The other "twins" known to the Greeks
Cicero however outlines the following list of Dioscuri in his De Natura Deorum Book III, ch. 21. (awending H. Rackham) which, for all its undoubted scrappiness, is still worth bearing in mind here:
“Dioscoroe etiam apud Graios multis modis nominantur:
primi tres, qui appellantur Anactes Athenis, ex rege Iove antiquissimo et Proserpina nati Tritopatreus, Eubuleus, Dionysus;
secundi Iove tertio nati et Leda, Castor et Pollux;
tertii dicuntur a nonnullis Alco et Melampus et Tmolus, Atrei filii, qui Pelope natus fuit.”
“The Dioscuri also have a number of titles in Greece.
The first set, called Anaces at Athens, the sons of the very ancient King Jupiter and Proserpine, are Tritopatreus, Eubuleus and Dionysus.
The second set, the sons of the third Jove and Leda, are Castor and Pollux.
The third are named by some people Alco, Melampus and Tmolus, and are the sons of Atreus the son of Pelops.”
With the rise of Castor and Polydeuces however, the official mythographers often went to some lengths it seems to hide or to play down many of the other twins. Yet a keen eye may still pick many of them out nevertheless. And I set down here a list of some of the most likely ones I know with a few notes for those who might be interested.
Idas (Ἴδας) and Lynceus (Λυγκεύς), the twins of Messenia, were made into rivals of Castor and Polydeuces.
Eurytus (Εὔρυτος) and Cteatus (Κτέατος) the twins of Elis named for their mother Molione the Molionidae (Μολιονίδαι) who were made into rivals of Herakles and by whom they were slain. For an old verse about them see below.
The Cercopes (Κέρκωπες), the twins of Lydia. See below for their interesting iconography.
Otus (Ὦτος) and Ephialtes (Ἐφιάλτης) the twins of Bœotian Ascra (see Paus. th'ilk 9.29.1) were made into rivals of Apollo and Artemis by whom they were slain. Otus then becoming an owl and Ephialtes "he who jumps upon" the alpha incubus, the male nightmare. Their well known piling of mounts Pelion on Ossa to get to the gods is maybe work more akin to ettins than men, but it is a version of the tower of babel story in Genesis 11 "let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven" (11:4). And building ("demiurgic activity") was always linked to the Heavenly Twins from the beginning. Otus and Ephialtes were however still the heroes of an old tale found in Diodorus Siculus Library bk. 5, chap. 50 to 51, where both their mother Iphimedeia (Ἰφιμέδεια) and her daughter Pancratis (Παγκράτις), their sister, were stolen away to Naxos by Thracian pirates. Otus and Ephialtes then get them back. And this, needless to say, is another turn out for the "stolen sun-goddess and rescue by the Heavenly Twins" myth.
Prometheus (Προμηθεύς) and Epimetheus (Ἐπιμηθεύς) who were made into rivals of Zeus. Here there is a clear overlap with Hermes or Mercurius, our Wōden/Óðin as I have marked earlier [here]. The Aśvinau are linked to all kinds of fire from heaven, and may even be thought of as a pair of deified fire-sticks, thus Ṛgvedaḥ 10.184.3, and Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 6.4.22:
Hiranmayi arani yâbhyâm nirmanthatâm asvinau,
The golden fire-drills with which
the Aśvins churned the fire; …
[awend. Patrick Olivelle lf.91 1996 Oxford World’s Classics]. See also RV 10.24.4-5.
The deep links that the Heavenly Twins truly have to fire is maybe readiest seen in the worship of saints Florus and Laurus from Russia as marked by Edward B. Tylor's in his Researches into the Early History of Mankind (1878) ch. 9, lvs. 259 to 260 (from P. L. le Roy, 'Erzählung der Begebenheiten,'etc. ; Riga, 1760. (An E. Tr. In Pinkerton, vol.i.) ):
"The 18th of August, Old Style, is called by the Russians Frol i Lavior, these being the names of two martyrs, called Florus and Laurus in the Roman Kalendar; they fall, according to this latter, on the 29th of the said month, when the Festival of the Beheading of John is celebrated. On this day the Russian peasants bring their horses to the village church, at the side of which they have dug the evening before a pit with two outlets. Each horse has his bridle, which is made of limetree bark. They let the horses, one after the other, go into this pit, at the opposite outlet of which the priest stands with an asperging-brush in his hand, with which he sprinkles them with holy water. As soon as the horses are come out, their bridles are taken off, and they are made to go between two fires, which are kindled with what the Russians call Givoy agon, that is, 'living fire,' of which I will give the explanation, after remarking that the peasants throw the bridles of the horses into one of these fires to burn them up. Here is the manner of kindling this Givoy agon, or living fire. Some men take hold of the ends of a maple staff, very dry, and about a fathom long. This staff they hold fast over a piece of birch-wood, which must also be very dry, and whilst they vigorously rub the staff upon the last wood, which is much softer than the first, it inflames in a short time, and serves to kindle the pair of fires, of which I have just made mention."
This is the kind of Heavenly Twins that the snakes on the caduceus (a misunderstood fire-drill) truly betoken, and the same are truly the snakes often shown warding or climbing about the axis mundi. It is fire moreover that links the Heavenly Twins to alpha and beta Geminorum, the so-called Castor and Pollux. And these links are far older and deeper than many might think, thus Santillana and von Dechend Hamlet's Mill:
“… the Aztecs took Castor and Pollux (alpha & beta Geminorum) for the first fire sticks, from which mankind learned how to drill fire. This is known from Sahagun. [n8 Florentine Codex (trans. Anderson and Dibble), vol. 7, p. 60. See also R. Simeon, Dictionnaire de la Langue Nabuatl (1885) s.v. "mamalhuaztli: Les Geameaux, constellation," who does not mention, though, that Sahagun identified mamalhuaztli with "astijellos," fire sticks. Also, the Tasmanians felt indebted to Castor and Pollux for the first fire (see J. G. Frazer, Myths of the Origin of Fire [1930], pp.3f.).] ...".
And as Penates they will naturally be found either side of Vesta who is the goddess of every hearth-fire and The Hearth-fire of all Hearth-fires: the Sun. They are needfully linked to the planet of Mercurius and its god as this is the nearest planet to the sun. They are "Great Gods", "Healers" and "Saviours" for that when the fire is lost or gone out, these will find it out and put it back where it belongs, or they will light it again; for they alone can make an old end into a new beginning. I'm sure you are getting the idea.
Machaon (Μᾰχάων) & Podaleirius (Ποδαλείριος) were said to be the sons of Asclepius and thought of more as history than myth. Machaon's dead body was brought back from Troy by Nestor and buried at Gerenia in Messenia. Strabo, Geography, 6. 3. 9 and Lycophron Alexandra lines 1047 to 1055 mark a hero-shrine in southern Italyof Podaleirius where he seems to have made a new pairing up with Calchas. This is at or near Monte Gargano where we later find the cult of st. Michael! The Aśvinau are always healers, thus Ṛgvedaḥ 8. 18.8 (Griffith):
uta tyā daivyā bhiṣajā śaṃ naḥ karato aśvinā |
yuyuyātāmito rapo apa sridhaḥ ||
And may the Asvins, the divine Pair of Physicians, send us health:
May they remove iniquity and chase our foes.
Their worship underlies that of Saints Cosmas and Damianus of later times.
Nichomachus & Gorgasos “Machaon’s sons” worshipped at Pharai (see Paus.G. to G. 4.30.2-4; 4.3.2 ).
Anaxis and Mnasinous (Ἄναξις καὶ Μνασίνους, see Paus.G. to G. 2.22.5) or Anogon (Ἀνώγων) and Menesileus (Μνησίλεως) (Apollodorus 3.11.2) who were thought of as the sons of Castor and Polydeuces.
