Patricide

Patricide is (i) the act of killing one's father, or (ii) a person who kills his or her father. The word patricide derives from the Latin word pater (father) and the Latin suffix -cida (cutter or killer). Patricide is a sub-form of parricide, which is defined as an act of killing a close relative.

Compare with parricide (the killing of a relative or other person in a position of authority), matricide (the killing of one's mother), filicide (the killing of a child by his or her parent), fratricide (the killing of one's sibling, in particular a brother-compare to sororicide), regicide (the killing of a monarch), suicide (killing oneself), homicide (killing another person) and genocide (killing large numbers of people of one particular race, tribe or other group).

Patricides in religions and cultures

Patricide is a common archetype prevalent throughout many religions and cultures, particularly Greek culture.

In the Greek creation epic, Cronus was poisoned by his son Zeus and wife Rhea.
Apsu, in the Babylonian creation epic the Enûma Elish, was killed by his son Ea in the struggle for supremacy among the gods.
Oedipus was fated to kill his father, a king, and marry his mother. His parents attempted to prevent this by leaving him on the side of a mountain as an infant. He was found and raised by a shepard. Once grown, Oedipus meets his father while his father is travelling and kills him. He then marries his mother to become king, unknowingly fulfilling the prophecy.
Pelias was killed by his daughters, who were deceived by Medea into thinking he could be resurrected.
In Chinese belief, people who commit patricide (or matricide) will be killed by a lightning strike as a punishment from filial and warrior deity Erlang Shen.

Known or suspected historical patricides

Tukulti-Ninurta I (r. 1243–1207 BC) Assyrian king killed by his own son after sacking Babylon.
Sennacherib (r. 704–681 BC) Assyrian king killed by two of his sons for his desecration of Babylon.
Emperor Yang of Sui in Chinese history allegedly killed his father, Emperor Wen of Sui.
Beatrice Cenci, Italian noblewoman who, according to legend, killed her father after he imprisoned and raped her. She was condemned and beheaded for the crime along with her brother and stepmother in 1599.
Lizzie Borden (1860–1927) allegedly killed her father and stepmother with an axe in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1892. She was acquitted of the crime, but her guilt is still disputed.
Iyasus I of Ethiopia (1682–1706), one of the great warrior emperors of Ethiopia, was deposed by his son Tekle Haymanot in 1706 and subsequently assassinated.
Chiyo Aizawa murdered her own father who raped her on October 5, 1968 in Japan. The incident changed the Japanese criminal law.
Toru Sakai, Age 22, murdered his father Takashi (Glenn) Sakai, age 54, on April 20, 1987 in Beverly Hills, California. Toru Sakai was never captured and is currently wanted for the crime by the LAPD.
Kip Kinkel (1982- ), an Oregon boy who was convicted of killing both parents as well as killing two students at his school on May 20, 1998.
Sarah Marie Johnson (1987- ), an Idaho girl who was convicted of killing both parents on the morning of September 2, 2003.
Dipendra of Nepal (1971–2001) reportedly massacred much of his family at a royal dinner on June 1, 2001, including his father King Birendra, mother, brother, and sister.
Christopher Porco (1983- ), was convicted on August 10, 2006, of the murder of his father and attempted murder of his mother with an axe.
The Menendez Brothers were convicted during a highly publicized trial in July 1996 for the shotgun killings of their parents in 1989.
Karađorđe Petrović (1768–1817), the leader of the Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire, and eventual leader of the independent Serbia, killed his father Petar around 1786 while the family was fleeing Serbia to the safety of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, after Petar threatened to return to Serbia and betray the family to the Turks.

Patricides in fiction

Captain Musgrave murders and impersonates his father in The Worst Crime in the World, a Father Brown story by G. K. Chesterton, collected in The Secret of Father Brown (1927)
Shaddam Corrino IV along with Count Hasimir Fenring killed Elrood Corrino IX in the prelude to dune novel Dune: House Atreides
The novel The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is centered on a patricide.
The Patricide is a novel by Alexander Kazbegi.
Ronald DeFeo, Jr. became the inspiration for The Amityville Horror.
Eve Dallas the main character in the in Death series committed patricide as a young child
Solid Snake, the main character in the Metal Gear (series), kills his father, Big Boss in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.Big Boss was revealed to survive after he fought Solid Snake.
Psycho Mantis, one of the antagonists in Metal Gear Solid, killed his own father, and draws comparison to Snake , as he had killed his father Big Boss in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
In the anime/manga series, Berserk, in the childhood of the series' protagonist, Guts kills his adoptive father, Gambino who is assaulting him one night.
Kratos from the game series God of War wants to kill his father Zeus for betraying him. Kratos succeeds in doing this in the third game by assaulting Zeus with a barrage of punches, reducing him to a bloody corpse.
In Resident Evil 5, Albert Wesker kills his adoptive father Ozwell E. Spencer after finding out about his true origins as a biological weapon, believing that he was the only one who deserved to become a god.
The video game Devil May Cry 3 features the character Lady killing her father Arkham in revenge for the death of her mother Kalina Ann.
In Undead Knights, Sylvia kills her father Kirk in revenge for a violent massacre he ordered.
On Lost, Kate Austen murdered her father by blowing up the house he was sleeping in, and Ben Linus murdered his father by releasing poison gas in the car they were both sitting in (Ben survived by wearing a gas mask).
In the prelude of Madlax, Margaret Burton killed her father in self defense, splitting her personality.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is said that Tom Riddle Jr. (young Lord Voldemort), kills his father, Tom Riddle Sr.
Eric Cartman, a character on the animated series South Park murders Jack Tenorman in the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die". A later episode, "201", reveals that Jack Tenorman was Cartman's father, thereby making the boy a patricide.
In the video game Bayonetta, the protagonist Bayonetta attempts to kill her father Baldur by shooting him in the head, but this turns out to be a failure after she is weakened from regaining her memories.
In Final Fantasy X, Seymour Guado killed his father Lord Jyscal in order to gain leadership over the Guado.
In 5 Days a Stranger, it is revealed that John DeFoe killed his father and brother before dying of his own injuries inflicted by his father.