Romulus and Remus, Apollo and Artemis, Castor and Pollux. Twins appear abundantly in ancient mythology, although their occurrence was even more sporadic in the distant past than it is now.
Thanks to its uniqueness, the birth of twins was used in various cultures as part of stories about the intersection of the worlds of gods and people to express the depth of the sibling bond. It also symbolized creating a whole or depicting extreme polarity—the opposite of good and evil.
Increasingly Numerous Representations
The share of twins in the demographics has been increasing rapidly in recent decades. In the United States, between 1980 and 2011, there was an increase from 9.4 to 16.7 incidences of twins per 1,000 births.
The main reason is the progress of medical procedures: infertility treatment or assisted reproduction methods. However, the increase in the average age of women giving birth also has an impact. Women closer to menopause more often have two eggs during the cycle.
TwiiNS as an Image
We can think what we want, but we can hardly change the fact that artists and athletes are more famous than philosophers or scientists nowadays. No wonder that this also applies to twins. Who doesn’t know the British James and Oliver Phelps? Who? Or, Fred and George Weasley, the red-haired siblings from the Harry Potter wizarding saga?
Even more famous former child movie stars are American Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. In Slovakia, the singers Daniela and Veronika Nízlová from TwiiNS based their image and the music band name on their similarity.
Fishing for Gold
American tennis players Bob and Mike Bryan were among the most successful twins in sports. It’s easier to asses them because they achieved the victories side by side in doubles, while many other twins had different individual performances, such as Dutch footballers Frank and Ronald de Boer, Swedish hockey players Daniel and Henrik Sedin, and American downhill skiers Phil and Steve Mahre.
In Slovakia, water slalomers Pavol and Peter Hochschorner, three-time Olympic champions, are the first athletes to be mentioned. However, Ján and Jozef Čapkovič are not forgotten and bring moments of nostalgia. Peter and Martin Velits got up to the highest professional level in road cycling.
Elvis Left without a Brother
A separate chapter consists of famous people who are not well-known to have twins. Did you know about diplomat Kofi Annan, model Gisele Bündchen, actors Montgomery Clift, Kiefer Sutherland, Ashton Kutcher, Vin Diesel, Scarlett Johansson, Isabella Rossellini, or Alanis Morissette? Even the legendary Elvis Presley had a twin. Unfortunately, his brother, for whom they had prepared the name Jesse, did not survive the pregnancy.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias, Julia Roberts, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, George Clooney, Gordon Ramsay, Cristiano Ronaldo, and, above all, Roger Federer are all parents to twins. The Swiss tennis player is raising two “sets” of twins with Miroslava Vavrinecová —the girls Myla Rose and Charlene Riva and the boys Lennart and Leo.
World Trade Center
However, none of the names mentioned in the search for the most famous twins in history will likely beat the one outside the human realm. The World Trade Center in New York, also called the Twins, was dejected by the September 11, 2001, coordinated terrorist attack.
Text: Miki Kočan ml., photo: unsplash.com
