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Twins in Myth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

B. De Rachewiltz*
Affiliation:
Fondazione Ludwig Keimer per le Ricerche Comparate in Archeologia ed Etnologia, Basilea Istituto di Genetica Medica e Gemellologia Gregorio Mendel, Roma
P. Parisi
Affiliation:
Fondazione Ludwig Keimer per le Ricerche Comparate in Archeologia ed Etnologia, Basilea Istituto di Genetica Medica e Gemellologia Gregorio Mendel, Roma
V. Castellani
Affiliation:
Fondazione Ludwig Keimer per le Ricerche Comparate in Archeologia ed Etnologia, Basilea Istituto di Genetica Medica e Gemellologia Gregorio Mendel, Roma
*
Fondazione Keimer, Via Denza 20, Roma, Italy

Abstract

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Twins have an important place in mythology and a sacred character appears to be attached to them since the most ancient times. In ancient Egypt, the royal placenta was worshipped, being considered as the Pharao's twin (a conception that is still alive among certain African populations), and actually everyone was considered to possess a spiritual twin, the Ka or astral body, through whom it was supposed to be possible to operate with magic rituals and hit enemies. Twin gods were worshipped by Babylonians and Assyrians (who even introduced them among astronomic constellations), and may be also found in the Persian and Veda religions. In the classic, Greco-Roman world, the examples of twin gods and heroes are innumerable: from the twin sons of Zeus, the Dioscuri, to the opposite-sexed twin gods Apollo and Diana, to Rome's founders, Romulus and Remus, etc. Since the most ancient times, a magic conception is connected to the twins, either in a positive or a negative sense, but often with some kind of a “fatidic” aspect. Such a two-faced approach to the phenomenon of twinning, that variously characterizes neareast, protomediterranean, classic, and other ancient civilizations, may still be found in contemporary primitive societies.

Type
2. The Twinning Phenomenon
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Twin Studies 1976