Megapenthes (Μεγαπένθης) and Nicostratus (Νικόστρατος) the sons of Menelaus and a slave-girl (Paus. th'ilk 2.18.6), but elsewhere Megapenthes is the son by a slave-girl Tereis (see Apollodorus Bibliotheca 3.11.1) and Nicostratus is a son by Helen or a slave-girl Pieris (Apollod. th'ilk 3.11.1), notwithstanding that Lycophron Alexandra line 851 that Helen only ever bore daughters. On a throne at Amyclæ in Laconia these two brothers were shown in an odd way, thus Pausanias th'ilk 3.18.13:
Ἀναξίας δὲ καὶ Μνασίνους, τούτων μὲν ἐφ’ ἵππου καθήμενός ἐστιν ἑκάτερος, Μεγαπένθην δὲ τὸν Μενελάου καὶ Νικόστρατον ἵππος εἷς φέρων ἐστίν.
Anaxias and Mnasinous are each seated on horseback, but there is one horse only carrying Megapenthes, the son of Menelaus, and Nicostratus.
So two "brother" and "knights" on one horse ... ring any bells? No? ...
Above: "Drawing of two knights on a horse, the emblem of the Knights Templar, Chronica Majora by Matthew Paris, MS 26, f. 220 (reproduced in Barber, Malcom. The Trial of the Templars)". "Matthew Paris - Parker MS 26 110v ricardocosta.com (dead link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5691738"?
Mark the piebald (or bauceant) banner of the Knights Templar, the hues of which are also here shown on their shields instead of the more wonted red croix pattée on white. Cardinal Jacques de Vitry in his Historia Orientalis will have it:
"Fratres militie Templi ... tanquam alteri Machabæi ... vexillum bipartitu[m] ex albo & nigro, quod nomina[n]t bauceant, prævium habentes: eo quod Christi amicis candidi sunt, & benigni: nigri autem & terribiles inimicis."
"Brothers - knights of the Temple ... even as another Macchabees ... have going before them a piebald banner of black and white for that they are fair and kindly to the friends of Christ: but black and dreadful to the unfriendly."
But the cardinal is an outsider, and the Templars themselves were heretics. Much more to their liking then would be the words to be found in Gustav Weil's The Bible, the Koran, and the Talmud; or, Biblical legends of the Mussulmans, compiled from Arabic sources, and compared with Jewish traditions (1865) lf. 70 wherein we read:
"Alexander was the lord of light and darkness, when he went out with his army the light was before him, and behind him was the darkness, so that he was secure against all ambuscades; and by means of a miraculous white and black standard he had also the power to transform the clearest day into midnight and darkness, or black night into noonday, just as he unfurled the one or the other. Thus he was unconquerable, since he rendered his troops invisible at his pleasure, and came down suddenly upon his foes."
Chrysaor (Χρυσάωρ) & Pegasus (see Hesiod Theogony lines 280 to 286), the twins of Caria to begin with, but who are made to withdraw into the mythic background, although Pegasus is at least said to be a follower of Zeus. For more details see my earlier post [here].
Areion (Ἀρείων) and Demeter's daughter (=Persephone) at Onkion near Thelpousa in Arcadia (Paus. th'ilk 8.25. 4-7) where one of the brothers is seemingly forgotten and their sister is made to take his place, whilst at Elaion near Phigalia even the brother is forgotten (see 8. 42. 1). For more details see my earlier post [here].
Amphion (Ἀμφίων) and Zethus (Ζῆθος), at Thebes who it seems were understood only as local heroes, maybe belonging more to history than myth. They were thought to have built the walls of seven gated Thebes which town often betokens the cosmos in Greek myth. Of Amphion Pausanias tells us in his Guide to Greece 9.5.8, (awend. Jones):
"ὁ δὲ τὰ ἔπη τὰ ἐς Εὐρώπην ποιήσας φησὶν Ἀμφίονα χρήσασθαι λύρᾳ πρῶτον Ἑρμοῦ διδάξαντος: πεποίηκε δὲ καὶ περὶ λίθων καὶ θηρίων, ὅτι καὶ ταῦτα ᾁδων ἦγε. Μυρὼ δὲ Βυζαντία, ποιήσασα ἔπη καὶ ἐλεγεῖα, Ἑρμῇ βωμόν φησιν ἱδρύσασθαι πρῶτον Ἀμφίονα καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ λύραν παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ λαβεῖν."
"The writer of the poem on Europa says that Amphion was the first harpist, and that Hermes was his teacher. He also says that Amphion's songs drew even stones and beasts after him. Myro of Byzantium, a poetess who wrote epic and elegiac poetry, states that Amphion was the first to set up an altar to Hermes, and for this reason was presented by him with a harp."
And at Olympia in Elis there was mound (χῶμα) by the hippodrome called “ὁ Ταράξιππος” “The Horse-Scarer” (see 6.20.15). Pausanias, in his Guide ... 6.20.18 has this to say of it (awend. Jones):
“ἀνὴρ δὲ Αἰγύπτιος Πέλοπα ἔφη παρὰ τοῦ Θηβαίου λαβόντα Ἀμφίονος κατορύξαι τι ἐνταῦθα, ἔνθα καλοῦσι τὸν Ταράξιππον, καὶ ὑπὸ τοῦ κατορωρυγμένου ταραχθῆναι μὲν τῷ Οἰνομάῳ τότε, ταράσσεσθαι δὲ καὶ ὕστερον τοῖς πᾶσι τὰς ἵππους: ἠξίου δὲ οὗτος ὁ Αἰγύπτιος εἶναι μὲν Ἀμφίονα, εἶναι δὲ καὶ τὸν Θρᾷκα Ὀρφέα μαγεῦσαι δεινόν, καὶ αὐτοῖς ἐπᾴδουσι θηρία τε ἀφικνεῖσθαι τῷ Ὀρφεῖ καὶ Ἀμφίονι ἐς τὰς τοῦ τείχους οἰκοδομίας τὰς πέτρας. ὁ δὲ πιθανώτατος ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν τῶν λόγων Ποσειδῶνος ἐπίκλησιν εἶναι τοῦ Ἱππίου φησίν.”
"A man of Egypt said that Pelops received something from Amphion the Theban and buried it where is what they call Taraxippus, adding that it was the buried thing which frightened the mares of Oenomaus, as well as those of every charioteer since. This Egyptian thought that Amphion and the Thracian Orpheus were clever magicians (μαγεῦσαι δεινόν), and that it was through their enchantments that the beasts came to Orpheus, and the stones came to Amphion for the building of the wall. The most probable of the stories in my opinion makes Taraxippus a surname of Horse Poseidon."
So Amphion was thought of as a clever magus, a wizard, as well as the foremost harper and worshipper of Hermes! And worship here belike means "assimilation to", for, in some ways, what we worship, we become.
As to Zethus, we are told by Apollonius of Rhodes in his Argonautica book 1, lines 738 to 739, that (awend. R.C. Seaton):
“Ζῆθος μὲν ἐπωμαδὸν ἠέρταζεν
οὔρεος ἠλιβάτοιο κάρη, μογέοντι ἐοικώς:...”
“Zethos [indeed] on his shoulders was lifting
the peak of a steep mountain, like a man toiling hard, ...”.
So a bit of a strong man, to say the least. Þunor?
Matching this is what Euripides says of the Heavenly Twins of Thebes, Amphion (Ἀμφίων) and Zethus (Ζῆθος), who are also called the Dioscuri (Διόσκουροι). In his more or less lost play Antiope, they are called:
λεύκω δὲ πώλω τὼ Διὸς κεκλημένοι τίμας μεγίστας ἕξετ᾿ ἐν Κάδμου πόλει.
