Some more comfortable reading in a flip book on the
Cult of the Heavenly Twins in
BOANERGES by James Rendel Harris, posted by PILGRIMSPLAZA on April 14th, 2008, 12:35 am in the Pilgrim Books section.
The Cult of the Heavenly Twins is often mentioned in
The Way of Saint James by Ms Georgiana Goddard King referring to:
BOANERGES - BY RENDEL HARRIS - James Rendel Harris, 1852-1941 -
Cambridge University Press 1913 - Woodbrooke, Selly Oak. - I August 1913.
http://www.archive.org/details/boanerges00harruoft - flip book [no pictures]
http://ia341042.us.archive.org/3/items/ ... t_djvu.txt - flat text
Preface vii-ix / Errata x / Introduction xi-xxiv
INTRODUCTION
"In the present treatise, I propose to make a more extended study of the Cult of the Heavenly Twins than I was able to attempt in my previous investigations into the subject. It was inevitable that the discovery which I made of the existence of pairs of twin saints in the Church calendars, and which led back naturally to the place of the Heavenly Twins in the religions of Greece and Rome, should require to be approached from the side of anthropology rather than from that of ecclesiastical or classical culture, as soon as it became clear that the phenomena under examination were world wide, and that the religious practices involved were the product of all the ages of human history. At the same time, I do not want to discuss the subject altogether de novo, nor have I the expectation of writing the one book on this particular subject. The banquet of research at which I am seated is likely to be one of many courses: if I could fancy myself beginning once more at the first course, I have no prospect of sitting the feast out ah ovo usque ad mala. Indeed, I am reasonably sure that I shall never get to the apples at all, and on that ground might well be absolved from the completeness which one naturally desires in the study of a single compartment of knowledge. For these reasons, then, I think it best to assume some of the results which I have arrived at in previous books and articles on the subject, and to use these results as a basis for further study, making such changes as may be necessary in the light of clearer knowledge, and confirming previous enquiries made in limited areas by the parallels which are supplied by a wider knowledge of the world and of the history of man."
Some chapters:
"I. Boanerges 1-12
11. The Parentage of the Twins 13-19
XIX. Why did the Twins go to Sea? 195-204
XXIII. The Ploughs and Yokes of the Heavenly Twins 234-249
XXIV. The Twin-Cult at Edessa 250-264
XXV. Further Traces of the Twins in Arabia and in Palestine 265-270
XXVI. The Twin-Cult in Egypt 271-274
XXVII. The Story of Esau and Jacob interpreted 275-280
XXIX. The Dioscuric Element in II Maccabees 289- 290
XXX. On the Names commonly given to Twin Children 291-296
XXXII. The Heavenly Twins in Graeco-Roman Tradition 304-312
XXXVIII. The Woodpecker and the Plough 344-347
XLI. The Twins in Western Europe 358-360
XLIV. Are the Twin-Myths one or many? 380-383"
Some quotes:
"XXIIl OF THE HEAVENLY TWINS 245 - Our next instance of the connection of the Heavenly Twins with the plough shall be taken from the early Christian literature. It has been shown that in certain quarters, there was a belief that the Apostle Thomas, whose name means twin, was the twin-brother of Jesus.
This belief was especially strongly held in the old Syrian Twin-cult church of Edessa, which city was the centre of a heathen cult of the Sun and the Heavenly Twins, the two latter being probably identified with the Morning and Evening Stars. The reasons for this surprising statement are largely drawn from the Acts of Thomas, the mythical founder of the Edessan Church : and these Acts, which are of Syrian origin, make Thomas play the part of the double of Jesus, in all kinds of peculiar situations, and they make Jesus and Thomas Jesus and do many things which can at once be explained if they were looked on as Dioscures ; moreover on several occasions, Thomas is definitely addressed as the Twin of the Messiah. For the proofs and elaboration of this theme, I must refer to my two tracts, the Dioscuri in Christian Legend, and the Cult of the Heavenly Twins : but we must not suppose that [Justin XX. 3, 'pugnare visi sunt, nee ultra apparuerunt, quam pugnatum est.' ][246 THE PLOUGHS AND YOKES] the belief is limited to a single Church, planted in a centre where Twin-worship was rife as a part of a solar cult. The Roman Breviary itself is in evidence for the belief, and contains sentences for St Thomas' day which, in their uncorrected form, tell us plainly that Thomas is the twin-brother of Jesus. These sentences in the Breviary can be traced back to St Isidore of Seville, and it is quite possible that they may be ultimately due to the westerly migration of the Acts of Thomas. Even if this should turn out to be the case, it appears as if a long time had elapsed before the statements in question were recognised as heretical. And this naturally leads to the belief that the gulf in theological thought between the far East and the near West was not so deep as might, at first sight, be imagined."
More > Cult of the Heavenly Twins in BOANERGES by James Rendel Harris, posted by PILGRIMSPLAZA on April 14th, 2008, 12:35 am in the Pilgrim Books section on this forum.
In this book Santiago is only mentioned in reference with its cult in Latin America and the word Compostela does not occur at all. Priscillian is mentioned in a few lines only. -gb
