Goa'uld (erm, well, ahem, cough) reproduction...

[PTeppic]

I'm not sure if there is any more about Harcesis and/or progensis after about 1/2 way through season 5 (where I am up to), but...

[This started as a dicussion in Mythology, but crept into a spot too much detail :blush: so I am starting it here...]
How much has actually been said about Goa'uld procreation and/or the Harcesis? The latter seems to be the human off-spring of blended symbiote-hosts.

For example, the legends say Heru'ur is son of Hathor and Ra, but this would lead to Harcesis. He could be the symbiote son of symbiotes Ra and Hathor, raised in a Jaffa and then blended "normally". In the same way that dozens if not hundreds of Goa'uld are... though there are other options...

They don't really go into too much detail about normal Goa'uld reproduction... except perhaps in Hathor. They say the hosts are involved (I don't think we need to spell it out - watch the episode ) - but of course this will be a change since the "snakes" started taking hosts. The unblended creatures must also have a method - presumably similar to reptiles. Hathor showed that dozens of spawn are produced, which would be consistent with reptiles, can we assume the same would be true of the unblended symbiote? I would think so.

The difference then would be whether the "father" is a blended or unblended human, and whether it is the female host or symbiote who becomes pregnant. Four options, two we have seen ("normal" reproduction as in Hathor and that resulting in Harcesis as in Secrets), leaving two we haven't seen. This means we have not yet seen blended father and pregnancy in the female symbiote - would this also be harcesis, or perhaps THIS is the method for senior Goa'uld such as Heru'ur? Safe to say we all know about the fourth option, unblended male and unblended female! :blush:

 

[Rowan]

Questions

Good questions all and here's probably a better place for them.

Rowan

 

[Anni]

According to Egyptian mythology, Heru Ur, or Haroeris, or Horus the Younger is not the son of Ra and Hathor, but the son of Isis and Osiris. He was only reared and nurtured partially by Hathor. This is as it is depicted on the walls of the temple at Edfu, dedicated to Haroeris and also on the walls of the temple of Hathor at Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. I have seen these for myself. Horus the Younger defeated Seth (who slew his brother Osiris) at his mother's request (Isis).

If he had been the unblended human son of Osiris and Isis, then he would be Harcesis. However, since he was obviously portrayed to be the offspring of two symbiotes, then he would not be Harcesis, surely? He would just be a Goa'uld in an unrelated human host.

If the symbiotes are capable of self-fertilisation, which is possible, then they wouldn't need the sexual act with another symbiote in order to reproduce. But on taking human hosts, perhaps they decided that it was too pleasurable an act to pass up! Of course this does not explain why the System Lords required a queen in order to reproduce (Klorel's comment that Apophis seeded the Queen Mother)....if the symbiote is capable of self-fertilisation and has no gender, they could do it for themselves despite the gender of the host! Unless, of course, they require the womb of the female host in order to 'grow' the embryo symbiotes. They still wouldn't necessarily need the male host to do this.

The writers of Stargate have made allusions and contradicted themselves on these issues all the way along the series, whenever the contentious issue has come up. They dealt with Hathor, by saying that she required Daniel's DNA, presumably as passed through the physical act, in order to make sure that the symbiotes were compatible with human hosts. But this seems to be at odds with later episodes.

Incidentally, in Egyptian Mythology, the god Hapi was hermaphrodite, with both male and female reproductive organs!

 

[PTeppic]

There is an answer in the orginal Forum (Mythology) which references an episode "The Cure" from series 6 which deals explicitly with this area of canon biology. Apparently.

I wait with interest...