Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/28
In reference to the reports of Greek historians on Oriental customs, what assertion could be more sweeping and loose than that of Ptolemy, who, (relying upon the authority of the Paraphrasis of Proclus, who flourished in the 5th century B. C).,
two daughters. Genesis xix. 36–38 says:—"Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father; and the first-born bare a son, and called his name Moab; . . . . . . and the younger, she also bare a son and called his name Benammi."—At a much later period, the grand-daughter of King Herod the Great is said to have married her uncle Philip. Again, the Assyrians are charged by Lucian (Lucian de Sacirificiis, p. 183) with the guilt of close consanguineous marriages. Also Orosius, a Spanish Presbyter who flourished in the 5th century after Christ, relates in his Historiarum adversus Paganos Libri VII., that Semiramis, the widow of Ninus, married her own son, and authorized such marriages among her people in order to wipe out the stain of her own abominable action (cf. Adam, F. R.)—The old Egyptians seem to have legalized the marriage between brothers and sisters (vide Rawlinson's History of Herodotus, vol. II., p. 429, note 1); and, according to Philo, the Alexandrian Jew, there was no restriction even as to marrying one's whole sister (Philo de Specialibus Legibus, p. 778).—The recently published work of Mr. R. Smith illustrated the existence of the practice of marriage between nearest blood-relations among the early Arabs.
But how far all these statements as regards those Oriental nations may be reliable, I leave it to the students of their histories and religions to prove with positive evidence.