You shall both be called the White Steeds of Zeus, and enjoy great honours in the city of Cadmus.
[Select Papyri, Volume III: Poetry. Awent by Denys L. Page. Loeb Classical Library 360. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1941. ]
Mark: "city of Cadmus". See also Euripides' Phœnissæ line 609.
Mark the Greek word brooked in the above οἱ πῶλοι truly means "foals", rather than "horses" or steeds". "horses" is in Greek οἱ ἴπποι, but in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae 2.50 (57f - 58a) (awend. Gullick) we find what we are looking for:
"... Ἴβυκος δὲ ἐν πέμπτῳ μελῶν περὶ Μολιονιδῶν φησι·
[58a] Τούς τε λευκίππους κόρους
τέκνα Μολιόνας κτάνον,
ἅλικας, ἰσοκεφάλους, ἑνιγυίους,
ἀμφοτέρους γεγαῶτας ἐν ὠέῳ
ἀργυρέῳ. ...".
"Ibycus, in the fifth book of his Lyrics, says of the Molionidae :
‘I [Herakles] likewise slew the white-horsed youths,
sons of Molione, equal in age and in height,
with their limbs joined in one, both hatched
in a silver egg.’ ...".
Leucippus "white horse" is a mythically loaded word.
With Areion (Paus. Guide... 8.25.7) and Pegasus (Hesiod Theog. 280- 286) moreover one of the twins has become thought of as wholly an horse (on these names see my earlier post [here]). And thus we have the names of Hengest and Horsa by which they were seemingly known to many of the forefathers of the English (see my last post [here]).
The "children" of Amphion and Niobe slain by Apollo and Artemis have their beginnings in the Heavenly Twins.
Trophonius (Τροφώνιος) and Agamedes (Ἀγαμήδη) (see Paus. th'ilk 9. 37. 4) well known master builders who in one way become more history than myth, but at Lebadæa Trophonius was evened with Zeus! They are meant to have built the fourth temple of Apollo at Delphi out of stone (see Paus. th'ilk 10. 5. 13). The three earlier temples were, going backward in time, of brass (10.5.11-12), "bees-wax and feathers" (10.5.9) or fern (10.5.10) and the wood of the sweet bay-tree (daphne) from Tempe (10.5.9). And here we have twins linked to what the Greeks believed to be the middlestead, or navel, of the world (10.16.3), but see also "Pagasos and godly Aguieus".
"Pagasos and godly Aguieus" who, in the fragment of a hymn by the priestess Bœo (Βοιὼ) written down by Pausanias (th'ilk 10.5.7), are meant to have set up the oracle at Delphi (“ἔνθα τοι εὔμνηστον χρηστήριον ἐκτελέσαντο| παῖδες Ὑπερβορέων Παγασὸς καὶ δῖος Ἀγυιεύς” “there a mindful oracle fulfilled| the sons of the Hyperboreans: Pagasos and godly Aguieus” - mark that Pagasos is only the name Pegasus in the Doric dialect, and Aguieus is a well known epithet of Apollo).
Trophonius (Τροφώνιος) and Agamedes (Ἀγαμήδη) (see Paus. th'ilk 9. 37. 4) well known master builders who in one way become more history than myth, but at Lebadæa Trophonius was evened with Zeus! They are meant to have built the fourth temple of Apollo at Delphi out of stone (see Paus. th'ilk 10. 5. 13). The three earlier temples were, going backward in time, of brass (10.5.11-12), "bees-wax and feathers" (10.5.9) or fern (10.5.10) and the wood of the sweet bay-tree (daphne) from Tempe (10.5.9). And here we have twins linked to what the Greeks believed to be the middlestead, or navel, of the world (10.16.3), but see also "Pagasos and godly Aguieus".
"Pagasos and godly Aguieus" who, in the fragment of a hymn by the priestess Bœo (Βοιὼ) written down by Pausanias (th'ilk 10.5.7), are meant to have set up the oracle at Delphi (“ἔνθα τοι εὔμνηστον χρηστήριον ἐκτελέσαντο| παῖδες Ὑπερβορέων Παγασὸς καὶ δῖος Ἀγυιεύς” “there a mindful oracle fulfilled| the sons of the Hyperboreans: Pagasos and godly Aguieus” - mark that Pagasos is only the name Pegasus in the Doric dialect, and Aguieus is a well known epithet of Apollo).
Hyperoxus and Laodocus
(ὁ Ὑπέροχος καὶ ὁ Λαόδοκός) who helped the Greeks overcome the Gauls at
Delphi (Paus. th'ilk 10.23.2), which names, in their female forms of
Hyperoxe and Laodice (ὁ Ὑπερόχην τε καὶ Λαοδίκην·) are given by
Herodotus (Hist. 4.33.3) as the names of two Hyperborean maidens buried at Delphi (are these the valkyrja-like "white-maidens" (λευκὰς κόρας) who it was foretold would help beat the Gauls? See Diod. Sic. Lib. book 22, ch.9§5 where they are however understood as Artemis and Athena).
Cleobis (Κλέοβις) and Biton (Βίτων), the twins of Argos, see Herodotus Histories (1.31). In their tale we see the close identification of the twins with the two beasts that pull a car or wain (of the sun), whilst the sun-goddess (or sun's daughter) that should ride in the wain, has been euhemerised into a priestess of Hera. That Hera, or Juno as the Romans called her, might stand in at times for the sun-goddess or her daughter whom the Heavenly Twins are wont to be shown with, is strengthened by the following words from Lucius Apuleius' The Golden Ass 10. 31, where a play about Paris’ deeming of the goddesses is being araught:
The "fire of Phoroneus" being here shows us we are at an old holy middle-stead, where we would hope to find the Heavenly Twins as wards.
Clearly the official mythographers had done their work well. But the old name of Anactes was an awkward one in Athens and Plutarch in his Life of Theseus 33. 1 and Ælian in his Various Histories bk. Iv, ch. 5 are thus hard put to outfold it, and their outfoldings are still at odds with each other. Everywhere else it is no less awkward however, as Castor and Polydeuces were never kings in Sparta, the kingship going from their father Tyndareus, through their sister Helen to Menelaus. Here then we have a tradition that withstood the official mythography. kings rājānā was an old name for the Aśvinau, thus under their name of divo napātā (दिवो नपाता - see also RV 1.117.12), in Ṛgvedaḥ 3.38.5:
asūta pūrvo vṛṣabho jyāyānimā asya śurudhaḥ santi pūrvīḥ |
divo napātā vidathasya dhībhiḥ kṣatraṃ rājānā pradivo dadhāthe ||
First the more ancient Bull engendered offspring; these are his many draughts that lent him vigour.
From days of old ye Kings, two Sons of Heaven, by hymns of sacrifice have won dominion.
And more openly at 10. 39.11:
In half wild Ozolian Locris, where the official mythography hadn't worked its spell so well, we see however what the Greeks truly meant by "Anactes", thus Pausanias Guide ... 10. 38. 7 (awend. Jones) :
So by Anactes then, the Curetes/Cabeiri (Κάβειροι) are truly meant rather than Castor and Polydeuces - although they come down to the same thing in the end! But this answer was under the noses of the Greeks of Athens the whole time, for in the deme of Cephale they worshipped the Dioscuri as the "Great Gods" (see Paus. th'ilk 1.31.1 ), and the title of "Great Gods" more often than not means the "two Cabeiri" as worshipped on the iland of Samothrace. These Cabeiri of Samothrace are what Cicero seems to be alluding to with his "Alco et Melampus et Tmolus" although Melampus and Tmolus don't seem to belong here at all, the Cabeiri being sometimes thought of as three gods.
