ज्योतिषे विश्वासटिप्पन्यः

Appendix 28

In the GE Enkidu appears later on the stage of events than Gilgamesh. This does not entitle us to take him for the prototype of the “younger brother” (see, e.g., W. Albright, “Gilgamesh and Engidu,” JAOS 40 [1920], pp. 312, 318). Actually, the hairy partner of the Twins, the “Dog,” is the prototype of the older one who is cheated out of his primogeniture in various ways. Esau, the hairy, is the first born; so is Hono-susori no Mikoto (Nihongi, trans. by W. G. Aston [repr. 1960], pp. 92-108; K. Florenz, Die historischen Quellen der Shinto-Religion [1919], pp. 204-21) who, together with his offspring, after having been passed by the Japanese “Jacob,” had to serve as “dogs,” as clowns, playactors, guardians of the imperial palace for eighty generations; at New Year and during coronation ceremonies these Hayahito had to bark three times.

Particularly obvious is the case in Egypt, where we learn from H. Kees (Der Götterglaube im Alten Ägypten [1956], p. 193, n. 3): “wtw means ‘jackal’ and ’the eldest’,” and it happens that Kees made this remark when dealing with a classical case of cheating: when Geb/Kronos declared Horus the eldest, cutting out Seth/Typhon completely, as reported in the Shabaka Inscription. Actually Geb claims Horus to be Upuaut, the Opener of the Way — Upuaut being the Upper Egyptian Jackal or Wolf. The complex of the “Dog-Twin” is, however, of such a size and weight that it cannot be attacked here.

A particularly relevant and revealing case of inseparable “twins” comes our way in Cherokee mythology, where the thunder-boys are called “Little Men.” At the beginning we hear of one boy only, born in proper wedlock by “The Lucky Hunter” and “Corn,” but soon the boy “finds” his “Elder Brother” in the river, and the latter has the name “He-who-grew-up-wild.” These two arrange the world and human life as it is now, model cases of what ethnologists call “heroes of culture.” Gilgamesh and Enkidu all over, they were asked to give “verdicts,” alias oracles, after they had finally left the “earth.” [1]

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J. Mooney, “Myths of the Cherokee,” 19th ARBAE 1897-98 (1900), pp. 243-50.