Sororicide
Encyclopedia
Sororicide is the act of killing one's own sister.

There are a number of examples of sororicide and fratricide
Fratricide
Fratricide is the act of a person killing his or her brother....

 (the killing of one's brother) in adolescents, even pre-adolescents, where sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry
Sibling rivalry is a type of competition or animosity among children, blood-related or not.Siblings generally spend more time together during childhood than they do with parents. The sibling bond is often complicated and is influenced by factors such as parental treatment, birth order, personality,...

 and resulting physical aggression can get out of hand and lead to the death of one of them, particularly when a potent weapon is available or one is significantly older than the other and misjudges his/her own strength.

Sororicide is similar to child murder
Child murder
The murder of children is considered an abhorrent crime in much of the world; they are perceived within their communities and the state at large as being vulnerable, and therefore especially susceptible to abduction and murder. The protection of children from abuse and possible death often involves...

 (the killing of an unrelated child), infanticide
Infanticide
Infanticide or infant homicide is the killing of a human infant. Neonaticide, a killing within 24 hours of a baby's birth, is most commonly done by the mother.In many past societies, certain forms of infanticide were considered permissible...

 (killing of an infant under the age of one year), filicide
Filicide
Filicide is the deliberate act of a parent killing his or her own son or daughter. The word filicide derives from the Latin words filius meaning "son" or filia meaning daughter and the suffix -cide meaning to kill, murder, or cause death...

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

 and matricide
Matricide
Matricide is the act of killing one's mother. As for any type of killing, motives can vary significantly.- Known or suspected matricides :* Amastris, queen of Heraclea, was drowned by her two sons in 284 BC....

 (the killing of a father or mother respectively by his or her child).

Known or suspected sororicides

  • Berenice IV of Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

     is believed to have poisoned her sister Cleopatra VI Tryphaena
    Cleopatra VI of Egypt
    Cleopatra VI Tryphaena was an Egyptian Ptolemaic queen. She may be identical with Cleopatra V.There were at least two, perhaps three Ptolemaic women called Cleopatra Tryphaena:-Tryphaena, daughter of Ptolemy VIII Physcon and Cleopatra III:...

     in 57 BC. She was later beheaded on the orders of her father, Ptolemy XII.
  • Cleopatra of Egypt requested the execution of her sister, Arsinoe IV, which was carried out under the orders of her lover Mark Antony
    Mark Antony
    Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

     in 41 BC.
  • Roman Emperor
    Roman Emperor
    The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

     Caligula
    Caligula
    Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...

    , according to historian Suetonius
    Lives of the Twelve Caesars
    De vita Caesarum commonly known as The Twelve Caesars, is a set of twelve biographies of Julius Caesar and the first 11 emperors of the Roman Empire written by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus.The work, written in AD 121 during the reign of the emperor Hadrian, was the most popular work of Suetonius,...

    , killed his sister Drusilla after learning that she was pregnant with his child in AD 38. Most historians now believe that she probably died of fever.
  • Roman Emperor
    Roman Emperor
    The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...

     Commodus
    Commodus
    Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...

     ordered his older sister Lucilla
    Lucilla
    Annia Aurelia Galeria Lucilla or Lucilla was the second daughter and third child of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius and Roman Empress Faustina the Younger and an elder sister to future Roman Emperor Commodus....

     to be put to death in AD 182, after she was implicated in plots with members of the Senate
    Roman Senate
    The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...

     to overthrow him.
  • Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
    Ronald DeFeo, Jr.
    Ronald Joseph "Butch" DeFeo, Jr. is an American murderer. He was tried and convicted for the 1974 killings of his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters...

     shot his two sisters, Allison and Dawn, in 1974. Their murders became the inspiration for the Amityville Horror
    The Amityville Horror
    The Amityville Horror: A True Story is a book by Jay Anson, published in September 1977. It is also the basis of a series of films released between 1979 and 2005...

     books and films.
  • Canadian serial killers Karla Homolka
    Karla Homolka
    Karla Leanne Homolka, also known as Karla Leanne Teale , is a Canadian serial killer. She attracted worldwide media attention when she was convicted of manslaughter following a plea bargain in the 1991 and 1992 rape-murders of two Ontario teenage girls, Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French, as well as...

