Line #2 ParentalAbandonment/MythsAndReligion


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2	* OlderThanFeudalism: Moses and Oedipus are two characters abandoned by their parents. Also see MosesInTheBulrushes.
3	%%* Myth/KingArthur is a more recent example.
4	* The story of Romulus and Remus, who allegedly founded [[AncientGrome Rome]], were abandoned on a mountainside. They were found and raised by a she-wolf. Depending on your translation, this could mean that they were ''actually'' RaisedByWolves, or it could mean that they were rescued and taken in by [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold a prostitute]] or [[MissKitty a madam]].
5	* In the ''Literature/BookOfExodus'', Moses is set adrift in a basket on the Nile River by his mother, in hopes of protecting him from the soldiers of the NephariousPharaoh (who had ordered them to slaughter all newborn Hebrew male babies, in order to secure his throne). Moses' older sister Miriam saw the whole thing, including the part where the Pharaoh's daughter found him and decided she would raise him, and offered to go find a wet nurse for the Pharaoh's daughter. [[SubvertedTrope The wet nurse turns out to be their mother, Jochebed]].
6	* In the ''Literature/BooksOfSamuel'', a woman named Hannah, who is suffering from InfertilityAngst ''big time'' prays fervently for a child when her family goes to the Temple for a religious holiday. She [[ThePromise vows that]] if she becomes pregnant, she will dedicate that child to live and work in the Temple, in the service of {{God}}. Sure enough, she ''does'' manage to become pregnant and carry to term, and true to her word, once that child is weaned, she dedicates him to work in the Temple, which (of course) meant leaving him there and having little or no contact with him ever again. She ''does'' go on to have several more children, however.
7	** Some [[WordOfDante extrabiblical sources]] (and also UsefulNotes/{{Islam}}) believe that a similar turn of events happened with the Virgin Mary, with her mother Anne having her at a relatively old age after years of infertility, and then dedicating her to work in the Temple as something not unlike a {{Miko}} until she was old enough that the HighPriest would [[ArrangedMarriage arrange a marriage]] for her, in place of her father. [[note]] Though there ''is'' some question as to whether or not there actually ''were'' Temple maidens serving in the Jerusalem Temple, or if that story was inspired by Pagan priestesses, such as the Vestal Virgins of Rome. The actual Biblical text would suggest the latter, as according to that text, only men from the Tribe of Levi actually served in the Temple. [[/note]] Adherents to this school of thought hold that she was fed and cared for by angels in her years of serving in the Temple, and (according to some) that (at an improbably young age) she made a vow before {{God}} to remain a virgin her whole life, even before becoming the mother of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}.
8	* In one ''hadith'' [[note]] a saying or event ascribed to Muhammad, and used to better interpret [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} the Quran]] [[/note]], a woman came to Muhammad, saying that she had become pregnant from adultery, felt guilty, and asked to be purified. He told her to come back after she had her baby. Months later she came back, with her illegitimate baby, again asking to be purified. He told her to come back after the baby was weaned. When that baby was about 2-4 years old, she came back, again requesting purification, and even fed her toddler a piece of bread to prove that the child had, in fact, been weaned. [[RedemptionEqualsDeath He then decreed that she was to be stoned to death, the ordinary punishment for adultery, and she was taken away from her child to be executed]].
9	* ''Literature/TheAchilleid'': Even though Thetis deeply wants to save her son's life, she had nothing to do with his up-bringing and worse, she forced him to to be raised away from his father. The two have so little to do with his upbringing that Achilles doesn't even recognize his mother when he sees her for the first time in the book.
10	* In the ''Literature/{{Mahabharata}}'':
11	** Kunti abandoned her eldest son, Karna, because she gave birth to him out of wedlock. [[MosesInTheBulrushes She set him to float down a river]], and he was found and adopted by a charioteer.
12	** The two youngest Pandava, Nakula and Sahadeva, not only lost their father, Pandu, after he died due to a curse, but their mother, Madri, [[TogetherInDeath decided to join him by immolating herself]]. The two were adopted by Kunti, Pandu's first wife, and raised alongside their three half-brothers, Yudhishthira, Bhima, and Arjuna.

Context ParentalAbandonment / MythsAndReligion