Alco is Alkon ( Ἄλκων) "the strong". We meet him and his brother in book 14 of Nonnus's Dionysiaca lines 17 to 22 (awend. W. H. D. Rouse) :
πρῶτα μὲν ἐκ Λήμνοιο πυριγλώχινος ἐρίπνης
φήμη ἀελλήεσσα Σάμου παρὰ μύστιδι πεύκῃ
υἱέας Ἡφαίστοιο δύω θώρηξε Καβείρους,
οὔνομα μητρὸς ἔχοντας ὁμόγνιον, οὓς πάρος ἄμφω 20
οὐρανίῳ χαλκῆι τέκε Θρήισσα Καβειρώ:
Ἄλκων Εὐρυμέδων τε, δαήμονες ἐσχαρεῶνος.
First from the firepeak rock of Lemnos the two Cabeiroi
in arms answered the stormy call beside the mystic torch of Samos,
two sons of Hephaistos whom Thracian Cabeiro
had borne to the heavenly smith,
Alcon and Eurymedon well skilled at the forge,
who bore their mother’s tribal name.
We may think here once again that the mother of the Aśvinau is the daughter of Tvastr who is the smith of the gods and alot like Hephæstus. Alcon moreover is alot like Alcæus (Ἀλκαῖος) the old name of Herakles. But here also a word of warning about the word Cabeiri. There are conflicting, if not downright contradictory, reports about who the Cabeiri worshipped on Samothrace as the "Great Gods" are meant to be in the old writings. This conflict is maybe best resolved (I say this with tongue in cheek) by thinking that at times a whole pantheon of gods was at times understood by the name of "Cabeiri "! At least what is reported of Pherecydes' writings by Strabo (10.3.21) would lend itself to this understanding! But, reading between all the lines, and not letting ourselves be put off by all the overmany lapwings going about to hide the whereabouts of their nest, we have here the worship of the Heavenly Twins, the sun-goddess, evened with Demeter or the "great mother" and so on, and her daughter. Where we have three brothers, rather than two, the myths of the Curetes and Corybantes have swayed things that way or their father, mother or sister is being reckoned along with them. That these two brothers would seem to be muddled up with Hermes by some writers, shows us yet again the phenomenon, that we have marked elsewhere, of the worship of the "Heavenly Twins" being such that (- from the sheer bloody omnipotence of the Heavenly Twins themselves -) it is a hard thing to tell where it truly ends, and the worship of other gods begins. In the North these "two Cabeiri" worshipped on Samothrace are our own Wayland and his brother Æȝel (O.N. Egill).
Crisus (Κρῖσος) and Panopeus (Πανοπεύς). By Asteria (Ἀστερία), or Asterodia (Ἀστεροδία), Phocus (Φῶκος) the eponym of Phocis had twin sons, Crisus and Panopeus the eponyms of the towns of Crissa (Κρίσα) and Panopeus in Phocis.
Peleus (Πηλεύς) and Telamon (Τελαμών), the two sons of Æacus (Αἰακός) with Endeïs (Ενδηίς or Ενδαΐς). Peleus will become the father of Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς) and Telamon of Ajax (Αἴας) the Great. Peleus and Telamon were driven out of Ægina by their father for killing their half-brother Phocus (the father of Crisus and Panopeus above). This is a profane telling of the Corybantes myth.
Echephron and Promachus (Ἐχέφρων καὶ Πρόμαχος ) sons of Heracles who set up or re-named Psophis in Arcadia after their mother (see Paus. th'ilk 8.24.2).
Pelias (Πελίας) and Neleus (Νηλεύς), Neleus driven out by brother and goes to Messenia where he begins Pylos. Pelias abided in Thessaly at Iolcus. They freed their mother Tyro (Τυρώ) from Sidero who was misbrooking her. Younger Neleus, sprung from the first leads Ionians to Asia Minor and takes over Miletus in Caria.
Sisyphus (Σίσυφος) and Salmoneus (Σαλμωνεύς). Tyro (Τυρώ) is the daughter of Salmoneus. Sisyphus and salmoneus, like Prometheus and Epimetheus and Otus and Ephialtes become "anti-twins" to be punished in hell or at the ends of the earth.
Cleobis (Κλέοβις) and Biton (Βίτων), the twins of Argos, see Herodotus Histories (1.31). In their tale we see the close identification of the twins with the two beasts that pull a car or wain (of the sun), whilst the sun-goddess (or sun's daughter) that should ride in the wain, has been euhemerised into a priestess of Hera. That Hera, or Juno as the Romans called her, might stand in at times for the sun-goddess or her daughter whom the Heavenly Twins are wont to be shown with, is strengthened by the following words from Lucius Apuleius' The Golden Ass 10. 31, where a play about Paris’ deeming of the goddesses is being araught:
“Iam singulas virgines, quae deae putabantur, (then either ‘sui tutabantur’ or ‘sui sequebantur’ is put in here by the work’s outsetters to fill a gap) comites, Iunonem quidem Castor et Pollux, quorum capita cassides ovatae stellarum apicibus insignes contegebant, sed et isti Castores erant scaenici pueri.”
In Argos, in the temple of Apollo Lycius we find an odd likeness of Biton (2.19.5):
“Now each maiden who seemed a goddess, had followers (coming after her). Castor and Pollux (followed) Juno, whose heads were warded by egg-shapped helms marked by the tokens of stars at the tops, but these Castors were theatre-boys.”
Ἐνταῦθα ἀνάκειται μὲν θρόνος Δαναοῦ, κεῖται δὲ εἰκὼν Βίτωνος, ἀνὴρ ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων φέρων ταῦρον· ὡς δὲ Λυκέας ἐποίησεν, ἐς Νεμέαν Ἀργείων ἀγόντων θυσίαν τῷ Διὶ ὁ Βίτων ὑπὸ ῥώμης τε καὶ ἰσχύος ταῦρον ἀράμενος ἤνεγκεν. Ἑξῆς δὲ τῆς εἰκόνος ταύτης πῦρ καίουσιν ὀνομάζοντες Φορωνέως εἶναι· οὐ γάρ τι ὁμολογοῦσι δοῦναι πῦρ Προμηθέα ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ ἐς Φορωνέα τοῦ πυρὸς μετάγειν ἐθέλουσι τὴν εὕρεσιν.
Here is dedicated the throne of Danaus, and here is placed a statue of Biton, in the form of a man carrying a bull on his shoulders. According to the poet Lyceas, when the Argives were holding a sacrifice to Zeus at Nemea, Biton by sheer physical strength took up a bull and carried it there. Next to this statue is a fire which they keep burning, calling it the fire of Phoroneus. For they do not admit that fire was given to mankind by Prometheus, but insist in assigning the discovery of fire to Phoroneus.
The "fire of Phoroneus" being here shows us we are at an old holy middle-stead, where we would hope to find the Heavenly Twins as wards.
