ABSTRACT
The title I have given this article illustrates its thesis on more than one level. I have referred to 'stories of incest', and by using the word 'incest' I have already made a statement. That word brings to mind a sexual relationship between two people who are members of the same family and probably closely related to one another. The word 'incest' is associated with a sexual relationship that is forbidden: morally forbidden and legally forbidden. Because of that association, the reader is already, at least to some extent, predisposed to deal with the stories of Lot's daughters (Gen. 19. 30-38) and Tamar and Amnon (2 Sam. 13. 1-22) in a particular way. However, neither of these stories includes the explicit suggestion that they are about incest in the sense I have just outlined, although they each contain suggestions that some of the behaviour described within them is to be regarded as repugnant.
