Divine twins

The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology.[1]

Like other figures found in Indo-European myths, the Divine Twins are not directly attested by archaeological or written materials, but scholars of comparative mythology and Indo-European studies generally agree on the motif they have reconstructed by way of the comparative method.[2][3]

Name

Although the Proto-Indo-European 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 "Sons" (or "Grandsons") of the Sky-God (Dyēus).[4][5][3]

Two well-accepted descendants 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 deriving from Indo-Iranian *aćua), and to Old Lithuanian ašva, which all share the meaning of "mare".[6][7]

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.[8] They shared a sister, the Dawn (*H₂éwsōs), also the daughter of the Sky-God (*Dyēus).[9] The two brothers are generally portrayed as healers and helpers, travelling in miraculous vehicles in order to save shipwrecked mortals.[1] They are often differentiated: one is represented as a physically strong and aggressive warrior, while the other is seen as a healer who rather gives attention to domestic duties, agrarian pursuits, or romantic adventures.[3]

In the Vedic, Greek and Baltic traditions, the Divine Twins similarly appear as the personifications of the morning and evening star.[1] 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 the majority of stories where they appear, the Divine Twins rescue the Dawn from a watery peril, a theme that emerged from their role as the solar steeds.[10][3]

At night, the horses of the sun returned to the east in a golden boat, where they traversed the sea[lower-alpha 1] to bring back the Sun into the sky 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 take a rest at the end of the day on the "Isles of the Blessed", a land seating in the western sea which possessed magic apple orchards.[3] By the Bronze Age, the Divine Twins were also represented as the coachmen of the horse-driven solar chariots.[9]

Evidence

Linguistic cognates

Pair of Roman statuettes (3rd century AD) depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen.

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 leading to a possible ancestral name, either the sons or grandsons of the sky-god Dyēus.[5][3][4]

(?) PIE: *diwós suHnū́ ("sons of Dyēus"), or *diwós népoth₁e ("grandsons of Dyēus"),[4]
- Vedic: the Divó nápātā (the Aśvins), the "sons of Dyaús", the sky-god, always referred to in dual in the Rigveda, without individual names,[2][12][13]
- Lithuanian: the Dievo sūneliai (the Ašvieniai), the "sons of Dievas", pulling the carriage of Saulė (the Sun) through the sky,[10][13]
- Latvian: the Dieva dēli, the "sons of Dievs", the sky-god,[10][13]
- Greek: the Diós-kouroi (Castor and Pollux), the "boys of Zeus", the sky-god.[2][13]
  - Paelignian: the Ioviois Pvclois and Ioveis Pvcles, interpreted as a calque of the Greek theonym Diós-kouroi.[14][15]

Possible reflexes

Since they cannot be linked together to a common linguistic origin, other reflexes found in the Indo-European myths are less secured, although their motifs can be compared to that of the Divine Twins.[16]

Celtic

The Gaulish Divanno (de) and Dinomogetimarus are said to be protective deities and "the Gallic equivalents" of the Greek Dioskouroi.[17] They seem to be represented in monuments and reliefs in France flanked by horses,[18] which would make them comparable to Gaulish Martes and the Germanic Alcis.[19] 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.[20]

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.[16] 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".[21] The conjecture that it refers to the Gallic gods Divanno and Dinomogetimarus has no firm support.[22]

In one of the Irish myths involving 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 Atepormaros 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,[23][24]

The Welsh Brân and Manawydan may also be reflexes of the Divine Twins.[9]

Germanic

Among the Naharvali, the Alcis were a pair of young brothers compared by Tacitus to Castor and Pollux.[16]

The Haddingjar were two brothers who appear in many versions of Germanic legends.

The Anglo-Saxon Hengist and Horsa are said to have come by the sea in response to a plea from the beleaguered British king Vortigern. Descendants of Odin, their names mean Stallion and Horse.[16]

The myth of the Icelandic settlers Ingólfr Arnarson and Hjörleifr Hróðmarsson, which appears in the legendary account of the settlement of Iceland, may contain several motifs of the Indo-European twin mytheme (being founders and brothers), also paralleling Hengist and Horsa.[25]

Graeco-Roman

Amphion and Zethus, another pair of twins fathered by Zeus and Antiope, are portrayed as the legendary founders of Thebes. They are called "Dioskouroi, riders of white horses" (λευκόπωλοι) by Euripedes in his play The Phoenician Women (the same epithet is used in Heracles and in the lost play Antiope). In keeping with the theme of distinction between the twins, Amphion was said to be the more contemplative, sensitive one, whereas Zethus was more masculine and tied to physical pursuits, like hunting and cattle-breeding.[26][27][28]

