| The Hero Twins by Mildred Boyd |
The Dog God, a twin himself, was the deity of both twins and deformities and the birth of twins, like that of deformed children, was regarded as portent of disaster. Aztec parents, considering twins a mortal threat, routinely killed one of the babies as the only way to save their own lives. Yet, Mesoamerican mythologies are filled with tales of twins, usually heroes and monster slayers but sometimes, like Quetzalcoatl as morning star and his twin, Xolotl, as evening star, representing the opposing forces of darkness and light