     and Paul Bernardo
    Paul Bernardo
    Paul Kenneth Bernardo, also known as Paul Jason Teale , is a Canadian serial killer and rapist, known for the sexual assaults and murders he committed with his wife Karla Homolka and the serial rapes he committed in Scarborough.-Early life:Bernardo's mother, Marilyn, was the adopted daughter of a...

     raped, then accidentally killed Karla's sister Tammy (1990).
  • Yuki Muto murdered his sister Azumi Muto
    Azumi Muto
    was a pin-up model and aspiring actress for an agency in Tokyo, Japan. She was murdered by her 21-year-old brother on December 30, 2006. Her death aroused the Tabloids' notice for the circumstances surrounding the crime.- Life and career :...

     on December 30, 2006 in Japan.

Mythology

  • The story of the Horatii
    Horatii
    According to Livy, the Horatii were male triplets from Rome. During a war between Rome and Alba Longa during the reign of Tullus Hostilius , it was agreed that settlement of the war would depend on the outcome of a battle between the Horatii and the Curiatii...

     involves a sororicide: after a set of Roman
    Ancient Rome
    Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

     triplets, the Horatii, defeat a set of Alba Longa
    Alba Longa
    Alba Longa – in Italian sources occasionally written Albalonga – was an ancient city of Latium in central Italy southeast of Rome in the Alban Hills. Founder and head of the Latin League, it was destroyed by Rome around the middle of the 7th century BC. In legend, Romulus and Remus, founders of...

    n triplets, the Curiatii, in single combat to keep Rome from Alba Longan rule, the Horatii's sister was killed by the surviving Horatius for mourning the death of one of the Curiatii, to whom she was engaged. The Roman courts condemned the Horatius to death for the murder despite his service, and it was only his father's appeal to the people that saved him.

Literature

  • In William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare
    William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

    's King Lear
    King Lear
    King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

    , Goneril poisons her sister Regan in their struggle for power.
  • In the horror manga "Death Panda" by Waita Uziga, Suzuran, a former shrine maiden turned demonness, rapes and kills her sister Yuuki with the assistance of the Death Panda in order to fill her own desire for lust, human flesh, and violence.
  • In the manga series Reiko the Zombie Shop
    Reiko the Zombie Shop
    is a Japanese manga series by Rei Mikamoto, chronicling the exploits of Reiko Himezono, a teenage “zombie shop”, or a "...necromancer-for-hire employed by bereaved families to resurrect departed loved ones for a short time so that the dead may impart their final truths to the living.” Eleven...

    , The main antagonist Riruka attempts to kill her sister Reiko out of jealousy over Reiko gaining the responsibility of inheriting their family's title of the "Zombie Shop." Also, the serial killer Saki Yurikawa forces younger girls to be her sister and brutally murders them when they refuse.

Films

  • In the Halloween
    Halloween (1978 film)
    Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...

    film series, serial killer Michael Myers
    Michael Myers (Halloween)
    Michael Myers is a fictional character from the Halloween series of slasher films. He first appears in John Carpenter's Halloween as a young boy who murders his older sister, then fifteen years later returns home to murder more teenagers...

     relentlessly pursues and slays both his older sister, Judith Myers, and his younger sister, Laurie
    Laurie Strode
    Laurie Strode is a fictional character in the Halloween horror film series, portrayed by actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Scout Taylor-Compton. She appears in six of the present ten Halloween installments, first appearing in John Carpenter's original 1978 film...

    .
  • In the 1962 movie What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (film)
    What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological thriller film produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The screenplay by Lukas Heller is based on the novel of the same name by Henry Farrell...

    (as well as the 1991 TV movie What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), sisters Blanche and Jane mistreat and attempt to kill each other out of jealousy and hatred.
  • In the 2002 movie Chicago
    Chicago
    Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

    Velma kills her husband and sister after she sees them doing the Spread Eagle.
  • In the anime
    Anime
    is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

     Blood+
    Blood+
    Blood+, pronounced as "Blood Plus", is an anime series produced by Production I.G and Aniplex and directed by Junichi Fujisaku. The series premiered in Japan on Sony's anime satellite channel, Animax, as well as on terrestrial networks such as MBS, TBS, and RKB on October 8, 2005. The final episode...

