Ptolemy Marriages
Royal marriages between close relatives were common during the dynasty. Kings married daughters, sisters, or mothers, and queens married sons, brothers, or fathers. These common marriages had negative impacts on their children. Children were too weak to survive for days, weeks, months, and even years. When the children did live to adolescence, teen, or adult years, they were killed by unknown assailants, jealous family members, or sickness, or in battles.
The reign of kings and queens during different dynasties was about five or six hundred years. The Greco-Macedonian dynasty of the Ptolemies, which ruled Egypt from 322 until 30 BCE, established a practice of incestuous marriage in the royal house early on.10 The Ptolemies were from Greece and overtook the Egyptian empire for hundreds of years.
Children of royal marriages developed physical and mental traits that were frowned upon. The physical traits of obesity and shortness in height were the results of incest. The potbelly known as Physkon made Ptolemy fat. Ptolemy VIII and his son showed potbelly physiques that made them unfavorable kings. Bust statues of the kings show excessive facial plumpness. Their mental traits included aggression, a mindset of securing the throne solely for themselves, and keeping the royal blood pure. Incest and power were the Ptolemy dynasty’s goals, and they kept heirs in the lineage.
The royal family during the dynasty named heirs after themselves. For example, Ptolemy I to Ptolemy XV and the many Kleopatras. These name redundancies ensured the Ptolemy genealogy continued. A Ptolemy king brings his son from Greece to marry his daughter to keep the bloodline going. Many of these marriages were not out of love but for family convenience. Even the Greek and Egyptian gods’ male and female siblings were in relationships. Zeus and Hera, Isis and Osiris were siblings.
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