Anactes that is the Greek Ἄνακες, "Kings". It is an archaic plural, their temple in Athens was usually called the Anakeion (Ἀνάκειον) and their yearly religious festival the Anákeia (Ἀνάκεια). Notwithstanding what Cicero marks above, from what Pausanias writes in his, Guide to Greece 1. 18. 1 (awend. Jones) there doesn't seem any reason to think these are not Castor and Polydeuces other than the warning in the first sentence that their shrine is ἀρχαῖον "ancient":
“τὸ δὲ ἱερὸν τῶν Διοσκούρων ἐστὶν ἀρχαῖον, αὐτοί τε ἑστῶτες καὶ οἱ παῖδες καθήμενοί σφισιν ἐφ᾽ ἵππων. ἐνταῦθα Πολύγνωτος μὲν ἔχοντα ἐς αὐτοὺς ἔγραψε γάμον τῶν θυγατέρων τῶν Λευκίππου, Μίκων δὲ τοὺς μετὰ Ἰάσονος ἐς Κόλχους πλεύσαντας: καί οἱ τῆς γραφῆς ἡ σπουδὴ μάλιστα ἐς Ἄκαστον καὶ τοὺς ἵππους ἔχει τοὺς Ἀκάστου. ”
“The sanctuary of the Dioscuri is ancient. They them selves are represented as standing, while their sons are seated on horses. Here Polygnotus has painted the marriage of the daughters of Leucippus, but Micon [has painted] those who sailed with Jason to the Colchians, and he has concentrated his attention upon Acastus and his horses. “
Clearly the official mythographers had done their work well. But the old name of Anactes was an awkward one in Athens and Plutarch in his Life of Theseus 33. 1 and Ælian in his Various Histories bk. Iv, ch. 5 are thus hard put to outfold it, and their outfoldings are still at odds with each other. Everywhere else it is no less awkward however, as Castor and Polydeuces were never kings in Sparta, the kingship going from their father Tyndareus, through their sister Helen to Menelaus. Here then we have a tradition that withstood the official mythography. kings rājānā was an old name for the Aśvinau, thus under their name of divo napātā (दिवो नपाता - see also RV 1.117.12), in Ṛgvedaḥ 3.38.5:
asūta pūrvo vṛṣabho jyāyānimā asya śurudhaḥ santi pūrvīḥ |
divo napātā vidathasya dhībhiḥ kṣatraṃ rājānā pradivo dadhāthe ||
First the more ancient Bull engendered offspring; these are his many draughts that lent him vigour.
From days of old ye Kings, two Sons of Heaven, by hymns of sacrifice have won dominion.
And more openly at 10. 39.11:
na taṃ rājānāvadite kutaścana nāṃho aśnoti duritaṃnakirbhayam |
yamaśvinā suhavā rudravartanī purorathaṃkṛṇuthaḥ patnyā saha ||
From no side, ye Two Kings whom none may check or stay, doth grief, distress, or danger come u on the man
Whom, Aśvins swift to hear, borne on your glowing path, ye with your Consort make the foremost in the race.
In half wild Ozolian Locris, where the official mythography hadn't worked its spell so well, we see however what the Greeks truly meant by "Anactes", thus Pausanias Guide ... 10. 38. 7 (awend. Jones) :
“… ἄγουσι δὲ καὶ τελετὴν οἱ Ἀμφισσεῖς Ἀνάκτων καλουμένων παίδων: οἵτινες δὲ θεῶν εἰσιν οἱ Ἄνακτες παῖδες, οὐ κατὰ ταὐτά ἐστιν εἰρημένον, ἀλλ᾽ οἱ μὲν εἶναι Διοσκούρους, οἱ δὲ Κούρητας, οἱ δὲ πλέον τι ἐπίστασθαι νομίζοντες Καβείρους λέγουσι. ”
“… The Amphissians also celebrate mysteries in honour of the Boy Kings [Anaktes Paides], as they are called. Their accounts as to who of the gods the Boy Kings are do not agree; some say they are the Dioscuri, others the Curetes, and others, who pretend to have fuller knowledge, hold them to be the Cabeiri.”
So by Anactes then, the Curetes/Cabeiri (Κάβειροι) are truly meant rather than Castor and Polydeuces - although they come down to the same thing in the end! But this answer was under the noses of the Greeks of Athens the whole time, for in the deme of Cephale they worshipped the Dioscuri as the "Great Gods" (see Paus. th'ilk 1.31.1 ), and the title of "Great Gods" more often than not means the "two Cabeiri" as worshipped on the iland of Samothrace. These Cabeiri of Samothrace are what Cicero seems to be alluding to with his "Alco et Melampus et Tmolus" although Melampus and Tmolus don't seem to belong here at all, the Cabeiri being sometimes thought of as three gods.
Alco is Alkon ( Ἄλκων) "the strong". We meet him and his brother in book 14 of Nonnus's Dionysiaca lines 17 to 22 (awend. W. H. D. Rouse) :
πρῶτα μὲν ἐκ Λήμνοιο πυριγλώχινος ἐρίπνης
φήμη ἀελλήεσσα Σάμου παρὰ μύστιδι πεύκῃ
υἱέας Ἡφαίστοιο δύω θώρηξε Καβείρους,
οὔνομα μητρὸς ἔχοντας ὁμόγνιον, οὓς πάρος ἄμφω 20
οὐρανίῳ χαλκῆι τέκε Θρήισσα Καβειρώ:
Ἄλκων Εὐρυμέδων τε, δαήμονες ἐσχαρεῶνος.
First from the firepeak rock of Lemnos the two Cabeiroi
in arms answered the stormy call beside the mystic torch of Samos,
two sons of Hephaistos whom Thracian Cabeiro
had borne to the heavenly smith,
Alcon and Eurymedon well skilled at the forge,
who bore their mother’s tribal name.
We may think here once again that the mother of the Aśvinau is the daughter of Tvastr who is the smith of the gods and alot like Hephæstus. Alcon moreover is alot like Alcæus (Ἀλκαῖος) the old name of Herakles. But here also a word of warning about the word Cabeiri. There are conflicting, if not downright contradictory, reports about who the Cabeiri worshipped on Samothrace as the "Great Gods" are meant to be in the old writings. This conflict is maybe best resolved (I say this with tongue in cheek) by thinking that at times a whole pantheon of gods was at times understood by the name of "Cabeiri "! At least what is reported of Pherecydes' writings by Strabo (10.3.21) would lend itself to this understanding! But, reading between all the lines, and not letting ourselves be put off by all the overmany lapwings going about to hide the whereabouts of their nest, we have here the worship of the Heavenly Twins, the sun-goddess, evened with Demeter or the "great mother" and so on, and her daughter. Where we have three brothers, rather than two, the myths of the Curetes and Corybantes have swayed things that way or their father, mother or sister is being reckoned along with them. That these two brothers would seem to be muddled up with Hermes by some writers, shows us yet again the phenomenon, that we have marked elsewhere, of the worship of the "Heavenly Twins" being such that (- from the sheer bloody omnipotence of the Heavenly Twins themselves -) it is a hard thing to tell where it truly ends, and the worship of other gods begins. In the North these "two Cabeiri" worshipped on Samothrace are our own Wayland and his brother Æȝel (O.N. Egill).
Crisus (Κρῖσος) and Panopeus (Πανοπεύς). By Asteria (Ἀστερία), or Asterodia (Ἀστεροδία), Phocus (Φῶκος) the eponym of Phocis had twin sons, Crisus and Panopeus the eponyms of the towns of Crissa (Κρίσα) and Panopeus in Phocis.
Peleus (Πηλεύς) and Telamon (Τελαμών), the two sons of Æacus (Αἰακός) with Endeïs (Ενδηίς or Ενδαΐς). Peleus will become the father of Achilles (Ἀχιλλεύς) and Telamon of Ajax (Αἴας) the Great. Peleus and Telamon were driven out of Ægina by their father for killing their half-brother Phocus (the father of Crisus and Panopeus above). This is a profane telling of the Corybantes myth.
Echephron and Promachus (Ἐχέφρων καὶ Πρόμαχος ) sons of Heracles who set up or re-named Psophis in Arcadia after their mother (see Paus. th'ilk 8.24.2).
Pelias (Πελίας) and Neleus (Νηλεύς), Neleus driven out by brother and goes to Messenia where he begins Pylos. Pelias abided in Thessaly at Iolcus. They freed their mother Tyro (Τυρώ) from Sidero who was misbrooking her. Younger Neleus, sprung from the first leads Ionians to Asia Minor and takes over Miletus in Caria.
Sisyphus (Σίσυφος) and Salmoneus (Σαλμωνεύς). Tyro (Τυρώ) is the daughter of Salmoneus. Sisyphus and salmoneus, like Prometheus and Epimetheus and Otus and Ephialtes become "anti-twins" to be punished in hell or at the ends of the earth.
