Page "Hengist and Horsa" Paragraph 55

The Germanic peoples are attested as venerating a divine pair of twin brothers in several sources.

The earliest reference to this practice derives from Timaeus.

Timeaus records that the Germanic peoples ( who he refers to as ' Celts ') of the North Sea were especially devoted to what he describes as the Dioscuri.

In his work Germania, Tacitus records the veneration of the Alcis, whom he identifies with Castor and Pollux.

Various brothers are mentioned in Germanic legends as founding figures.

1st or 2nd century historian Cassius Dio cites the brothers Raos and Raptos as the leaders of the Astings.

According to Paul the Deacon's 8th century work Historia Langobardorum, the Langobards migrated southward from Scandinavia led by Ibur and Aio, while Saxo Grammaticus records in his 12th-century work Gesta Danorum that this migration was prompted by Aggi and Ebbi.

In related Indo-European cultures, similar traditions are attested.

In Greco-Roman mythology the god Zeus and the queen Leda produced the dioscuri, known in Greek mythology as Kastor and Polydeukes or Castor and Pollux in Roman mythology.

Scholars have theorized that these divine twins in Indo-European cultures stem from divine twins from an original Proto-Indo-European culture.