There are a whole slew of fantastically good reasons why incest is illegal and taboo, including the lasting psychological damage it does, and the dysfunctional family dynamics it creates. That said, there’s a good chance that the Ptolemaic Dynasty would have been filled with fratricidal thugs and harpies even if they hadn’t made it a practice to marry their siblings.
I say this because just about every relationship in the ancient world was founded upon some manner of abusive power. While we romanticize the relationship between Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar, and especially the relationship between Cleopatra and Mark Antony, both of these love affairs were based on mutual political interest–in Cleopatra’s case, a desire to stay alive. While many accused her of seduction, the fact remains when she rolled herself out at the feet of the Roman general, she was more than thirty years his junior, and utterly at his mercy.
Today, we would rightly question the ethics of these love affairs, but given the way women were treated in the ancient world–and even until recently–her relationships with these men seems positively enlightened. Especially when you contrast them with the sexual relationships she was supposed to have as the Queen of Egypt.
To wit, she was not only expected to marry her brother, but to have children by him.
So, how did this come to pass? The Ptolemies considered themselves to be the successors to Alexander the Great–that Macedonian King who conquered the known world. Ptolemy was his general, and some said his half-brother. After Alexander the Great died and his empire was broken up, Egypt fell into the hands of Ptolemy and a dynasty was born.
His daughter, Arsinoe II, would start the tradition of incest. Married off to an old King of Thrace when she was still a teenager, she was the ultimate survivor. Her life was frequently in danger and she made many narrow escapes, including one from the Seleucid Army marching on her kingdom. At some point, Arsinoe seems to have decided that if she wanted to be safe, she couldn’t trust anyone outside her immediate family. So, she returned to Egypt and married her full brother, Ptolemy II.
Now, the Greeks didn’t have a tradition of incest in their ruling families…but the pharaohs of Egypt did. By marrying her brother, Arsinoe was able to help create a link between the new Ptolemaic dynasty and the very old traditions of the native Egyptians. It served her extremely well as she became the first female pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty, ruling not just as the wife of the king, but as a king in her own right.
After that, the tradition took hold. The Ptolemies discovered that incest served some important political purposes.
For one, incestuous marriages virtually ensured that the Macedonian ruling family would never have to dilute its blood with native Egyptians, for whom they seemed to hold some disdain. Moreover, it put the kibosh on social mobility. No ambitious Macedonian or Egyptian boys would grow up with the dream that they, too, could be pharaoh as long as they worked hard, sucked up, and poisoned the right people.
The best an ambitious man could hope for was to make his daughter a concubine to the king, which might, if the queen was infertile, allow him to one day become grandfather and vizier to the next king. Consequently, a tradition of Ptolemaic incest kept the threat of being poisoned by outsiders to a minimum.
Another advantage to keeping it in the family was that foreign powers couldn’t get a foothold in Egypt. The usual way by which empires encroached upon one another was by marriage. If I’m the king of the nearby Seleucid empire, for example, it might be a good idea to marry my daughter off to the King of Egypt. Then, when the pharaoh is old and feeble, I could claim the throne in the name of my grandson with my own army to back me. But if Ptolemaic kings only marry their sisters or daughters or nieces, I don’t have a prayer.
So, the potential for foreign invasion and manipulation was reduced by incest. But what of internal conflicts? Well, when you marry your own sisters you can maintain control over your nephews–all of whom would have a claim to your throne. It’s an easy solution to turn them into sons!
You might assume that the Ptolemaic gene pool would produce a lot of inbred drooling abominations, but aside from a tendency towards weight-gain and buggy eyes, the Ptolemies don’t appear to have suffered any genetic abnormalities. Unless you count the unflinching resolve to murder your siblings as a matter of nature rather than nurture.
Apparently, familiarity breeds contempt and the Ptolemies became a fratricidal lot. The family infighting was ruthless and deadly; there was no defense against those family dynamics.
So was it worth it?
Well, the evidence tells us that it was. The Ptolemies ruled Egypt for almost three hundred years. And if the Battle of Actium had gone the other way, Egyptian culture would have dominated western civilization.
Very interesting stuff Steph! I am approaching the ending of Song of the Nile ( as in will be done today) and this information is indeed handy! I did wonder about the ill effects of inbreeding – so thank you for addressing that! No pressure but when is the next book out?? LOL
<3 ya
*big grin* Debi, I’m writing it right now. As fast as I can 😉
You bet it was worth it! And the modern version still rolls on. Look at Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip – they are cousins (albeit several times removed). The Hawaiian royal family did it. The current King of Thailand is married to his 1st cousin, and his parents were half-siblings!
This is great stuff, Christi. I had no idea about the Hawaiian royal family. Or the Thai
Actually,it was the father of the King of Thailand whose parents were half-siblings,and Queen Sirikit is a granddaughter of a half-brother of the King’s father.(Two of her half-uncles married their half-sisters and the two kings before the current King’s brother were sons of King Chulalongkorn by a different half-sister–he married four of them–but the Queen’s father was the son of a concubine).
I can see how it royal incest has it’s political and financial benefits. And if that is the way you were raised, then why question it. But it does have the tendency to get messy.
Just a little messy, Allison 😛
Interesting, because with my little knowledge of Egypt, I have always seen it as an isolated country, whereas others in the region do not seem that way. Now I know why.
Fascinating post,Stephanie. It is interesting to find out that the in breeding didn’t cause major genetic weaknesses amongst the Egyptian royalty. Being poisoned sounds like it was more of a concern:)
Elizabeth, thank you so much for stopping by! When I began my research, I assumed that the inbreeding would have caused serious problems not just for the Ptolemies but for the Egyptian dynasties before then. I was puzzled not to find any real evidence of it, with the possible exception of the weirdly shaped portraits during the rule of Akhenaten.
However, recent-ish scientific study suggests that the incidence of genetic abnormality in first cousins is only about 2.8%, leading many to question whether or not the risks in incestuous pairings has not been exaggerated due to the ice factor involved.
That was a surprise to me, but it does help explain how such incestuous dynasties could last for hundreds of years at a time. Of course, with the Ptolemies, you also had the odd concubine thrown into the mix…but I’m sure the you’re quite right and these rulers were far more concerned with assassination than they were with deformed children. 😛
Damn you, auto-correct. I meant “ick” factor, not “ice” factor.
In Lily of The Nile, you mention that Cleopatra had a cousin named Petubastes, a Egyptian high priest of Ptah. How is he related to the royal family? Especially the fact that he was an Egyptian and Cleopatra’s family was primarily Macedonian.
Great question. Petubastes was apparently half-Ptolemaic, his Egyptian priestly father having married a lesser Ptolemaic princess or kinswoman named Berenike. (Cleopatra Biography by Duane Roller, p. 166)
It’s an interesting factoid because it means that some small amount of intermixture with native Egyptians was happening at the royal level, which may account for Cleopatra the Great’s break with family tradition to learn the native language and identify more closely with its people and customs.