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Do not fill this in! ===Zoroastrian=== {{Main|Xwedodah}} In [[Ancient Persia]], incest between cousins is a blessed virtue although in some sources incest is believed to be related to that of parent{{ndash}}child or brother{{ndash}}sister.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0qcdrMTprSMC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803085652/https://books.google.com/books?id=0qcdrMTprSMC|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 August 2020|title=Sex and Punishment: Four Thousand Years of Judging Desire|last=Berkowitz|first=Eric|date=2012|publisher=Counterpoint Press|isbn=9781582437965|pages=21–22}}</ref> Under [[Zoroastrianism]], royalty, clergy, and commoners practiced incest, though the extent in the lattermost class was unknown.<ref name="Skjaervo 2013">{{Cite web|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/marriage-next-of-kin|title=Marriage II. Next-Of -Kin Marriage In Zoroastrianism|last=Skjaervo|first=Prods Oktor|author-link=Prods Oktor Skjaervo|website=www.iranicaonline.org|publisher=[[Encyclopaedia Iranica]], online edition|date=2013|access-date=20 August 2018}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> This tradition was called [[Xwedodah]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bigwood|first=Joan M.|date=December 2009|title='Incestuous' Marriage in Achaemenid Iran: Myths and Realities|journal=Klio|volume=91|issue=2|pages=311–341|doi=10.1524/klio.2009.0015|s2cid=191672920|issn=0075-6334}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Scheidel|first=Walter|date=1 September 1996|title=Brother-sister and parent-child marriage outside royal families in ancient egypt and iran: A challenge to the sociobiological view of incest avoidance?|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223430185|journal=Ethology and Sociobiology|volume=17|issue=5|pages=319–340|doi=10.1016/S0162-3095(96)00074-X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=García|first=María Olalla|date=2001|title="Xwedodah": el matrimonio consanguíneo en la Persia Sásanida. Una comparación entre fuentes pahlavíes y greco-latinas|url=https://publicaciones.unirioja.es/ojs/index.php/iberia/article/view/267|journal=Iberia. Revista de la Antigüedad|language=es|volume=4|pages=181–197|issn=1699-6909}}</ref> ({{Lang-ave|Xᵛaētuuadaθa|translit=Xvaetvadatha}}).<ref name="Skjaervo 2013"/><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cNUEnHU0BPoC&q=xwedodah&pg=PA430|title=Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature|last=Jong|first=Albert De|date=1997|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-9004108448|pages=430–433}}</ref> The tradition was considered so sacred that the bodily fluids produced by an incestuous couple were thought to have curative powers.<ref name=":0" /> For instance, the [[Vendidad]] advised corpse-bearers to purify themselves with a mixture of the urine of a married incestuous couple.<ref name=":0" /> [[Friedrich Nietzsche]], in his book ''[[The Birth of Tragedy]]'', cited that among Zoroastrians a wise priest is born only by Xvaetvadatha.<ref>''The Birth of Tragedy'', Friedrich Nietzsche. Anaconda Verlag – 2012.</ref> To what extent Xvaetvadatha was practiced in [[Sasanian]] Iran and before{{nbsp}}{{ndash}} especially outside the royal and noble families ("dynastic incest") and, perhaps, the clergy{{nbsp}}{{ndash}} and whether practices ascribed to them can be assumed to be characteristic of the general population is not clear. There is a lack of genealogies and census material on the frequency of Xvaetvadatha.<ref>Michael Mitterauer, "The Customs of the Magians: The Problem of Incest in Historical Societies," in Roy Porter and Mikuláš Teich, eds., Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science: The History of Attitudes to Sexuality, Cambridge, UK, and New York, 1994, pp. 231–50.</ref><ref name="Fischer 2007">Fischer, Michael MJ. "Ptolemaic Jouissance and the Anthropology of Kinship: A Commentary on Ager" The Power of Excess: Royal Incest and the Ptolemaic Dynasty"." Anthropologica 49, no. 2 (2007): 295–299.</ref> Evidence from [[Dura-Europos]], however, combined with that of the Jewish and Christian sources citing actual cases under the Sasanians, strengthens the evidence of the Zoroastrian texts. In the post-Sasanian Zoroastrian literature, Xvaetvadatha is said to refer to marriages between cousins instead, which have always been relatively common.<ref>*Jakob Eduard Polak, Persien, das Land und seine Bewohner: ethnographische Schilderungen, 2 vols in one, Leipzig, 1865; tr. Kaykāvus Jahāndāri as Safar-nāma-ye Polāk: Iran wa Irāniān, Tehran, 1982. *James Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, leurs origines et leur histoire, Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des hautes études ... Sciences philologiques et historiques 29, Paris, 1877. *{{cite journal | last1 = Givens | first1 = Benjamin P. | last2 = Hirschman | first2 = Charles | s2cid = 143341230 | year = 1994 | title = Modernization and Consanguineous Marriage in Iran | journal = Journal of Marriage and the Family | volume = 56 | issue = 4| pages = 820–34 | doi = 10.2307/353595 | jstor = 353595 }} *[[Clarisse Herrenschmidt]], "Le xwêtôdas ou mariage «incestueux» en Iran ancien," in Pierre Bonte, ed., Epouser au plus proche, inceste, prohibitions et stratégies matrimoniales autour de la Méditerranée, Paris, 1994, pp. 113–25. *Alan H. Bittles et al., "Human Inbreading: A Familiar Story Full of Surprises," in Helen Macbeth and Prakash Shetty, eds., Health and Ethnicity, Society for the Study of Human Biology Series 41, London, 2001, pp. 68–78.</ref> It has been observed that such incestuous acts received a great deal of glorification as a religious practice and, in addition to being condemned by foreigners (though the reliability of these accusations is questionable since accusations of incest were a common way of denigrating other groups),<ref>Porter, Roy, and Mikulas Teich, eds. Sexual Knowledge, Sexual Science. CUP Archive, 1994, p.237</ref> were considered a great challenge by their own proponents, with accounts suggesting that four copulations was deemed a rare achievement worthy of eternal salvation. It has been suggested that because taking up incestuous relations was a great personal challenge, seemingly repugnant even to Zoroastrians of the time, it served as an [[honest signal]] of commitment and devotion to religious ideals.<ref>Scheidel, Walter. "Evolutionary psychology and the historian." The American Historical Review 119, no. 5 (2014): 1563–1575.</ref><ref name="Fischer 2007"/> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page