    , Chiropterans have a biological hive system. Two twin Queens are always born from cocoons in one of the preceding Queen's womb. When the blood of one Queen mixes with her sister's, it violently crystallizes. In Blood+, Saya kills her twin sister Diva in a 123 year-old war between them.
  • In Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
    Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly
    Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, known in Japan as and in Europe as Project Zero II: Crimson Butterfly, is a survival horror video game developed by Tecmo. It is the second installment in the Fatal Frame series and is considered by some gaming magazines as one of the scariest video games ever...

    , the village forces twin sisters to partake in a ritual in which one sister strangles the other. In the canonical 'bad ending', Mio Amakura does indeed strangle her twin sister Mayu to death. (The other documented instance of sororicide is when Azami Kiryu kills her sister Akane.)
  • In the anime Death Note
    Death Note
    is a manga created by writer Tsugumi Ohba and manga artist Takeshi Obata. The main character is Light Yagami, a high school student who discovers a supernatural notebook, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a god of death, or a shinigami, named Ryuk...

    , Light Yagami
    Light Yagami
    , also known as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga and anime series Death Note. He is an extremely intelligent, athletic, popular, but bored young man who finds the Death Note dropped by the Shinigami Ryuk by sheer chance...

     considers killing his sister, Sayu when she ends up being captured by Mello
    Mello (Death Note)
    , universally referred to by the mononym , is one of the main antagonists in the manga and anime series Death Note.-Character:Mello is the older of L's two potential successors raised in Wammy's House, Watari's orphanage for gifted children, in Winchester, England, United Kingdom...

     and his gang in an attempt to retrieve the titular Death Note.
  • In the anime Code Geass, Lelouch Lamperouge
    Lelouch Lamperouge
    is the protagonist and antihero of the Sunrise anime series Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion. Lamperouge is his assumed surname, while his real name is , son of the 98th Britannian Emperor. His seiyū is Jun Fukuyama, and his child self is voiced by Sayaka Ohara...

     kills his half-sister Euphemia li Britannia in order to stop a massacre that he accidentally ordered her to start. Also, Schineizel guns down his sister Cornelia after revealing his plans to rule the world as a god.
  • In the horror film Catacombs
    Catacombs (film)
    Catacombs is a 2007 horror film starring singer Pink and Shannyn Sossamon. Set in the Paris Catacombs it is about a young woman trying to find her way out while being pursued by a killer. It is the first original movie from FEARnet, collaborating with Lions Gate Entertainment...

    , a deranged Victoria kills her sister Carolyn in a rage after being yelled at over the accidental murder of Jean-Michael.
  • In the TV show Family Guy
    Family Guy
    Family Guy is an American animated television series created by Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series centers on the Griffins, a dysfunctional family consisting of parents Peter and Lois; their children Meg, Chris, and Stewie; and their anthropomorphic pet dog Brian...

    , Chris remembers in Let's Go to The Hop that Meg, his older sister, strangled their other sister, but this could just have been a dream.
  • In the Angel Sanctuary
    Angel Sanctuary
    is a shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Kaori Yuki. Originally serialized in Hana to Yume from February 1995 to February 2001, the chapters were collected and published in twenty tankōbon volumes by Hakusensha; the first volume was released in 1997 and the final volume was published in...

     OVA, Rosiel is shown happily saying he will murder Alexiel, who is currently inhabiting Setsuna's body, if she does not return his love.

Song

  • In Child Ballad #10, "The Twa Sisters
    The Twa Sisters
    "The Twa Sisters" is a murder ballad that recounts the tale of a girl drowned by her sister. It is first known to have appeared on a broadside in 1656 as "The Miller and the King's Daughter." At least 21 English variants exist under several names, including "Minnorie" or "Binnorie", "The Cruel...

    ", or "The Dreadful Wind and Rain" the older sister murders the younger sister over the love of a man, and the younger sister's bones are found by a wandering musician who makes an instrument (either a harp or a fiddle, depending on the version) out of them and strings it with her hair. The instrument then tells the story of how she died, usually resulting in a gruesome death for the older sister.

Games

  • In the God of War
    God of War (video game)
    God of War is an action adventure video game for the PlayStation 2 first released by Sony Computer Entertainment's Santa Monica division in March 2005...

    video game series, Kratos
    Kratos (God of War)
    Kratos is a video game character from Sony Computer Entertainment'sGod of War series, which is loosely based on Greek mythology. Kratos first appeared in the highly successful video game God of War , which led to the development of five additional games featuring the character as the protagonist...

     accidentally murders Athena
    Athena
    In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...