Heracles (Ἡρακλῆς) and Iphicles (Ἰφικλῆς) - the Latin Hercules (late, Herculus) and Iphiclus - who led an uprising of the downtodden folk of Thebes against the Minyans (Μινύες)
of Orchomenos. Heracles and Iphicles had a sister Laonome (Λαονόμη).
The twinship of Herakles is played down as he either becomes, or is
hopelessly muddled up with, a much more markedly solar hero.
Nevertheless, Hyginus in his Astronomica gives Hercules and
Apollo as an alternative to Castor and Polydeuces for what some folk
thought the star-sign of Gemini betokened.
There was an older Herakles however who was one of the so-called "Idæan dactyls" (Δάκτυλοι Ἰδαῖοι). These were five brother gods (Herakles (Ἡρακλῆς), Pæonæos (Παιωναῖος), Epimedes (Ἐπιμήδης), Iasion (Ἰάσιόν) and Idas (Ἴδας)- see Guide to Greece 5.7.6 to 7) assimilated to the Curetes (Κουρῆτες) and Corybantes (Κορύβαντες) as wards of the young Zeus or Dionysus, and his knights as it were, as well as being the knights of the goddess who is his mother. The running race these brothers had was the first "Olympic Games" (5.7.7). Pausanias also tells us (5.7.9) this is why the Olympic games are held every fifth (although we would reckon this four) years! That these "Idæan dactyls" are said to be the first finders of all smithcraft (Pliny Nat. Hist. 7.56.3) is markworthy, and it further links them to the Cabeiri (Κάβειροι) who are said to be the sons or helpers of the smith god Hephæstus. And we call to mind here that the Aśvinau are the sons of Saraṇyū the daughter of Tvaṣṭṛ, and Tvaṣṭṛ is the same as Hephæstus. That the myth of their origins of the "Idæan dactyls" which we find in Argonautica i. 1122 applies more to dwarves than to our Heavenly Twins but it shows us that some muddling of the two things did go on.
In the lore of the Corybantes, who are often said to be three brothers, we find that something bad is often said to have happened to one of the brothers, maybe at the hands of the other two, which at length turned out to be a prelude to a higher calling. It is never fully outfolded, but the unlucky brother is easily assimilated to Dionysus.
Amalkeides (Ἀμαλκείδης) and Protokles (Πρωτοκλές) and Protokleon (Πρωτοκλέον). These are in the Suda under "Tritopatores" (Adler number tau 1023)- awending by David Whitehead:
The back half of all their names matches those of Heracles and Iphicles.
Triptolemus (Τριπτόλεμος) "threefold-fighter" and Eubuleus (Εὐβουλεύς) "Good redesman", or Triptolemus and Cercyon (Κερκύων) - (see Pausanias Guide to Greece 1.14.3). I think these are what Cicero meant by his "Tritopatreus, Eubuleus, Dionysus". Again we find the Greeks playing down the twinship of Triptolemus, and he also undergoes among them an awending into something of a solar hero. In Hyginus's Astronomica, as well as Castor and Polydeuces and Hercules and Apollo, the star-sign of Gemini is also said to betoken Triptolemus and Iasion (Ἰασίων). But Hyginus is more than likely to have meant Triptolemus and Eubuleus. Eubuleus is brooked as a byname of Dionysus, as in Orphic Hymn 30, and Professor Cook marks the underlying sameness in the way Triptolemus's chariot taking the gift of corn about the world, and Dionysus' chariot taking the gift of wine, are shown. And also the solar symbol of the wheel-chariots that they do this in.
With
the forebisening below see how Hermes is shown leading Triptolemus and
a satyr or silenus is shown leading Dionysus as if these two are to be
linked in some way as well.
Hyginus' Iasion however, looks to another pair of "twins", namely Iasion and his brother Dardanus (Δάρδανος) the forefather of the Trojans. Iasion is maybe well known for having lain with Demeter ἔνι τριπόλῳ "in a thrice-ploughed (field)" (see Hesiod. Theog. 971 & Homer. Odyssey 5, 127). Whilst Hesiod has this happening on Crete, Diodorus Siculus ( Library of History 5. 49. 1 to 6) has this on Samothrace at the time of the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia there. They are thus being matched to the Curetes and the Great Gods of Samothrace, otherwise known as the Cabeiri! Diodorus Siculus moreover thinks that Cybele and Demeter are one and the same, and says that she was afterwards by Iasion the mother of Corybas (Κορύβας). Although Homer and others tell the same tale with the a more profane and seemingly unhappy ending, Diodorus knows better:
See also Ovid in his Metamorphoses book 9 lines 422 to 423.
Diodorus (5.49. 2-3) then has Dardanus and Corybas take over as the "Heavenly Twin-like" knights of the goddess, although here we must allow both for his euhemerism, and that mother and daughter have become muddled up once again:
Before leaving the Corybantes we shouldn't overlook Oppian's Cynegetica book 3, lines 7 to 19, where under the names of Curetes he seems to write of Corybantes' shape-shifting into lions, even the lions who pull the car of the "great mother" (=Rhea=Cybele=Demeter):
As to the evening of Curetes (Κουρῆτες) and Corybantes (Κορύβαντες) I mark here Hyginus Fabulæ 139 :
Hyginus should maybe have said here, Penates rather than Lares, but the two are often muddled up and the Heavenly Twins may stand for both. In Athens what more or less answers to the Penates is called by them the Triopatores (Τριτοπάτορες) "great grandfathers" (see Suda). That Triopatores also is found as a name for the Hekatonkheires "Hundred-handed ones" (Ἑκατόγχειρες'), also called the Centimanes, is markworthy here (see Suda).
Now the overseeing of acre-tilling in the East came under the heading of the Aśvinau. Thus the Ṛgvedaḥ 1.117.21 (awend. Griffith):
Before leaving the likely "other twins" here it is worth marking what Pausanias says about an altar in the market ar Charadra in Phocis, th'ilk 10.33.6:
So this holds out the likelihood to us that whatever told the Heavenly Twins asunder from some "local heroes ( ἐπιχωρίων... ἡρώων)" was not always awfully clear.
There was an older Herakles however who was one of the so-called "Idæan dactyls" (Δάκτυλοι Ἰδαῖοι). These were five brother gods (Herakles (Ἡρακλῆς), Pæonæos (Παιωναῖος), Epimedes (Ἐπιμήδης), Iasion (Ἰάσιόν) and Idas (Ἴδας)- see Guide to Greece 5.7.6 to 7) assimilated to the Curetes (Κουρῆτες) and Corybantes (Κορύβαντες) as wards of the young Zeus or Dionysus, and his knights as it were, as well as being the knights of the goddess who is his mother. The running race these brothers had was the first "Olympic Games" (5.7.7). Pausanias also tells us (5.7.9) this is why the Olympic games are held every fifth (although we would reckon this four) years! That these "Idæan dactyls" are said to be the first finders of all smithcraft (Pliny Nat. Hist. 7.56.3) is markworthy, and it further links them to the Cabeiri (Κάβειροι) who are said to be the sons or helpers of the smith god Hephæstus. And we call to mind here that the Aśvinau are the sons of Saraṇyū the daughter of Tvaṣṭṛ, and Tvaṣṭṛ is the same as Hephæstus. That the myth of their origins of the "Idæan dactyls" which we find in Argonautica i. 1122 applies more to dwarves than to our Heavenly Twins but it shows us that some muddling of the two things did go on.
In the lore of the Corybantes, who are often said to be three brothers, we find that something bad is often said to have happened to one of the brothers, maybe at the hands of the other two, which at length turned out to be a prelude to a higher calling. It is never fully outfolded, but the unlucky brother is easily assimilated to Dionysus.