The mother of Romulus and Remus, Rhea Sylwia, placed them in a basket before her death, which she put in the river to protect them from murder, before they were found by the she-wolf who raised them.[29] The Palici, a pair of Sicilian twin deities fathered by Zeus in one account, may also be a reflex of the original mytheme.[30]

Greek rhetorician and grammar Athenaeus of Naucratis, in his work Deipnosophistae, Book II, cited that poet Ibycus, in his Melodies, described twins Eurytus and Cteatus as "λευκίππους κόρους" ("white-horsed youths") and said they were born from a silver egg,[31][32] a story that recalls the myth of Greek divine twins Castor and Pollux and their mother Leda. This pair of twins was said to have been fathered by sea god Poseidon and a human mother, Molione.

Balto-Slavic

A copy of the twin statue from the island of Fischerinsel

Ūsiņš or Ūsinis, a Baltic god mentioned in the dainas, associated with horses[33][34] and the light and sun,[35] and possibly one of the sons of Dievs, may also be a reflex.[36][37][38]

The Polish deities Lel and Polel, first mentioned by Maciej Miechowita in 1519, are presented as the equivalents of Castor and Pollux, the sons of the goddess Łada (counterpart of the Greek Leda) and an unknown male god. An idol was found in 1969 on the Fischerinsel island, where the cult centres of the Slavic tribe of Veleti was located, depicting two male figures joined with their heads. Scholars believe it may represent Lel and Polel. Lelek means "strong youth" in Russian dialect.[39]

During childbirth, the mother of the Polish hero twins Waligóra (pl) ("Mountain Beater") and Wyrwidąb (pl) ("Oak Tearer") died in the forest, where wild animals took care of them.[40] Waligóra was raised of by a she-wolf and Wyrwidąb by a she-bear, who fed them with their own milk. Together, they defeated the dragon who tormented the kingdom, for which the grateful king gave each of them half of the kingdom and one of his two daughters as a wife. The sons of Krak: Krak II and Lech II also appear in Polish legends as the killers of the Wawel dragon.[41]

Indo-Iranian

Another possible reflex may be found in Nakula and Sahadeva. Mothered by Princess Madri, who summoned the Aśvins themselves in a prayer to beget her sons (thus them being called Ashvineya (आश्विनेय)), the twins are two of the five Pandava brothers, married to the same woman, Draupadi. In the Mahabharata epic, Nakula is described in terms of his exceptional beauty, warriorship and martial prowess, while Sahadeva is depicted as patient, wise, intelligent and a "learned man". Nakula takes great interest in Virata's horses, and his brother Sahadeva become Virata's cowherd.[42][43][44][45] Scholarship also points out that the Vedic Ashvins had an Avestic counterpart called Aspinas.[46][47][48]

Armenian

The Armenian Sanasar and Baldasar appear as twins in the epic tradition; Sanasar finds a "fiery horse", is more warlike than his brother, and becomes the progenitor of a dynasty of heroes.[49][50] Scholar Armen Petrosyan also sees possible reflexes of the divine twins in other pairs of heroic brothers in Armenian epic tradition.[51]

Legacy

Ašvieniai, commonly called the little horses, on the rooftop of a house in Nida, Lithuania

The mytheme of the Divine Twins was widely popular in the Indo-European traditions, and 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".[52] 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.[53]

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.[3][54] Scholarship suggests that the mytheme of twins has echoes in the medieval legend of Amicus and Amelius;[55] and in Belarrussian folklore, with Saints George and Nicholas, who are paired up together, are associated with horses, and have a dual nature as healers.[56] and in the worship of saint brothers Boris and Gleb.[57][58]

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 posits that some versions of The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird, collected from Greek and Albanian sources, contain 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.[59] The idea is reiterated in Angelo de Gubernatis's Zoological Mythology, Vol. 1.[60] The Italian scholar analyses the twins in a variant of The Boys with the Golden Stars format as the "Açvinau" (Asvins) of Vedic lore.[61]

References

Footnotes

The northern Black Sea or the Sea of Azov.[11]

