Divine twins

Common traits

Scholar Donald Ward proposed a set of common traits that pertain to divine twin pairs of Indo-European mythologies:

dual paternity;

mention of a female figure (their mother or their sister);

deities of fertility;

known by a single dual name or having rhymed / alliterative names;

associated with horses;

saviours at sea;

of astral nature;

protectors of oaths;

mischievous;

providers of divine aid in battle; and

magic healers.

Name

Although the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) name of the Divine Twins cannot be reconstructed with certainty based on the available linguistic evidence, the most frequent epithets associated with the two brothers in liturgic and poetic traditions are the "Youthful" and the "Descendants" (sons or grandsons) of the Sky-God (Dyēus).

Two well-accepted reflexes of the Divine Twins, the Vedic Aśvins and the Lithuanian Ašvieniai, are linguistic cognates ultimately deriving from the Proto-Indo-European word for the horse, *h1éḱwos. They are related to Sanskrit áśva and Avestan aspā (both from Indo-Iranian *Haćwa), and to Old Lithuanian ašva, which all share the meaning of "mare". This may point to an original PIE divine name *h1éḱw-n-, although this form could also have emerged from later contacts between Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Balto-Slavic speakers, which are known to have occurred in prehistoric times.

Role

Represented as young men rescuing mortals from peril in battle or at sea, the Divine Twins rode the steeds that pull the sun across the sky and were sometimes depicted as horses themselves. They shared a sister, *H₂éwsōs 'Dawn', who is also portrayed as the daughter of *Dyēus 'Sky' in Indo-European mythology. The two brothers are generally depicted as healers and helpers, travelling in miraculous vehicles to save shipwrecked mortals. They are often differentiated: one is represented as a physically strong and aggressive warrior, while the other is seen as a healer who gives attention to domestic duties, agrarian pursuits, or romantic adventures.

In the Vedic, Greek and Baltic traditions, the Divine Twins similarly appear as the personifications of the morning and evening star. They are depicted as the lovers or the companions of a solar female deity, preferably the Sun's daughter but sometimes also the Dawn. In most stories in which they appear, the Divine Twins rescue the Dawn from a watery peril, a theme that stems from their role as the solar steeds.

During the night, the Divine Twins were said to return to the east in a golden boat, where they traversed a sea to bring back the rising sun each morning. During the day, they crossed the nocturnal sky in pursuit of their consort, the morning star. In what seems to be a later addition confined to Europe, they were said to rest at the end of the day on the Fortunate Isles, a land situated in the sea in the West with magical apples on it in the Garden of the Hesperides. By the Bronze Age, the Divine Twins were also represented as the coachmen of horse-driven solar chariots.

Evidence

Linguistic cognates

Three Indo-European traditions (Greek, Indic and Baltic) attest the mytheme of equestrian twins, all associated with the dawn or the sun's daughter. Although their names do not form a complete group of cognates, they nonetheless share a similar epithet, suggesting a possible ancestral name or epithet: the 'sons (or descendants) of Dyēus'.

(?) proto-Indo-European mythology: *diwós suHnū́ ('sons of Dyēus'), or *diwós népoth1e ('descendants of Dyēus'),

Historical Vedic religion: the divó nápātā Aśvins, the "sons of Dyaús", always referred to in dual in the Rigveda without individual names,

Lithuanian mythology: the Dievo sūneliai (the Ašvieniai), the "sons of Dievas", pulling the solar carriage of Saulė through the sky,

Latvian mythology: the Dieva Dēli, the "sons of Dievs", the sky-god,

Greek mythology: the Diós-kouroi Castor and Pollux, the "boys of Zeus".

Italic languages: both Paelignian Ioviois Pvclois and Marsian Ioveis Pvcles are interpreted as a calque of the Greek theonym Diós-kouroi.

Possible reflexes

Since they cannot be linked together to a common linguistic origin, other reflexes found in the Indo-European myths are less secure, although their motifs can be compared to that of the Divine Twins.