Amalkeides (Ἀμαλκείδης) and Protokles (Πρωτοκλές) and Protokleon (Πρωτοκλέον). These are in the Suda under "Tritopatores" (Adler number tau 1023)- awending by David Whitehead:
ἐν δὲ τῷ Ὀρφέως Φυσικῷ ὀνομάζεσθαι τοὺς Τριτοπάτορας Ἀμαλκείδην καὶ Πρωτοκλέα καὶ Πρωτοκλέοντα, θυρωροὺς καὶ φύλακας ὄντας τῶν ἀνέμων.
In the Physikos of Orpheus the Tritopatores are named Amalkeides and Protokles and Protokleon, being doorkeepers and guardians of the winds.
The back half of all their names matches those of Heracles and Iphicles.
Triptolemus (Τριπτόλεμος) "threefold-fighter" and Eubuleus (Εὐβουλεύς) "Good redesman", or Triptolemus and Cercyon (Κερκύων) - (see Pausanias Guide to Greece 1.14.3). I think these are what Cicero meant by his "Tritopatreus, Eubuleus, Dionysus". Again we find the Greeks playing down the twinship of Triptolemus, and he also undergoes among them an awending into something of a solar hero. In Hyginus's Astronomica, as well as Castor and Polydeuces and Hercules and Apollo, the star-sign of Gemini is also said to betoken Triptolemus and Iasion (Ἰασίων). But Hyginus is more than likely to have meant Triptolemus and Eubuleus. Eubuleus is brooked as a byname of Dionysus, as in Orphic Hymn 30, and Professor Cook marks the underlying sameness in the way Triptolemus's chariot taking the gift of corn about the world, and Dionysus' chariot taking the gift of wine, are shown. And also the solar symbol of the wheel-chariots that they do this in.
Hyginus' Iasion however, looks to another pair of "twins", namely Iasion and his brother Dardanus (Δάρδανος) the forefather of the Trojans. Iasion is maybe well known for having lain with Demeter ἔνι τριπόλῳ "in a thrice-ploughed (field)" (see Hesiod. Theog. 971 & Homer. Odyssey 5, 127). Whilst Hesiod has this happening on Crete, Diodorus Siculus ( Library of History 5. 49. 1 to 6) has this on Samothrace at the time of the wedding of Cadmus and Harmonia there. They are thus being matched to the Curetes and the Great Gods of Samothrace, otherwise known as the Cabeiri! Diodorus Siculus moreover thinks that Cybele and Demeter are one and the same, and says that she was afterwards by Iasion the mother of Corybas (Κορύβας). Although Homer and others tell the same tale with the a more profane and seemingly unhappy ending, Diodorus knows better:
" Ἰασίωνος δὲ εἰς θεοὺς μεταστάντος, ... "
"And after Iasion had been removed into the circle of the gods, ... " (awend. Oldfather).
See also Ovid in his Metamorphoses book 9 lines 422 to 423.
Diodorus (5.49. 2-3) then has Dardanus and Corybas take over as the "Heavenly Twin-like" knights of the goddess, although here we must allow both for his euhemerism, and that mother and daughter have become muddled up once again:
" ... Δάρδανον καὶ Κυβέλην καὶ Κορύβαντα μετακομίσαι εἰς τὴν Ἀσίαν τὰ τῆς μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν ἱερὰ καὶ συναπᾶραι εἰς Φρυγίαν. ..."What he then says of Corybas is markworthy (5.49.3):
"... Dardanus and Cybelê and Corybas conveyed to Asia the sacred rites of the Mother of the Gods and removed with them to Phrygia. ..."(awend. Oldfather).
" ... καὶ τὴν θεὰν Κυβέλην ἀφ´ ἑαυτῆς ὀνομάσαι· τὸν δὲ Κορύβαντα τοὺς ἐπὶ τοῖς τῆς μητρὸς ἱεροῖς ἐνθουσιάσαντας ἀφ´ ἑαυτοῦ Κορύβαντας προσαγορεῦσαι, ...."He is therefore, seemingly one with Dionysus.
"... and Corybas gave the name of Corybantes to all who, in celebrating the rites of his mother, acted like men possessed, ..."(awend. Oldfather).
Before leaving the Corybantes we shouldn't overlook Oppian's Cynegetica book 3, lines 7 to 19, where under the names of Curetes he seems to write of Corybantes' shape-shifting into lions, even the lions who pull the car of the "great mother" (=Rhea=Cybele=Demeter):
Πρωτίστην δὲ λέοντι κλυτὴν ἀναθώμεθα μολπήν.And we shall see later how, as doorwards (!), the Heavenly Twins often seem to be shown as lions.
Ζηνὸς ἔσαν θρεπτῆρες ὑπερμενέος Κρονίδαο
νηπιάχου Κουρῆτες, ὅτ’ ἀρτίγονόν μιν ἐόντα
10 ἀραμένη γενετῆρος ἀμειλίκτοιο Κρόνοιο
κλεψιτόκος Ῥείη κόλποις ἐνικάτθετο Κρήτης.
Οὐρανίδης δ’ ἐσιδὼν κρατερὸν νεοθηλέα παῖδα
πρώτους ἀμφήλλαξε Διὸς ῥυτῆρας ἀγαυοὺς
καὶ θῆρας ποίησεν ἀμειψάμενος Κουρῆτας.
15 οἱ δ’ ἄρ’, ἐπεὶ βουλῇσι θεοῦ μεροπηΐδα μορφὴν
ἀμφεβάλοντο Κρόνοιο καὶ ἀμφιέσαντο λέοντας,
δώροισιν μετόπισθε Διὸς μέγα κοιρανέουσι
θηρσὶν ὀρειαύλοις καὶ ῥιγεδανὸν θοὸν ἅρμα
Ῥείης εὐώδινος ὑπὸ ζεύγλῃσιν ἄγουσιν.
"The Curetes were the nurses of the infant Zeus, the mighty son of Cronus, what time Rhea concealed his birth and carried away the newly-born child from Kronos, his sire implacable, and placed him in the vales of Crete. And when the son of Uranus beheld the lusty young child he transformed the first glorious guardians of Zeus and in vengeance made the Kouretes wild beasts. And since by the devising of the god Kronos exchanged their human shape and put upon them the form of Lions, thenceforth by the boon of Zeus they greatly lord it over the wild beasts which dwell upon the hills, and under the yoke they draw the terrible swift car of Rhea who lightens the pangs of birth." (awend. A. W. Mair).
As to the evening of Curetes (Κουρῆτες) and Corybantes (Κορύβαντες) I mark here Hyginus Fabulæ 139 :
“qui Græce Curetes sunt appellati; alii Corybantes dicuntur, hi autem Lares appellantur.”
"the which in Greek are called Curetes; others call them Corybantes; they are also called Lares."
Hyginus should maybe have said here, Penates rather than Lares, but the two are often muddled up and the Heavenly Twins may stand for both. In Athens what more or less answers to the Penates is called by them the Triopatores (Τριτοπάτορες) "great grandfathers" (see Suda). That Triopatores also is found as a name for the Hekatonkheires "Hundred-handed ones" (Ἑκατόγχειρες'), also called the Centimanes, is markworthy here (see Suda).
Now the overseeing of acre-tilling in the East came under the heading of the Aśvinau. Thus the Ṛgvedaḥ 1.117.21 (awend. Griffith):
And whilst the Spartans were naturally keen to sunder their own twins from such things, they nevertheless still missed something. Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica bk.3 (awend. R. C. Seaton):yavaṃ vṛkeṇāśvinā vapanteṣaṃ duhantā manuṣāya dasrā |
abhi dasyuṃ bakureṇā dhamantoru jyotiścakrathurāryāya ||Ploughing and sowing barley, O ye Aśvins, milking out food for men, ye Wonder-Workers,
Blasting away the Dasyu with your trumpet, ye gave far-spreading light unto the Ārya.
