2016/01/01 by Venceslas Kruta · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies #Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies #Celtic languages #Divinity #Iconography #Art #Theme (computing) #Art history #Genealogy #Ancient history #History #Theology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.3406/ecelt.2016.2468
published in Etudes Celtiques 42(1), 33-57 (Les Belles Lettres)
openalex publication_date 2016/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
“Twin Heads” and the divine Twins : essay in Celtic iconography. The theme of the “Twin Heads” – generally two human faces, opposed, juxtaposed, superposed or associated in other modes on the same object – is frequent in the Celtic art from the 5th century B. C. It probably represents the Celtic Dioscuroi, descendants of the Indo-European “Sons of the diurnal Heavens”, mentioned in the written sources. The most important and famous of these two brothers was Lug, principal divinity of the ancient Celts. His face is often represented alone, crowned with the palmette or “double mistletoe-leaf”, like the Master of the “Universe Axis” or “Tree of Life”, associated with the two monsters in permanent struggle in the cyclic season change.