Brother hatred
The brotherly hatred , also "brother conflict" or the motive of the "enemy brothers", is one of the oldest motives in the literature. It refers to the antagonism of brotherhood and enmity .
Basics
Descendants of the same parents are often placed in a sacred proximity to one another. Brothers and, more clearly, twin brothers in particular often stand for humanity or charity , expressions that can also be synonymous with brotherhood . The "blood brotherhood", which wants to establish this relationship with a person to whom there are no biological ties of kinship, charges this brotherhood as elective kinship with reference to blood , which in turn refers pleonastically to the kinship: That “blood is thicker” is “ as water ”takes off in a similar way.
While psychologically the reason for the conflict can be seen in the emphasized intimacy, which is only surpassed in intimacy by the mother-child relationship and perhaps the partnership , the subject matter of myths and literature often provide external causes for alienation. So the conflict can by fate ( fatum be set) as at Polynices and Eteocles place. Simpler human reasons can also be given in family or social constellations. The struggle for the father's inheritance, the mother's affection, even the fantasized or executed sexual intercourse with the sister can lead to alienation and hatred. The motive of hatred of brotherhood becomes even easier to understand if, in the case of a love felt for the same woman, it is intertwined with the motive of jealousy. The biblical story of Cain and Abel offers a variant of this, which exchanges love for women with that for deity .
Old testament
The story of Cain and Abel can be found in Gen 4.1–16 EU . Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve . From verse 3 the killing of Abel is shown.
The sin , which is also personified as a wild beast or demon can be understood is, prospectively offered by an unmotivated occurring "Lord" here as an explanatory model. The act itself seems to consist only of the rejected victim. The execution of killing the unsuspecting and defenseless Abel in a remote place in the field does not only indicate calculation, because the conflict between Cain, who devoted himself to agriculture, and Abel, the nomadic cattle, is often viewed as an echo of the conflict interpreted the settling down of the Israelite tribes. The field as a symbol of agriculture seems desecrated when the blood of the slain in Gen 4.10 EU that clings to it is itself that opens his mouth and calls to God to uncover the atrocity. From the fate of Cain the motive of the outlaw develops , who is provided with a stigma ( Gen 4.15 EU ) so that the earthly roommates (not mentioned up to then) do not kill him. The son Seth is born to the parents Adam and Eve as compensation .
While the fraternal dispute between Cain and Abel seems to be based on the motive of jealousy , in 2 Sam 13 EU the incestuous desecration of Thamar by her brother Amnon between Amnon and Absalom , another brother, develops into a hostility that is the motive of vengeance transported.
Antiquity
Eteocles and Polynices
What is meant here is the completion of fate. The motive of hatred of brothers is completely subordinate to this practice. Both brothers appear bitter and must remain incomprehensible to the recipient. With the downfall of both brothers, the conflict also ends, but in the narrower sense it is not resolved. Only in the larger context of the guilt of the father Oedipus does the motive of enmity serve to replace it with atonement .
Amphion and Zethus
The Greek mythology knows the twins Amphion and Zethos . The twins that Antiope , desecrated by Epopeus , King of Sikyon, gave birth were abandoned (motif of the foundling ). Only later was it revealed that Antiope, who was also Zeus' lover, had received the children from the father of the gods. While Amphion now developed a musical talent and over time learned to play the lute in a moving manner, Zethos developed strength and courage. However, enmity did not develop from the constellation of these opposing twins.
Romulus and Remus
It is different with the twins Romulus and Remus of Roman mythology . The descendants of Aeneas who had escaped from Troy , who gave birth to Rhea Silvia God Mars , were abandoned , similar to the pair of Amphion and Sethos , and raised by a she- wolf and later by a swineherd named Faustulus . The motif that permeates history as a founding myth is that of power . After revenge had to be taken on an Amulius who had driven the grandfather of both of them from his throne, the twins were given permission to found a city. When the auspices then chose Romulus as the namesake of the not yet built city and he immediately dug a ditch and a wall around the proposed settlement area, the recessed Remus jumped sneering over the wall and was slain in anger by his brother. The fratricide in the founding history of the city of Rome finds in the words of the victorious, that it may happen to anyone who skips the said fortification, its almost sacral exaggeration, with which the impregnability of the city was postulated.
literature
- Hans Duhm: The evil spirits in the Old Testament. Mohr Verlag, Tübingen / Leipzig 1904.
- Elisabeth Frenzel : Motifs of world literature. A lexicon of longitudinal sections of the history of poetry (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 301). Kröner, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-520-30101-6 , pp. 80-94.
- Wolfgang Harms: The fight with the friend or relative in German literature around 1300. In: Medium Aevum 1 , Eidos, Munich 1963.
- Hedwig Jacket: The Rhenish saga of the hostile brothers in their effect influenced by romanticism. In: Contributions to Rhenish and Westphalian folklore in individual presentations 7 , Diss., Martini & Grüttefien, Elberfeld 1932.
- M. Landau: The enemy brothers on the stage. In: Stage and World 9/1996.
- H. Landsberg: Hostile Brothers. In: Literary Echo. 6/1903.
- JT McCullen: Brotherhate and Fratricide in Shakespeare. In: Shakespeare Quarterly 3/1952.
- Fridrich Schiller "The Bride of Messina".