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This got me wondering today. Humanity, when ignorant about nature, quickly went to explain natural things with the supernatural or superstition (Lightening is caused by Zeus, you're sick because you've done something sinful, witches ruined your crops, etc...). Even today, albino children get persecuted in some parts in africa due to superstition.

So how were identical twins looked upon in some of the pre-enlightened societies? Were they seen as a blessing or a curse? How did they explain it? Or are identical twins common enough that it was seen as a non-issue alltogether?

Albinos in Africa don't get persecuted so much as killed and chopped up for parts...

I'm not sure ancient China counts for your purposes but I recall reading that under Chinese tradition (certain tradition, anyway) twin boys were looked upon with great favor (big surprise) while twin girls were nothing much one way or the other, and twins of opposite sexes were called 'ghostly couples-' it was assumed that they had committed incest in the womb and were therefore generally put to death.

Of course those would have to be fraternal twins, but, hey, twins...

Sorry I can't narrow the period and distribution of those practices.

Kanastrous wrote:Albinos in Africa don't get persecuted so much as killed and chopped up for parts...

I'm not sure ancient China counts for your purposes but I recall reading that under Chinese tradition (certain tradition, anyway) twin boys were looked upon with great favor (big surprise) while twin girls were nothing much one way or the other, and twins of opposite sexes were called 'ghostly couples-' it was assumed that they had committed incest in the womb and were therefore generally put to death.

Of course those would have to be fraternal twins, but, hey, twins...

Sorry I can't narrow the period and distribution of those practices.

I thought that having twins of opposite genders was celebrated? After all, the Chinese nickname for twins of opposite gender is called "Dragon and Phoenix" twins.

China's a big place with a long history. Assuming that what I read was correct, it may have only applied to a particular segment of Chinese society in a particular time frame, and not before, since, or elsewhere.

The infanticide article on the Wikipedia should give you some interesting leads to follow on cultures where twins weren't treated too nicely.

I have never come across anything specific when reading about ancient Greece or Rome. Their feature in the mythology of course, but I don't recall reading anything about how ordinary twins were treated.

I also recall that the BBC had a docudrama a good while back about Egyptian twins who were given jobs in a temple to impersonate the sister-goddesses Isis and Nephthys, but they weren't singled out from birth or anything like that; a Macedonian Greek pulled some strings to get them the job.