it is interesting how in the Histories of Herodotus there was this tale of a family that was going to be executed by order of Darius. So Darius asked the woman who from all her family would she save... and after a while she said that her brother. Darius thought it was weird, because he thought her husband or children would be more dear to her than her brother, but then she explained that God willing, she might have another husband and another children, but since her parents were gone, she was never going to have another brother....