Editing Incest (section)

===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> ({{Langx|ae|Xᵛaētuuadaθa }}).<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"/>