, Richard (1974). Charles the Bold; the last Valois Duke of Burgundy. New York: Barnes & Noble Books. p. 45. ISBN 0-06-497171-6. OCLC 00923275.
^Harris, Robin (1994). Valois Guyenne: A Study of Politics, Government, and Society in Late Medieval France. The Royal Historical Society. p. 15. ISBN 0-86193-226-9. ISSN 0269-2244. OCLC 30476453.
^"The terrible tale of the Ravalet children, from Tourlaville". Normandy Then and Now. 29 October 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
^Julien and Marguerite de Ravalet:
Lowrie, Joyce O (1999). "Barbey D'Aurevilly's Une Page D'Histoire: A poetics of incest". Romanic Review. 90 (3). Durham: Duke University Press: 379–395. ISSN 0035-8118. ProQuest 196426539.
Lowrie, Joyce O. (1 January 2008). "Barbey d'Aurevilly's Une Page d'histoire: Incest as Mirror Image". Sightings: Mirrors in Texts – Texts in Mirrors. BRILL. pp. 121–144. doi:10.1163/9789401206563_006. ISBN 978-94-012-0656-3.
Hanson, Marilee (1 February 2015). "Lord Byron; The Life of George Noel Gordon". English History.net. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
Hodgkinson, Thomas (12 August 2000). "Invisible woman". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
Kelsall, Malcolm. "Leigh, (Elizabeth) Medora". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/45787. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
Santiago (1973), pp. 114–116.
^Santiago (1973), pp. 59–62.
^"German incest couple lose European Court case". BBC News. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 28 December 2021.
^Santiago (1973), pp. 36–37.
Bibliography
Bunson, Margaret R., ed. (2012). Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (3rd ed.). New York: Infobase Pub. ISBN 978-1-4381-3859-6. OCLC 782879915.
Fornander, Abraham (1878). An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I. Vol. 1. London: Trübner & Company.
Fornander, Abraham (1880). An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I. Vol. 2. London: Trübner & Company.
Grant, Michael; Hazel, John (2002). Who's Who in Classical Mythology (3rd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9780415260411 – via Credo Reference.
Santiago, Luciano P. R. (1973). The children of Oedipus; brother-sister incest in psychiatry, literature, history, and mythology. Roslyn Heights, N.Y.: Libra Publishers. ISBN 9780872120280. LCCN 73-79773. OCLC 00737272.