page_title: Divine twins
section_title: Linguistic cognates
hierarchical_section_title: Divine twins / Evidence / Linguistic cognates
caption_attribution_description: English: Dioskouroi, pair of statuettes. Roman artwork of the 3rd century AD. Français&#160;: Dioscures, paire de statuettes. Œuvre romaine du IIIe siècle apr. J.-C.
context_page_description: The Divine Twins are youthful horsemen, either gods or demigods, who serve as rescuers and healers in Proto-Indo-European mythology.
  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.
context_section_description: 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.
  (?) *diwós suhₓnū́ ("sons of Dyēus"), or *diwós népoth₁e ("grandsons of Dyēus"),
  Vedic: the Divó nápātā (the Aśvins), the "sons of Dyaús", the sky-god, always referred to in dual in the Rigveda, without individual names,
  Lithuanian: the Dievo sūneliai (the Ašvieniai), the "sons of Dievas", pulling the carriage of Saulė (the Sun) through the sky,
  Latvian: the Dieva dēli, the "sons of Dievs", the sky-god,
  Greek: the Diós-kouroi (Castor and Pollux), the "boys of Zeus", the sky-god.
  Paelignian: the Ioviois Pvclois and Ioveis Pvcles, interpreted as a calque of the Greek theonym Diós-kouroi.
caption: Pair of Roman statuettes (3rd century AD) depicting the Dioscuri as horsemen.
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