The Gaulish Divanno and Dinomogetimarus are said to be protective deities and "the Gallic equivalents" of the Greek Dioskouroi. They seem to be represented in monuments and reliefs in France flanked by horses, which would make them comparable to Gaulish Martes and the Germanic Alcis. Scholars suggest that the numerous Gallo-Roman dedicatory epigraphs to Castor and Pollux, more than any other region of the Roman Empire, attest a cult of the Dioskoroi.

Greek historian Timaeus mentions that Atlantic Celts venerated the "Dioskouroi" above all other gods and that they [Dioskouroi] had visited them from across the Ocean. Historian Diodorus Siculus, in the fourth book of Bibliotheca historica, writes that the Celts who dwelt along the ocean worshipped the Dioscuroi "more than the other gods". The conjecture that it refers to the Gallic gods Divanno and Dinomogetimarus has no firm support.

In one of the Irish myths involving Macha (the Dindsenchas of Ard Macha), she is forced to race against the horses of King of Ulster while in late pregnancy. As a talented rider, she wins the race but starts giving birth to Fír and Fial immediately after crossing the finish line. The archetype is also partly matched by figures such as the Gallic sun god Belenus, whose epithet Atepomarus meant "having good horses"; Grannus, who is associated with the healing goddess Sirona (her name means "star"); Maponos ("Son of God"), considered in Irish mythology as the son of Dagda, associated with healing,

The Welsh Brân and Manawydan may also be reflexes of the Divine Twins.

Comparative mythologist Alexander Haggerty Krappe suggested that two heroes, Feradach and Foltlebar, brothers and sons of the king of Innia, are expressions of the mytheme. These heroes help the expedition of the Fianna into Tir fa Thuinn (a realm on the other side of the sea), in a Orphean mission to rescue some of their members, in the tale The pursuit of the Gilla Decair and his horse. Both are expert navigators: one can build a ship and the other can follow the wild birds.

Legacy

In mythology and religion

The mytheme of the Divine Twins was widely popular in the Indo-European traditions; evidence for their worship can be found from Scandinavia to the Near East as early as the Bronze Age. The motif was also adopted in non-Indo-European cultures, as attested by the Etruscan Tinas Clenar, the "sons of Jupiter". There might also have been a worship of twin deities in Myceanean times, based on the presence of myths and stories about pairs of brothers or male twins in Attica and Boeotia.

The most prevalent functions associated with the twins in later myths are magic healers and physicians, sailors and saviours at sea, warriors and providers of divine aid in battle, controllers of weather and keepers of the wind, assistants at birth with a connection to fertility, divinities of dance, protectors of the oath, and founders of cities, sometimes related to swans. Scholarship suggests that the mytheme of twins has echoes in the medieval legend of Amicus and Amelius. In Belarusian folklore, Saints George and Nicholas are paired up together, associated with horses, and have a dual nature as healers. The veneration of the Slavic saint brothers Boris and Gleb may also be related.

In literature

Literary approaches to the mytheme of the Indo-European Divine Twins can be found in Zeus, a Study in Ancient Religion (1925), by Arthur Bernard Cook. The British scholar posited that some versions of The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird, collected from Greek and Italian sources, contained some remnants of Helen and her brothers, the Dioskouroi, in the characters of the wonder-children (triplets or two male/one female siblings) with astronomical motifs on their bodies. The idea is reiterated in Angelo de Gubernatis's Zoological Mythology, Vol. 1. The Italian scholar analysed the twins in a variant of The Boys with the Golden Stars format as the "Açvinau" (Asvins) of Vedic lore.

In architecture

Ašvieniai, depicted as žirgeliai or little horses, are common motifs on Lithuanian rooftops, placed for protection of the house. Similar motifs can also be found on beehives, harnesses, bed frames, and other household objects.

A similar imagery appears in the decoration of Fachhallenhaus, a type of Low German house: the point of the gables consists of carved wooden boards in the shape of (stylised) horses' heads, often serving to protect the edges of the roof from the wind. The horses' heads are attributed to the symbol of the Saxons, the Saxon Steed. Its distribution as decoration on roof ridges is also reflected in the coats of arms of several north Germany towns and villages. These crossed horseheads are said to be "an old pagan symbol". This symbol, also named "Gable Cross" (de), was possibly associated with legendary founders Hengist and Horsa, since it was called Hengst und Hors.