… οἱ δ᾽ ἄρα τείως"for long since had it been thus ordained for them" ...
1315 Τυνδαρίδαι--δὴ γάρ σφι πάλαι προπεφραδμένον ἦεν--
ἀγχίμολον ζυγά οἱ πεδόθεν δόσαν ἀμφιβαλέσθαι.
αὐτὰρ ὁ εὖ ἐνέδησε λόφους: μεσσηγὺ δ᾽ ἀείρας
χάλκεον ἱστοβοῆα, θοῇ συνάρασσε κορώνῃ
ζεύγληθεν. καὶ τὼ μὲν ὑπὲκ πυρὸς ἂψ ἐπὶ νῆα
1320 χαζέσθην. …
And meantime the sons of Tyndareus for long since had it been thus ordained for them –
near at hand gave him the yoke from the ground to cast round them.
Then tightly did he bind their necks; and lifting
the pole of bronze (χάλκεον ἱστοβοῆα) between them, he fastened it to the yoke by its golden tip.
So the twin heroes started back from the fire to the ship.
Before leaving the likely "other twins" here it is worth marking what Pausanias says about an altar in the market ar Charadra in Phocis, th'ilk 10.33.6:
"Χαραδραίοις δὲ Ἡρώων καλουμένων εἰσὶν ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ βωμοί, καὶ αὐτοὺς οἱ μὲν Διοσκούρων, οἱ δὲ ἐπιχωρίων εἶναί φασιν ἡρώων."
" In the market-place at Charadra are altars of Heroes, as they are called, said by some to be the Dioscuri, by others to be local heroes ( ἐπιχωρίων... ἡρώων)." (awend. Jones).
So this holds out the likelihood to us that whatever told the Heavenly Twins asunder from some "local heroes ( ἐπιχωρίων... ἡρώων)" was not always awfully clear.
Jesus and Thomas
The "three men" that Abraham meets "by the oaks of Mamre" (KJV misawends this as "in the plains of Mamre") one of whom is "the Lord", together with what follows down to the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, is a text-book manifestation of the Heavenly Twins +1. And it was the kind of thing that made our own forefathers, and the forefather of many other folks besides, so careful about the rites of hospitality lest they "entertained angels unawares". That Christian commentators from Justin Martyr onward have always seen Abraham's "three men" as proof of the Holy Trinity is interesting for that one person of the trinity, namely Jesus, owes a good deal to the earlier worship of the Heavenly Twins. And this would be so much the better understood than it is, if everyone didn't rather willfully forget Jesus's own twin brother "Thomas the Twin"! Why ever do they do that? The "oaks of Mamre" might well know, and the good folk of Harran to whom Abraham truly belongs. But some spleeny presbyterian know-it-all will say here: Thomas was never acknowledged to be Jesus's twin brother by anyone other than gnostics and suchlike, this was never a good Catholic belief. Well, they might like to look at book two of the Chronica of Freculphus Lexoviensis, as good a Catholic writer as may be, and chapitle 4 where he lists the fates of the apostles:"Thomas Christi Didymus nominatus, et iuxta Latinam linguam Christi geminus, ac similis Salvatori, audiendo incredulus, videndo fidelis, Evangelium praedicavit Parthis, Medis et Persis, Hircanisque Bactrianis et Indis, tenens Orientalem plagam, et terram gentium penetrans; ibique praedicationem suam usque ad titulum suae passionis perducens. Lanceis enim transfixus, occubuit in Calamina Indiae urbe, ubi et sepultus est in honore."
"Thomas called the "didymus" of Christ, and in the Latin tongue: the "twin brother of Christ". Also he was like the Saviour [to look at]. Unbelieving by hearing, believing by seeing. He preached the gospel in Parthia, Medea and Persia, Hircania, Bactria and India, grasping the eastern half of the world and penetrating the land of the "nations"; and there going about preaching to them up to his passion. Thurled through by a spear, he died in Calamina a city of India, where he was worthily buried."(ᚷᚳ)
No wonder then that our King Ælfred was so keen to send alms to Thomas's shrine beyond all the other (nearer) apostles!
Wōden/Óðin
As I have written in an earlier post ([here]), the myths about the Heavenly Twins leach over into the myths of other gods so that it is sometimes hard to see where one begins and the other ends. In the North the worship of the Heavenly Twins has become blended with that of Wōden/Óðin and Þunor/Þór and/or Tīw/Týr We can maybe understand this best through what we find later. The Suebi in Gallæcia, and the Goths more widely in Spain, hide whatever worship was found among them of Wōden/Óðin under the new name of St. James the Great the "patron saint" of "Gothic" Spain. The saint has taken upon himself the shape of the god he hides.
"If you want to understand paganism, study Catholicism, its lineal descendant. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
He shows himself to Charlemagne in the Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi cap. 1, together with the "viam stellarum" or Milky Way, that is, he is the star-sign of Orion the Hunter, warning the king to come and free his shrine in Gallæcia "a Sarracenis". That the neighbouring star-signs of Orion and Gemini are often confused see below. At the fightlock at Clavijo on 23rd. May, 844 the saint was said (by 1243 at least!), to have shown up on a white horse to take part on the side of the Ramiro I. Were it not for his two eyes, his sword rather than a spear, and the cockleshells, we could have here Óðin out of an old saga.
But where you might ask in all this is his twin-brother? You might not see him, but he is there nevertheless, for everyone knows St. James the Great is the twin brother of St. John. Mark. 3:17 is interesting reading in Old English:
"... and Iacobum Zebedei, and Iohannem his broðor, and him naman onsette Boaneries, þæt is, Ðunres bearn."As we marked in the earlier post ([here]), we can see something of Wōden and Þunor, the Northern Óðin and Þórr, behind what is said of Elijah and Enoch and Michæl and Gabriel, and so on.
"... and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, and set on them the name Boaneries, that is, Ðunor's sons."
The belief that Óðin hanged and stabbed himself on a tree is also under the influence of the
myths about the Heavenly Twins. We shall speak about this later, but it
may be most readily grasped here by the reader when they call to mind
that this is what happened to Jesus, and Jesus was himself the twin
brother of
(Judas) Thomas.
The unblended Heavenly Twins nevertheles lived on in the North in what is said of Móði and Magni. And nothing hinders Víðarr and Váli being thought of in the same light. Balder and Höðr are a kind of Heavenly Twins wherein whatever unlikenesses were once allowed to the twins so that they might be told asunder, has gotten so badly out of hand that it has made the Twins burst out into an open hatred of each other. Care should be taken not to muddle the foregoing with seeming "twins" like Þjálfi and Röskva, and Freyr and Freyja. As also with those kind of twins who were thought of as the first man and the first woman (Askr ok Embla, Adam and Eve, Manu and Savarṇī (maybe once Yama and Yamī)).
"If you want to understand paganism, study Catholicism, its lineal descendant. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."
The unblended Heavenly Twins nevertheles lived on in the North in what is said of Móði and Magni. And nothing hinders Víðarr and Váli being thought of in the same light. Balder and Höðr are a kind of Heavenly Twins wherein whatever unlikenesses were once allowed to the twins so that they might be told asunder, has gotten so badly out of hand that it has made the Twins burst out into an open hatred of each other. Care should be taken not to muddle the foregoing with seeming "twins" like Þjálfi and Röskva, and Freyr and Freyja. As also with those kind of twins who were thought of as the first man and the first woman (Askr ok Embla, Adam and Eve, Manu and Savarṇī (maybe once Yama and Yamī)).
Farewell.
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