Much the same language with that in the Dawn-hymns is naturally employed in praising the Twin Brothers.  They, like the Dioskouroi, are said to have been incorporated gradually into the pantheon, on an equality with the other gods,[104] not because they were at first human beings, but because they, like Night, were adjuncts of Dawn, and got their divinity through her as leader.[105] In the last book of the Rig Veda they are the sons of Sarany[=u] and Vivasvant, but it is not certain whether Sarany[=u] means dawn or not; in the first book they are born of the flood (in the sky).[106] They are sons of Dyaus, but this, too, only in the last and first books, while in the latter they are separated once, so that only one is called the Son of the Sky.[107] They follow Dawn ‘like men’ (VIII. 5. 2) and are in Brahmanic literature the ’youngest of the gods.’[108]

The twin gods are the physicians of heaven, while to men they bring all medicines and help in times of danger.  They were apparently at first only ‘wonder-workers,’ for the original legends seem to have been few.  Yet the striking similarity in these aspects with the brothers of Helen must offset the fact that so much in connection with them seems to have been added in books one and ten.  They restore the blind and decrepit, impart strength and speed, and give the power and seed of life; even causing waters to flow, fire to burn, and trees to grow.  As such they assist lovers and aid in producing offspring.

The Acvins are brilliantly described, Their bird-drawn chariot and all its appurtenances are of gold; they are swift as thought, agile, young, and beautiful.  Thrice they come to the sacrifice, morning, noon, and eve; at the yoking of their car, the dawn is born.  When the ‘banner before dawn’ appears, the invocation to the Acvins begins; they ‘accompany dawn.’  Some variation of fancy is naturally to be looked for.  Thus, though, as said above, Dawn is born at the Acvins yoking, yet Dawn is herself invoked to wake the Acvins; while again the sun starts their chariot before Dawn; and as sons of Zeus they are invoked “when darkness still stands among the shining clouds (cows)."[109]

Husbands or brothers or children of Dawn, the Horsemen are also S[=u]ry[=a]’s husbands, and she is the sun’s daughter (Dawn?) or the sun as female.  But this myth is not without contradictions, for S[=u]ry[=a] elsewhere weds Soma, and the Acvins are the bridegroom’s friends; whom P[=u]shan chose on this occasion as his parents; he who (unless one with Soma) was the prior bridegroom of the same much-married damsel.[110]