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Incest or Adoption? Brother-Sister Marriage in Roman Egypt Revisited*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 March 2010

Sofie Remijsen  and
Willy Clarysse
Sofie Remijsen
Affiliation:
University of Leuvensofie.remijsen@arts.kuleuven.be
Willy Clarysse
Affiliation:
University of Leuvenwilly.clarysse@arts.kuleuven.be
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Extract

In JRS 97 Sabine Huebner argued that the brother-sister marriages in Roman Egypt could be explained as marriages between an adopted son and a natural daughter, a widespread family strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean. Remijsen and Clarysse now return to the traditional view that Egyptians did marry their full sisters. Ancient authors considered brother-sister marriages as a peculiarity of the whole Egyptian population and, moreover, papyrological sources do not prove any connection between adoption and brother-sister marriage. Neither the household size nor the onomastic pattern in families with brother-sister marriages are consistent with the usual adoption practices of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Keywords

ROMAN EGYPT(BROTHER-SISTER) MARRIAGEINCESTADOPTIONONOMASTICSEGYPTIAN HOUSEHOLD
Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 98 , November 2008 , pp. 53 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Sofie Remijsen and Willy Clarysse 2008. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

* We would like to thank Dorothy Thompson for correcting our English and offering invaluable comments. We also profited from suggestions by Mark Depauw and Katelijn Vandorpe.