#and aloeus doing that was one of the examples listed on that page

[6-2-aestheticsofhate]

I love Greek mythology. I wish people paid more attention to it and used it for jokes or memes for this fandom more.

[scriptmyth]

Hi! I was wondering if you guys knew any myths about twins or mythical twins in general? Thank you!

Hello Nonny!

Twins are widely represented in mythology and appear quite frequently in different cultures and myths. They are tightly connected to the ideas of duality and divinity, their births often being attributed to some kind of supernatural force or divine intervention.

It is not a surprising development, considering that birth of twins is not a normal occurrence for humans. Interestingly, on the flip side of supernatural, since most animals give birth to more than one offspring at a time, sometimes human twin births were considered as an evidence of an act of bestiality. The Dioscuri, who hatched from eggs, can be one classic example of such beliefs, even though their birth is more due to divine interference.

In some cultures the birth of twins was attributed to women eating certain fruits or other produce. According to James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, the Galelareese of New Guinea believed a woman who consumed two bananas growing from a single head might find herself pregnant with twins; the Guarani of South America similarly believed eating a double grain of millet would do the same. Similar beliefs concerning various fruits also exist in different cultures throughout the world.

Twins are often multiplied into further pairs. Claude Levi-Strauss explains it as a structural element of the myth — each new pair of twins emphasizing the general structure of the plot.

Twins can serve different functions in a story. They are always regarded as supernatural in some way, appearing in creation myths as two sometimes opposing, but still tightly tied together, forces. They also frequently appear in etiological myths — myths that explain the origin of an ethnic group or a city (Jacob and Esau, Romulus and Remus). God-twins often represent natural objects and phenomena that are put in dual opposition — such as Apollo representing the sun and Artemis the moon. Whether they were prescribed this opposition from the start, or it grew out of their existing connection as twins, is not always so clear.

In the course of our research, we found the “Why the Healing Gods are Twins” article very helpful when it came to general information, but the treatment of specific cultures looked sketchy to us. You can still give it a go.

Wikipedia has an incomplete list of some more renowned mythological twins, grouped by cultural provenance, which is a great starting point. We are working now on a Mythological Twins Master Post, but, in the meantime, the twins listed below are the ones the Chorus and the Muses know of. If you have any questions about any of them please feel free to send in another ask with the specific twin set you would like to know more about!

(List under the Read More line)

Verified Twins:

Native American

Ioskeha and Tawiscara 

Naayéé’ Neizghání and Tóbájíshchíní

Flint and Sapling

Ioskeha and Tawescaron

Central America

One Hunahpu and Seven Hunahpu

One Monkey and One Artisan

Hunahpu and Xbalanque

One Death and Seven Death

Africa

Da Zodji and Nyohwe Ananu

Agbe and Naete

Marassa Jumeaux

Egypt and Mesopotamia

Inanna  and Utu 

Isis and Nephthys

India

Ashvins

Greek and Roman

Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces)

Lynceus and Idas

Artemis and Apollo

Romulus and Remus

Bible

Jacob and Esau

Pharez and Zarah

Norse

Freyr and Freyja

Dubious Twins:

Africa

Nommo

This is technically a twin set but out sources on it are weak.

Egypt

Osiris and Khonsu

The twin association between these two is a mystical one and not a physical one.

Greek

Heracles and Iphicles

Only source of them being brothers is in the Bibliotheca Apollodorus [2.7.3]: “That being so, Cepheus and his sons took the field, and in the battle he and his sons perished, and besides them Iphicles, the brother of Hercules.”

Eteocles and Polyneices 

Brothers who co-ruled Thebes

Asclepius and Ericthonius

Asclepius was the son of Apollo and the mortal woman Koronis from Thessaly (x)

Ericthonius was a autochthonic god borne of Hephaestus’ semen on a woolen rag, which had been discarded by Athena as she had wiped the semen off (x)

Athena had dispensed Gorgon-blood to both Asclepius and Ericthonius (x)

Machaon and Podalirius

Sons of Asclepius

“Podaleirius and Machaon are the leeches of the Grecian army, highly prized and consulted by all the wounded chiefs. Their medical renown was further prolonged in the subsequent poem of Arktinus, the Iliou Persis, wherein the one was represented as unrivalled in surgical operations, the other as sagacious in detecting and appreciating morbid symptoms. It was Podaleirius who first noticed the glaring eyes and disturbed deportment which preceded the suicide of Ajax.” - The Iliad, hosted on Project Gutenberg, footnote 132 on page 192 (x)

Aloadae: Otus and Ephialtes 

Described as brothers, borne of Iphimedeia of Thessaly and Poseidon

There’s no mention of separate births, and only one conception by Poseidon

They’re frequently referred to by the single name “Aloadae” in reference to their mother’s husband, Aloeus

Aeolus and Boeotus 

Mother was the nymph Melanippe, father Poseidon

Theano’s twins 

Attested to be either Aeolus and Boeotus, or her own sons by her husband, but unknown if they were actual twins (x). As these references were written by Hyginus, it’s advised to take them with a grain of salt

Proteus and Acrisius 

They’re claimed to be twins, but the only sources available can prove them only as brothers (x x x)

Biblical

James and John

Jesus and Judas Thomas (in one apocryphon – The Gospel According to Thomas)