Incest Between Twins - in European Culture

In European Culture

Twin incest is a prominent feature in ancient Germanic mythology, and its modern manifestations, such as the relationship between Siegmund and Sieglinde in Richard Wagner's Die Walküre, and a feature in some Greek mythology, such as the story of Byblis and Kaunos. There are strong parallels between the Germanic portrayals of twin incest and those of the Balinese Ramayana, and some scholars have speculated an early Indo-European link. The theme also appears in English literature, such as the incest between the twins Polydore and Urania in Delarivier Manley's The New Atlantis. Sexual conflict and incest between twins is also a prominent feature of the contemporary German author Kerstin Hensel's "Grotesque Literature".

In a review of the scholarly literatures on twin homosexuality and twin incest, Ray Bixler concludes that "most same sex homosexual twins, if reared with their co-twins, do not attempt or even want to seduce them in adulthood". His study draws on Edvard Westermarck's hypothesis that sexual desire is generally absent in relationships between members of a nuclear family.

One case of incest between twins, in which twins who were adopted by separate families as babies later married without knowing they were brother and sister, was mentioned in a House of Lords debate on the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill in January 2008. According to the charity Adults Affected by Adoption, there had been other cases of this sort that had involved siblings. The story was widely publicised in the British press, although its truthfulness was called into question.

Czech identical twins Elijah and Milo Peters are male porn actors who work condomless, performing both anal and oral sex on each other in video performances since 2009. They consider each other to be both brothers and romantic partners, even soul mates, and report that they do not have sex with any men besides each other when they are not on film.