Divine Twins

The Divine twins are a mytheme of Proto-Indo-European mythology.

  • the Greek Dioscuri
  • the Vedic Ashvins
  • the Lithuanian Ašvieniai
  • the Latvian Dieva dēli
  • Alcis (gods)
  • Romulus and Remus
  • Hengest and Horsa

O'Brien (1982) reconstructs a horse goddess with twin offspring, pointing to Gaulish Epona, Irish Macha (the twins reflected in Macha's pair, Liath Macha and Dub Sainglend), Welsh Rhiannon, and Eddaic Freyja in the tale of the construction of the walls of Asgard, seeing a vestige of the birth of hippomorphic twins in Loki in the form of a mare (in place of Freyja) giving birth to eight-legged Sleipnir. The myths surrounding Hengest and Horsa could come from a common source, since they were descendants of Woden and Hengest's name meant "stallion" (in German: Hengst) Shapiro (1982) points to Slavic Volos and Veles, and collects the following comparative properties:

  • sons of the Sky God
  • brothers of the Sun Maiden
  • association with horses
  • dual paternity
  • saviours at sea
  • astral nature
  • magic healers
  • warriors and providers of divine aid in battle
  • divinities of fertility
  • association with swans
  • divinities of dance
  • closeness to human beings
  • protectors of the oath
  • assisting at birth
  • founders of cities

Read more about Divine Twins:  Literature

Famous quotes containing the words divine and/or twins:

    “There was never a man born so wise or good, but one or more companions came into the world with him, who delight in his faculty, and report it. I cannot see without awe, that no man thinks alone and no man acts alone, but the divine assessors who came up with him into life,—now under one disguise, now under another,—like a police in citizen’s clothes, walk with him, step for step, through all kingdoms of time.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    “If twins are believed to be less intelligent as a class than single-born children, it is not surprising that many times they are also seen as ripe for social and academic problems in school. No one knows the extent to which these kind of attitudes affect the behavior of multiples in school, and virtually nothing is known from a research point of view about social behavior of twins over the age of six or seven, because this hasn’t been studied either.”
    —Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)