Citations

Jackson 2002, p. 78.
West 2007, p. 187.
Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 161.
Jackson 2002, p. 67.
West 2007, p. 187–191.
Derksen 2015, p. 65.
Lubotsky, Alexander. "Indo-Aryan Inherited Lexicon". Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Project. Leiden University. s.v. áśva-.
West 2007, p. 188.
Mallory & Adams 2006, p. 432.
West 2007, p. 189.
West 2007, p. 191.
Beekes 2011, p. 35.
Parpola 2015, p. 109.
Prósper, Blanca María. "The Instrumental Case in the Thematic Noun Inflection of Continental Celtic." Historische Sprachforschung / Historical Linguistics, vol. 124, 2011, pp. 250–267. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41553575. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020.
Weinstock, Stefan. "Two Archaic Inscriptions from Latium." The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 50, 1960, pp. 112–118. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/298293. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020.
West 2007, p. 190.
Kleiner, Fred S.; Kleiner, Diana E. "Two Romans Provençal portrait reliefs". In: Mélanges de l'École française de Rome. Antiquité, tome 88, n°1. 1976. p. 249. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/mefr.1976.1057]; www.persee.fr/doc/mefr_0223-5102_1976_num_88_1_1057
Picard, Charles. "Le bas-relief funéraire de Saint-Julien-lès-Martigues". In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 87^e année, N. 3, 1943. pp. 453-454. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.1943.77671]; www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1943_num_87_3_77671
Hatt, J. J. "Essai sur l'évolution de la religion gauloise". In: Revue des Études Anciennes. Tome 67, 1965, n°1-2. p. 93. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.3406/rea.1965.373]; www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1965_num_67_1_3739
Duval, Paul Marie. "Cultes gaulois et gallo-romains. 3. Dieux d'époque gallo-romaine". In: Travaux sur la Gaule (1946-1986). Rome: École Française de Rome, 1989. p. 259. (Publications de l'École française de Rome, 116). www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0000-0000_1989_ant_116_1_3667
Diodorus, Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily, with an English translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. II. London: Heinemann. 1933. pp. 522-523.
Maier, Bernhard, 1963- (1997). Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press. p. 96. ISBN 0-85115-698-3. OCLC 36074567.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 161-162.
Dexter, Miriam Robbins. "The hippomorphic goddess and her offspring". In: JIES 18/3-4 (Fall/Winter, 1990). pp. 285–307.
Verena Höfig. "A Pre-Modern Nation? Icelanders' Ethnogenesis and Its Mythical Foundations." In: Scandinavian Studies 90, no. 1 (2018): 110-32. Accessed August 4, 2020. doi:10.5406/scanstud.90.1.0110.
Sanko, Siarhei (2018). "Reflexes of Ancient Ideas about Divine Twins in the Images of Saints George and Nicholas in Belarusian Folklore". Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore. 72: 15–40. doi:10.7592/fejf2018.72.sanko. ISSN 1406-0957.
Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. Infobase Publishing. p. 58. ISBN 978-1-4381-2639-5.
"Apollodorus, Library, book 3, chapter 5, section 5". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
Roman, Luke. (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology. Román, Mónica. New York: Facts On File. pp. 429–430. ISBN 978-1-4381-2639-5. OCLC 607553701.
Witczak, K. T.; Zawiasa, D. "The Sicilian Palici as representatives of the indo-european divine twins". In: ΜΥΘΟΣ, n. 12, 2004-2005. pp. 93-106.
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:2013.01.0003:book=2:chapter=50&highlight=neocles
https://www.loebclassics.com/view/ibycus-fragments/1991/pb_LCL476.255.xml?readMode=recto
Latvian Ūsiņš 'bee-god and patron of horses'. Václav Blažek. BALTISTICA XLVII(2) 2012. pp. 359–366
Lichtgott der alten Letten. Haralds Biezais. Almquist & Wiksell. 1976. pp. 155-189
Priede, Janis. Development of the Study of Religion in Latvian in the 20th Century. In: Studying Religions with the Iron Curtain Closed and Opened: the academia study of religion in eastern Europe. Leiden: Brill. 2015. p. 225.
Christensen, Lisbeth Bredholt; Hammer, Olav; Warburton, David (2014). The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. Routledge. p. 368. ISBN 978-1-317-54452-4.
Leeming, David Adams (2003). From Olympus to Camelot: The World of European Mythology. Oxford University Press. pp. 125–126. ISBN 0-19-514361-2
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press. 2005. pp. 101-102
