Editing Multiple birth (section)

===Cultural aspects===
Certain cultures consider multiple births a portent of either good or evil.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2003-03-30 |title=Korea's 'lucky' triplets seized |work=Herald Sun |publisher=Fairfax}}</ref>

[[Maya civilization|Mayan]] culture saw twins as a blessing, and was fascinated by the idea of two bodies looking alike. The Mayans used to believe that twins were one soul that had fragmented.{{Citation needed|date=June 2014}}

In Ancient Rome, the legend of the twin brothers who founded the city ([[Romulus and Remus]]) made the birth of twin boys a blessing, while twin girls were seen as an unlucky burden, since both would have to be provided with an expensive [[dowry]] at about the same time.

[[File:Mother in bed, with seven children in a cradle (British Library Royal 15 E VI f 273r (detail).jpg|thumb|Beatrix with her seven swan-children, from the [[Knight of the Swan]] romance ([[Talbot Shrewsbury Book]])]]

In Greek mythology, fraternal twins [[Dioscuri|Castor and Polydeuces]], and [[Heracles|Heracles and Iphicles]], are sons of two different fathers. One of the twins ([[Castor and Pollux|Polydeuces]], [[Heracles]]) is the illegitimate son of the god [[Zeus]]; his brother is the son of their mother's mortal husband. A similar pair of twin sisters are [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] (of [[Trojan War#Elopement of Paris and Helen|Troy]]) and [[Clytemnestra]] (who are also sisters of [[Dioscuri|Castor and Polydeuces]]). The theme occurs in other mythologies as well, and is called ''[[superfecundation#Use in mythology|superfecundation]]''.

In certain medieval European [[chivalric romance]]s, such as [[Marie de France]]'s ''[[Le Fresne (lai)|Le Fresne]]'', a woman cites a multiple birth (often to a lower-class woman) as proof of adultery on her part; while this may reflect a widespread belief, it is invariably treated as malicious slander, to be justly punished by the accuser having a multiple birth of her own, and the events of the romance are triggered by her attempt to hide one or more of the children.<ref name="Hibbard-1963">{{Citation |last=Laura A. Hibbard |title=Medieval Romance in England |date=1963 |place=New York |publisher=Burt Franklin}}</ref>{{rp|pages=244, 295}}  A similar effect occurs in the [[Knight of the Swan]] romance, in the Beatrix variants of the Swan-Children; her taunt is punished by giving birth to seven children at once, and her wicked mother-in-law returns her taunt before [[Child abandonment#In fiction|exposing]] the children.<ref name="Hibbard-1963" />{{rp|pages=239, 243}}