Note 91 — Lohengrin

Some myths convey the impression as if the love relation with the mother had been removed, as being too objectionable to the consciousness of certain periods or peoples. Traces of this suppression are still evident in a comparison of different myths or different versions of the same myth. For example, in the version of Herodotus, Kyros is a son of the daughter of Astyages, but according to the report of Ktesias, he makes the daughter of Astyages, whom he conquers, his wife, and kills her husband, who in the rendering of Herodotus is his father. Compare Hüsing, “Contributions to the Kyros Legend,” XI. Also a comparison of the saga of Darab, with the very similar legend of St. Gregory, serves to show that in the Darab story the incest with the mother is simply omitted, which otherwise precedes the recognition of the son; here, on the contrary, the recognition prevents the incest. This attenuation may be studied in the nascent state, as it were, in the myth of Telephos, where the hero is married to his mother, but recognizes her before the consummation of the incest. The fairy-tale-like setting of the Tristan legend, which makes Isolde draw the little Tristan from the water (i.e., give him birth), thereby suggests the fundamental incest theme, which is likewise manifested in the adultery with the wife of the uncle.

The reader is referred to Rank’s paper, “Das Inzest Motiv in Dichtung und Sage” (“The incest motive in fiction and legend”), in which the incest theme, which is here merely mentioned, is discussed in detail, picking up the many threads which lead to this theme, but which have been dropped at the present time.