    , where he learns she's Kratos's half-sister because it was revealed that Zeus
    Zeus
    In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

     is his birth father.
  • In No More Heroes
    No More Heroes (video game)
    , is an action video game for the Wii video game system. It was directed by Goichi Suda , developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Marvelous Entertainment Inc., Ubisoft and Rising Star Games...

    , Travis Touchdown kills his half-sister Jeane to avenge the death of his family, an event Jeane herself was responsible for.
  • In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
    Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
    Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations, released in Japan as , is an adventure/visual novel video game developed by Capcom. It was originally released for the Game Boy Advance and was later ported to the PC. An enhanced version was released for the Nintendo DS...

    , Dahlia Hawthorne kills her stepsister Valerie Hawthorne in the fourth case of the game when Valerie threatened to expose the truth behind a fake kidnapping that Dahlia and her boyfriend plotted five years ago in order to steal a rare diamond
    Diamond
    In mineralogy, diamond is an allotrope of carbon, where the carbon atoms are arranged in a variation of the face-centered cubic crystal structure called a diamond lattice. Diamond is less stable than graphite, but the conversion rate from diamond to graphite is negligible at ambient conditions...

    . Also, the second case of the serie's first game sees Maya Fey, assistant of the titular protagonist, accused of Sororicide.
  • In one of the endings of the video game, Trapt
    Trapt
    Trapt is an American rock band that formed in Los Gatos, California in August 1997. The group is composed of lead singer Chris Taylor Brown, lead guitarist Robb Torres, bass guitarist Peter Charell, and drummer Aaron "Monty" Montgomery...

    , Allura kills her half-sister, Rachel, for the final sacrifice to revive Malphas
    Malphas
    In demonology, Malphas is a mighty Great President of Hell, having forty legions of demons under his command. He builds houses, high towers and strongholds, throws down the buildings of the enemies, can destroy the enemies' desires or thoughts and all what they have done, gives good familiars,...

     after becoming possessed by the aforementioned demon. Also, Finnegan kills his older sister Ada in an act of betrayal after being corrupted by the desire to obtain Allura's power for himself.
  • In the Tekken series, Nina
    Nina Williams
    is a character from Namco's Tekken game series. She is known to be a cold-blooded assassin who had made her very first appearance in the original Tekken game and since has appeared in every Tekken game released...

     and Anna Williams are assassins and sisters who have an immensely bitter, sororicidal sibling rivalry.
  • In Fable
    Fable (video game)
    Fable is an action role-playing video game in the Fable series. It was developed for Xbox, Mac OS X, and Windows platforms, by Big Blue Box, a satellite developer of Lionhead Studios, and was published by Microsoft. The game shipped for Xbox on October 14, 2003...

     and Fable: The Lost Chapters, after defeating Jack of Blades, the Hero is faced with the option of killing his sister Theresa and receiving the Sword of Aeons, or tossing the sword into the vortex and ridding the world of its evil forever.

See also

  • Avunculicide
    Avunculicide
    Avunculicide is the act of killing an uncle. The word can also refer to someone who commits such an act. The term is derived from the Latin words avunculus meaning "maternal uncle" and caedere meaning "to cut or kill". Edmunds suggests that in mythology avunculicide is a substitute for parricide...

    , the killing of one's uncle
  • Mariticide
    Mariticide
    Mariticide literally means the murder of one's married partner, but has become most associated with the murder of a husband by his wife, as the reverse is given the name uxoricide.In England the punishment until 1790 was to be strangled and burnt at the stake.-Historical:* Laodice I allegedly...

    , the killing of one's spouse
  • Nepoticide, the killing of one's nephew
  • Parricide
    Parricide
    Parricide is defined as:*the act of murdering one's father , mother or other close relative, but usually not children ....

    , the killing of one's parents or another close relative
  • Prolicide
    Prolicide
    Prolicide is the act of killing one's own offspring. It may refer to* Filicide* Feticide-See also:* Child murder* Infanticide* Suicide, the killing of one's self* Avunculicide, the killing of one's uncle* Fratricide, the killing of one's brother...

    , is the killing of one's offspring
  • Uxoricide
    Uxoricide
    Uxoricide is murder of one's wife. It can refer to the act itself or the man who carries it out.- Known or suspected uxoricides:...

    , the killing of one's wife
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