BROTHER-SISTER MARRIAGE IN ANCIENT EGYPT.
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BROTHER-SISTER MARRIAGE IN ANCIENT EGYPT.


Yet from the 13th Dynasty (1795-1650 BC) on polygamy was common among kings and some of the ruling elite. While one principal wife (hemet nesw weret) was chosen, others were probably taken by the king in order to assure a royal heir, or cement relationships with foreign countries or even powerful regional leaders.  Kings might have as many as several hundred wives, and in some periods other high officials took more than one wife.


Also, the tradition of brother/sister or father/daughter marriages was mostly confined to the royalty of Egypt, at least until the Greek period.  In tales from Egyptian mythology, gods marriage between brothers and sisters and fathers and daughters were common from the earliest periods, and so Egyptian kings may have felt that it was a royal prerogative to do likewise.  However, there are also theories that brother/sister marriages may also have strengthened the king's claim to rule. It was not uncommon among common people to marry relatives.  Marriage between cousins, or uncles and nieces were fairly common in Egypt prior to the Greek period.  Interestingly, after the Greek arrival, one study found that 24 percent of marriages among common people were brother/sister relationships.

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