"Reincarnations of the Luminous Twins" (*) The ancient version of the fairy tale "Wonderful Children" is connected with the mythological past by a twin theme, which has long been noted by V. F. Miller. He drew attention to No. 287 from the collection of A. N. Afanasyev, which the compiler placed at the end of the group of texts of the main East Slavic version. In the book" Essays on Aryan mythology in connection with the most ancient culture, Vol. I: Asvins-Dioscuri "(Moscow, 1876), Miller thoroughly investigated the manifestations of the twin myth in the Vedas, among the ancient Greeks and Slavs. Unfortunately, this great work of the outstanding philologist, head of the historical school of Russian folklore studies, is not mentioned in the article " Twin Myths "of the encyclopedia" Myths of the Peoples of the World " (Vol. 1, pp. 174-176). However, this article also omits the Slavic theme, just as the article "Slavic Mythology" does not mention anything about the twin myth among the Slavs (Vol. 2, pp. 450-456). A. M. Zolotarev believed that in ancient folklore the theme of twins was generated by a dual social organization: the story of twin brothers ("the fundamental myth") explained the establishment of tribal divisions (phratries). Over a long historical period, the twin myth has undergone various transformations, including evolving into a fairy-tale type about two brothers - "good and evil, lucky and unlucky, smart and stupid" (Zolotarev A.M. Generic structure and primitive mythology, Moscow, 1964, p. 297). The twin myth has deep roots in Indo-European culture. One of its earliest manifestations is the images of the divine twins * 0complete. For the beginning, see: Russian speech. 2000. N 2. page 91 The Ashwins described in the Rig Veda are a monument of the ancient Aryans, created in the second half of the second millennium BC. The hymn dedicated to the Ashwins reveals a strong stylistic development of the idea of twinness. They are compared with a wide variety ... Read more