The archetype of «brothers» or «twin brothers» occupies a significant place in modern epic and folklore studies, as it reflects the deep mythological foundations of duality, moral polarity, and the ancient worldview of the unity and opposition of cosmic forces. In many mythological traditions across the world, twins or paired heroes symbolize fundamental principles such as Good and Evil, life and death, chaos and order. This archetype is also deeply rooted in the mythopoetic heritage of Turkic peoples, including the Bashkirs, where it manifests through epic narratives and ethnogenetic legends. The present article examines the artistic embodiment of this archetype using materials from the Bashkir epic «Ural-batyr» and the ancient legend of Aina and Gaina, which both preserve archaic notions of spiritual duality and cultural heroism.

In «Ural-batyr», the brothers initially appear united in their moral and physical qualities; however, the violation of a sacred prohibition by Shulgen leads to the emergence of antagonism, transforming him into a bearer of chaos while Ural rises as a cultural hero and defender of humankind. This narrative reveals a mythological model in which the divergence of two brothers reflects broader cosmological oppositions. The legend of Aina and Gaina, on the other hand, demonstrates a different form of the brother archetype: the absence of rivalry, coordinated actions, and joint struggle against destructive forces. Although the text does not explicitly define them as twins, the harmony of their actions emphasizes their cultural significance as ancestral figures.

The analysis also considers archaic motifs such as the retrieval of celestial light, the creation of habitable space, and the establishment of moral order, which reveal the ancient origins of these narratives. Both works preserve essential elements of Bashkir mythopoetics, illustrating how the archetype of brothers reflects collective values, cosmological beliefs, and the ethical foundations of the traditional worldview. The study demonstrates that this archetype is a key structural and semantic element of the Bashkir epic tradition, functioning as a symbolic model for understanding duality, cultural continuity, and the moral orientation of society.

KHUBBITDINOVA N.A.

Doctor of philology, chief researcher^, Bashkir State pedagogical university named after M. Akmully, Ufa, Russian Federation

E-mail: narkas08@mail.ru, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3719-6978

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epic, twins, Ural-batyr, Shulgen, artistic and aesthetic features, functions, image, plot