Gieysztor, Aleksander. (2006). Mitologia Słowian. Modzelewski, Karol, 1937-2019., Słupecki, Leszek Paweł, 1956-, Pieniądz-Skrzypczak, Aneta. (Wyd. 3., zm., rozszerz ed.). Warszawa: Wydawn. Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego. ISBN 83-235-0234-X. OCLC 212627528.
Wójcicki, Kazimierz Władysław. Klechdy: starożytne podania i powieści ludu polskiego i Rusi. Tom I. w Warszawie: w Drukarni Piotra Baryckiego. 1837. pp. 167-173 and 203-204.
Niedzielski, Grzegorz. (2011). Królowie z gwiazd : mitologia plemion prapolskich. Sandomierz: Wydawnictwo Armoryka. pp. 108–109. ISBN 978-83-62661-17-6. OCLC 802060512.
Mallory & Adams 1997, pp. 164–165.
The New Comparative Mythology: An Anthropological Assessment of the Theories of Georges Dumézil - Revised Edition. C. Scott Littleton. University of California Press. 1973. p. 209.
Stealing Helen: The Myth of the Abducted Wife in Comparative Perspective. Lowell Edmunds. Princeton University Press. 2016. p. 77
Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism. Volume II M-Z. Benjamin Walker. Routledge. 2019. Entry: "Pandava"
Davar, Firoze Cowasji. Iran And India Through The Ages. Bombay, Calcutta, New Delhi, Madras: Asia Publishing House. 1962. pp. 13-14.
Pott, August Friedrich. Etymologische Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Indo-Germanischen Sprachen. Zwiter Theil. 1836. p. 211.
Walker, Benjamin. Hindu World: An Encyclopedic Survey of Hinduism In Two Volumes. Volume I: A-L. London and New York: Routledge. 2019. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-367-14300-8
Petrosyan, Armen (2002). The Indo‑european and Ancient Near Eastern Sources of the Armenian Epic. Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Study of Man. ISBN 9780941694810.
Sargis Haroutyunian. "Armenian Epic Tradition and Kurdish Folklore". In: Iran & the Caucasus 1 (1997): 85-87. Accessed August 6, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/4030741.
Petrosyan, Armen. "First Capitals of Armenia and Georgia: Armawir and Armazi (Problems of Early Ethnic Associations)". In: The Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES) Volume 40, Number 3 & 4, Fall/Winter 2012. pp. 269-270.
Mallory & Adams 1997, p. 165.
Buck, Robert J. A History of Boeotia. the University of Alberta Press. 1979. p. 57. ISBN 9780888640512
Shapiro 1982.
Shapiro, Marianne. "'AMI ET AMILE' AND MYTHS OF DIVINE TWINSHIP." Romanische Forschungen, vol. 102, no. 2/3, 1990, pp. 131–148. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27940080. Accessed 21 Apr. 2020.
Sanko, Siarhei. (2018). "Reflexes of Ancient Ideas about Divine Twins in the Images of Saints George and Nicholas in Belarusian Folklore". In: Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore. 72. 15-40. [DOI: 10.7592/FEJF2018.72.sanko.]
Reisman, Edward S. "The Cult of Boris and Gleb: Remnant of a Varangian Tradition?". The Russian Review 37, no. 2 (1978): 141-57. doi:10.2307/128465.
Marinas, Enrique Santos. "Communicating an Indo-European Myth to the Christian Kievan Rus’: Boris and Gleb as the Divine Twins". In: The Indo-European legacy in language and culture. Selected issue, scientific editors A. Dudziak, A. Zlobin, M. Payunena. Wydawnictwo UWM, Olsztyn. 2019. pp. 23-36. ISBN 978-83-8100-209-7
Cook, Arthur Bernard. Zeus, A Study In Ancient Religion. Cambridge University Press. 1925. Vol. II, Part I. Appendix F. pp. 1003–1019.
de Gubernatis, Angelo. Zoological mythology; or, The legends of animals. London: Trübner & Co. 1872. p. 412.
Jones, W. Henry; Kropf, Lajos. The Folk-Tales of the Magyars. London: Published for the Folk-lore society by Elliot Stock. 1889. Notes on Folk-tale nr. 11. pp. 338.

Bibliography

Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011). Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-9027211859.
Jackson, Peter (2002). "Light from Distant Asterisks. Towards a Description of the Indo-European Religious Heritage". Numen. 49 (1): 61–102. doi:10.1163/15685270252772777. ISSN 0029-5973. JSTOR 3270472.
Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (1997), Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, London: Routledge, ISBN 978-1-884964-98-5
Mallory, James P.; Adams, Douglas Q. (2006), The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-929668-2
O'Brien, Steven (1982). "Dioscuric elements in Celtic and Germanic mythology". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 10: 117–136.
Shapiro, Michael (1982). "Neglected evidence of Dioscurism (divine twinning) in the Old Slavic pantheon". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 10: 137–166.
Parpola, Asko (2015). The Roots of Hinduism: The Early Aryans and the Indus Civilization. Oxford University Press. p. 109. ISBN 9780190226923.
West, Morris L. (2007). Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199280759.