Patricide

Encyclopedia : P : PA : PAT : Patricide

Patricide or is (i) the act of killing one's father, or (ii) a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the Latin suffix -cida (cutter or killer).

Compare with matricide (the killing of one's mother), filicide (the killing of a child by his or her parent), fratricide (the killing of one's sibling, in particular a brother-compare to sororicide), regicide (the killing of a king), suicide (killing oneself) and homicide (killing another person).

Contents

1 Patricides in fiction
2 Known or Suspected Historical Patricides
3 Sinhabahu
4 The Punishment for Patricide

Patricides in fiction

In the 2000 film Gladiator, the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was murdered by his son, who later became the Emperor Commodus.
The novel The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is centered on a patricide.
The Patricide is a novel by Alexander Kazbegi.
Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his parents and his four siblings in what would later become known as "The Amityville Horror House"
The Metabarons by Alexandro Jodorowsky and Juan Gimenez feature patricide as a rite of passage.
Luke Skywalker was arguably asked to commit patricide in Star Wars, to his father Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker to defeat the Sith.
Solid Snake killed his "father" (actually his clone-source) in Metal Gear Solid.
In Final Fantasy X, Maester Seymour, leader of the Guado, rose to power after murdering his father, Lord Jyscal.

Patricide is a common archetype prevailent throughout many religions and cultures, particularly Greek culture.

* In the Greek creation epic, Cronus was poisoned by his son Zeus and wife Rhea.
* Apsu, in the Babylonian creation epic the Enûma Elish, was killed by his son Ea in the struggle for supremacy among the gods.
* Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. His parents attempted to prevent this by sending him away as a child, however once grown Oedipus met his father while travelling and killed him in a fight, unknowingly fufilling the prophecy.
* Pelias was killed by his daughters, who were deceived by Medea into thinking he could be resurrected.

Known or Suspected Historical Patricides

Beatrice Cenci, Roman noblewoman who, according to legend, killed her father after he imprisoned and raped her. She was condemned and beheaded for the crime along with her brother and stepmother in 1599.
Lizzie Borden (1860-1927) allegedly killed her father and stepmother with an ax in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. She was acquitted of the crime, but her guilt is still disputed.
Iyasus I of Ethiopia (1682-1706), one of the great warrior emperors of Ethiopia, was deposed by his son in 1706 and subsequently assassinated.
Sarah Marie Johnson (1987- ), an Idaho woman who was convicted of killing both parents on the morning of 2 September 2003.
Dipendra of Nepal (1971-2001) reportedly massacred much of his family at a royal dinner on June 1, 2001, including his father King Birendra, mother, brother, and sister.

Sinhabahu

The Sinhala race in Sri Lanka are said to be descendants of Sinhabahu, who killed his own father, who was said to be a lion. Then he married his own sister, Sinhasivali. It was their son Wijeya who founded the Sinhala race. This is according to the Mahavamsa, the Historical Chronicle of Sri Lanka

The Punishment for Patricide

The punishment for patricide in Ancient Rome was a very public affair. After being beaten over the whole of his body so that blood poured from his wounds, the patricide was forced to crawl into a sack into which was sewn a snake, a dog, a monkey and a rooster. The sack was then thrown into the river Tiber so it flowed out to sea.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.