Diametrically opposed twins in real life, and fiction.

Well, I was looking through The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe, when I found the following entry.

Now, it occurs to me I recall read a reprint of a western story in the comic books about something similar. I also recall here that there was a real life case of a gangster’s brother being a sheriff. (Al Capone? Yes. This leads to two questions.
[ol]
[li]Was the story of the Strange brothers directly inspired by the Capones?[/li][li]What other diametrically opposed siblings exist in any, and all forms of fiction. Actually, RL, too. Good twins, like Mas y Menos are common. I would like exact opposites, please.[/li][/ol]

Well, in real life, there were Dear Abby and Ann Landers, who were identical twins and had competing newspaper advice columns for many years.

Twins at war with each other is a big theme in mythology. You’ve got Acrisius and Proetus, sons of Abas, king of Argos, who supposedly fought each other while still in the womb. Proetus eventually lost, and went off to found the city of Tiryns. Acrisius, daughter danae gave birth to Perseus, he of the Gorgon. (Zeus was his father, but according to others, Proetus really was.)

In the Bible, you have Jacob and Esau, who also fought while still in the womb. Going back farther, you’bve got Cain and Abel
Back to the Greeks, there are two sets of dioskouri*, twin sons of the gods. Castor and Polydeuces/ollux are opposed in that one is mortal, the other immortal. According to one story, they eventually both became semi-immortal.

World mythology is filled with cases of twin sons of the sun god or sky god, but they’re not always “opposed” by being evil/good, or by fighting with one another, although they sometimes have different colors.
In Rome, there’s Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome, who eventually fought.

David Lodge’s academic novel Small World has a pair of foundling identical twins named Angelica and Lily Pabst,who, despite their identical physical appearance, are at opposite extremes of almost every facet of personality.

Angelica is quiet, reserved, academic, and apparently chaste if not necessarily virginal, while Lily is wild, mischievous, promiscuous, etc. The entire story is driven by the protagonist’s pursuit of (he thinks) Angelica, who keeps crossing his path. Only sometimes, it’s not Angelica, it’s Lily (he doesn’t know they’re twins).

They weren’t twins, though.

Not to mention in my own house. They went away to different colleges, however. :slight_smile:

Well, not identical, but they where born within minutes of each other.

Not really. Genesis 4 merely says that Eve gave birth to Cain, and then later (i.e. at some indetermine later time) she gave birth to Abel. The time span is not specified. It could have been minutes, or it could have been years.

Here’s how the King James Version renders Genesis 4:1-2:

And here’s what the New International Version says:

I’ll concede that it sounds like they could have been twins, but this isn’t actually stated anywhere.

:smack: Damn, your right. I was raised jewish, and there is a oral tradition that Cain grasped Abel’s ancle, so that he, Cain, would be born first. However, that is not canon. :smack:

Are you sure? This is definitely stated in the Bible of Jacob and Esau.
You’re right about Cain and Able, though – my apologies.