Page:Next-of-kin Marriages in Old Iran.djvu/57

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NEXT-OF-KIN MARRIAGES.

still difficult to determine whether Terituchmes married again at all after having murdered his wife Amestris.

As regards Sysimithres, a single isolated reference in a writer like Curtius is hardly sufficient to claim our attention.

Next we turn to the name that belongs to the period of the Sâsânidæ, a single positive illustration, indeed, of incestuous marriage, according to the Greeks, during the long period of more than 450 years. That name is Kôbâd I., father of the famous king Noshirwân. He is reported by Agathias to have married his daughter Sambyke. However, it is remarkable that neither Professor Rawlinson nor Ferdôsi seem to notice this occurrence. Nevertheless, trusting implicitly to the account of Agathias, a writer who was contemporaneous with Kôbâd's son, we must here consider the influences under which the king might have been persuaded to yield to such an act. Let us refer to the history of that part of his reign which described the imposture of Mazdak and the

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