The twin myth and various folk beliefs associated with the idea of twins and the concept of duality have an important place in Baltic religion. The divine or deified twins usually are demiurges, with various associated cosmogonic and anthropogonic functions. Thus, for Latvians, Dievs, the personification of light, is the twin of Velns. The world was created, according to ancient folk legend, as a result of their fight on a stone in the middle of the sea (vidū jūras uz akmeņa) or on an island in the middle of the sea (vidū jūras saliņā), a place that at a later date became the central axis of the cosmos.

The Baltic divine twins have often been associated with the cycle of death and rebirth. Thus in Latvian mythological folk songs the theme of the sons of Dievs marrying their twin sisters, the...