The myth of Romulus and Remus tells of two abandoned twins, who after being rescued and raised by a she-wolf, would go on to lay the foundations of the Roman Empire. The motif of humans of reared by wild animals has been re-iterated time and time again in folklore. In Greco-Roman myth alone, beasts served as the adoptive parents of Telephus, son of Hercules, Paris of Troy and even an infant Zeus. Similar tales are told in the mythologies of ancient Ireland, China, India, and Egypt, to name but a few.
Unlike their immediate forbearers in the public’s consciousness, however, Kamala and Amala were undoubtedly real. From the 1950s onwards, the prevailing theory has suggested they were, in fact, autistic or otherwise mentally challenged, rather than truly feral. Meanwhile, other scholars took offense to that notion. After observing the “gazelle boy” of the Spanish Sahara in the 1970s, French anthropologist Jean-Claude Armen wrote: “How could a retarded child, even though ‘aided’ by animals, continue to exist the harsh environment of the desert?” 
Though the term doppelganger - translated as “double walker” - first saw print in Jean Paul’s German Romantic novel, Siebenkas, in 1796, the motif of the evil twin as externalized self draws upon millennia of world mythology. Ancient legends of Roman, Indian, Norse, Native American, Egyptian and Greek origin all recount the consequences of tumultuous twins – one good, one evil and often unaware of one others existence, until a fateful and ontologically devastating meeting. The philosopher Aristotle contributes the earliest recorded firsthand account of such an encounter to the historical record.
German folklore, in particular, regarded the doppelganger as a physical reality and believed that anyone visited by their literal “personal double” was marked for impending death. From there, the phenomenon would go on to become a popular occurrence the greater European Romantic movement, but not only the page. In the eleventh volume of his autobiography, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe tells of spying his doppelganger - exact in every detail, but dressed in gold-trimmed suit - approaching from the opposite direction on the road. Eight years later, the writer found him self traveling the same path as the stranger and realized that he was, in fact, wearing the very same gold-trimmed suit. Unlike most doppelganger tales, Goethe tells of it being a calming and peaceful occurrence; most others would find the experience to be just as, if not more, foreboding than folktales on which they were predicated.
English poet Percy Blythe Shelley, while visiting the Italian city of Pisa, encountered a hooded doppelganger, who upon revealing his face, Pisa said but two words: “Siete soddisfatto (Are you satisfied)?” Shelley would go on to drown in the Mediterranean shortly before his 30th birthday. French novelist Guy de Maupassant wrote about meeting doppelganger “face-to-face.” While writing his story, “The Horla,” Maupassant’s double entered his study, casually sat itself and began to dictate the contents of his freshly written page as if from memory.
Such accounts certainly make for entertaining reading and fiction writers too began to parlay the concept into a string of memorable successes. Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Dostoevsky’s The Double (A Petersburg Poem), Twain’s Pudd’nhead
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Wilson, Poe’s short story “William Wilson” and multiple works by Kafka all include doppelgangers as a reality altering, terror inducing plot devices. James George Frazer, in his 1890 benchmark study of comparative mythology, The Golden Bough, defined the phenomenon as “a physical manifestation, or result, of an inner being existing without” - proof that even as the 20th century approached, encounters with these externalized alter-egos – whether hallucinatory, embellished or genuinely supernatural experiences – continued to tap the unconscious fears and foibles of the human psyche. | ||||||||||||
Tags: 1796, Aristotle, Biography Mark Twain: His Amazing Adventures, Doppelganger, double walker, Edgar Allan Poe, egyptian mythology, European Romantic Literature, evil twin, Feydor Dostoyevsky, Frankenstein DVD, Franz Kafka, German folklore, Greek Mythology, History DVDs, How they met themselves, In Search Of The Real Frankenstein DVD, indian mythology, James George Frazer, Jean Paul, Jekyll and Hyde DVD, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, legend, mark twain, mythology, native american mythology, norse mythology, Percy Blythe Shelley, personal double, Pudd’nhead wilson, Robert Luis Stevenson, roman mythology, Siebenkas, The Double (A Petersburg Poem), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, William Wilson
Superheroes are a common part of the world’s popular culture from comic books and movies to television shows and all forms of merchandise. There are conventions devoted to the phenomenon and the genre of superheroes shows no signs of slowing down in the foreseeable future. However, a look at the history of superheroes shows that they have been a big part of our culture and consciousness for decades. They have been recreated time and again as society and events shaped the world around us. For example, during World War II heroes such as Captain America, Superman and Captain Marvel were routinely featured triumphing over the evil Axis powers and were an affordable way to keep the spirit of patriotism going even during difficult times.
During the 1950s superhero comics almost ceased to exist due to social backlash after medical doctor and psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Wertham wrote the book ‘Seduction of the Innocent’ in which he blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency and sexual perversion. The book sponsored a senatorial investigation and led to comic books regulating themselves and creating a code that they had to follow to be published. 
The 1960s led to the rebirth of the superhero genre and many of the most popular characters came out of this decade including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the X-men, and the Justice League of America. The Civil Rights movement had an impact on comics with the creation of African-American heroes such as Blade, the Black Panther, Luke Cage, and the Falcon to name a few.
From the 1980s until the present time, superheroes have gotten darker and grittier with a more real world feel to them. Batman: The Dark Knight, the Watchmen, Daredevil, and Wolverine are examples of this trend. Superhero movies have become extremely popular with characters such as Spider-Man, the X-men, Iron Man, Hulk, Batman, etc. leading the box office charge. Television shows such as Heroes and Smallville demonstrate the mass appeal and influence of the superhero genre on our society.
