Castor and Pollux

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For the stars, see Castor (star) and Pollux (star), and for the sculptural group in the Prado Museum see Castor and Pollux (Prado).

In Greek mythology the Dioskouroi (Διόσκουροι), Kastor and Polydeuces, in Roman mythology the Gemini (Latin "twins") or Castores, Castor and Pollux are the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. According to Liddell and Scott's Lexicon, kastor is Greek for "beaver", and poludeukeis means "very sweet".

[edit] Origins

Silver tetradrachm of the Greco-Bactrian King Eucratides I (171-145 BC) with the Dioscuri.
Obv: Bust of Eucratides. Helmet decorated with a bull's horn and ear.
Rev: The Dioscuri, each holding palm in left hand, spear in right hand. Greek legend: BASILEOS MEGALOI EUKRATIDOI "Great King Eucratides".

They are called the Dioscuri (dios kouroi), meaning the "youths of Zeus". Their Vedic parallels in the effulgent brother horsemen Asvin sets them firmly in the Indo-European tradition (Burkert 1985:212). Their archaic and inexplicable name in Spartan inscriptions Tindaridai or in literature Tyndaridai occasioned an explanatory myth of a Tyndareus (Burkert 1985:212), occasioning incompatible accounts of their parentage, as that for their sisters Helen and Clytemnestra. The better known story is that Zeus disguised himself as a swan and seduced Leda. Thus Leda's children are frequently said to have hatched from two eggs that she then produced. The Dioscuri can be recognized in vase-paintings by the skull-cap they wear, the pilos, which was already explained in Antiquity as the remnants of the egg from which they hatched.^[1] Tyndareus, Leda's mortal husband, is then father or foster-father to the children.^[2] Which children are thus mortal and which half-immortal is not consistent among accounts, nor is which children hatched together from one egg. In some accounts, only Polydeuces was fathered by Zeus, while Leda and her husband Tyndareus conceived Castor. This explains why only Polydeuces was granted immortality.

Castor and Polydeuces are sometimes both mortal, sometimes both divine. One consistent point is that if only one of them is immortal, it is Polydeuces. In Homer's Iliad, Helen looks down from the walls of Troy and wonders why she does not see her brothers among the Achaeans. The narrator remarks that they are both already dead and buried back in their homeland of Lacedaemon, thus suggesting that at least in some early traditions, both were mortal. Their death and shared immortality offered by Zeus was material of the lost Cypria in the Epic cycle.

As a further complication, the Zeus-as-swan myth is sometimes associated with the goddess Nemesis. In this tradition, it was Nemesis who was seduced and who laid the egg, but the egg was then found by or given to Leda. However, this story is usually associated with Helen, ordained by Zeus to cause the Trojan War, and not with Castor and Polydeuces.

[edit] Connections with Sparta

The Dioscuri and their sisters grew up in Sparta, in the household of Tyndareus (see above). Their connection there was very ancient: a uniquely Spartan aniconic representation of the Tindarai was as two upright posts joined by a cross-bar.^[3] Sparta's unique dual kingship reflects the divine influence of the Dioscuri. When the Spartan army marches to war, one king remains behind at home, accompanied by one of the Twins. "In this way the real political order is secured in the realm of the Gods" (Burkert 1985:212).

Their heroon or grave-shrine was at Therapne across the Eurotas from Sparta.

[edit] Dioscuri as adventurers

They accompanied Jason on the Argo; during the voyage, Polydeuces killed King Amycus in a boxing match.

When Astydameia, queen of Iolcus, offended Peleus, the twins assisted him in ravaging her country.

[edit] Dioscuri as saviours

When Theseus and Pirithous kidnapped their sister Helen and carried her off to Aphidnae, the twins rescued her and counter-abducted Theseus' mother, Aethra. The mounted horsemen who rode out to save their abducted sister Helen from Theseus could be expected to show up to succour their votaries, as when the Locrians of Magna Graecia attributed their success at a legendary battle on the banks of the Sagras to the intervention of the Twins.

[edit] Dioscuri in the service of the Goddess

The image of the twins attending a goddess are widespread^[4] and link the Dioscuri with the male societies of initiates under the aegis of the Anatolian Great Goddess^[5] and the great gods of Samothrace. The Dioscuri are the inventors of war dances, which characterize the Kuretes.

"Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus" by Rubens.

[edit] Mortality and immortality

Castor and Polydeuces abducted the Leucippides ("white horses") Phoebe and Hilaeira,^[6] the daughters of Leucippus (mythology). When they encountered their analogous twin brothers of Thebes, Idas and "lynx-eyed" Lynceus, bound for revenge, Castor, the mortal brother, fell, and Polydeuces, the immortal twin, survived, yet they were not separated. Polydeuces persuaded Zeus to share his gift with Castor. Accordingly, the two spend alternate days as gods on Olympus, worthy of burnt sacrifice, and as deceased mortals in Hades, whose spirits must be propitiated by libations.

The lost Cypria explained the terms of their joint immortality as a gift of Zeus. In Odyssey, Homer renders the paradox:

both buried now in the live-giving earth though still alive.

Even under the earth Zeus grants them that distinction:

one day alive, the next day dead, each twin by turns

they both hold honours equal to the gods"

(Robert Fagles' translation)

As emblems of immortality and death that were no longer polar opposites, it is not surprising to hear that the Dioscuri, like Heracles were said to have been initiated at Eleusis.^[7]

The Dioscuri on the reverse of a coin of the Roman Emperor Maxentius

[edit] Roman Castor and Pollux

As early as 484 BCE a temple to the Castores was erected in the Roman Forum in gratitude for their intervention in battle: see Temple of Castor and Pollux. In Rome their festival was on July 15. They had their own temple in the Roman Forum: Following tradition as old as Homer,^[8] Pollux was accounted a powerful boxer, and Castor a great horseman. In Roman mythology, Castor was venerated much more often than Pollux. The pair might even be called the Castores.

For other examples of the mytheme of the Unequal Twins, compare Amphion and Zethus of Thebes and Romulus and Remus of Rome. Compare also the Alcis of Germanic Mythology and with the Asvins of Vedic mythology, suggesting a Indo-European origin for the myth of the divine twins.

Main article: Gemini (constellation)

The constellation Gemini is said to represent these twins, and its brightest stars Castor and Pollux (α and β Geminorum) are named for them.

[edit] In classical art

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Various classical sculptural groups of 2 nude males have been identified as Castor and Pollux - sometimes securely (eg the Castor and Pollux at the Prado Museum), sometimes less so (eg The Horse Tamers) .

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Pollux. Bay Area Rock Band. Retrieved on February 12, 2007.

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Castor and Pollux

• Ringleben, Joachim, "An Interpretation of the 10th Nemean Ode", Ars Disputandi. Translated by Douglas Hedley and Russell Manning. Pindar's themes of the unequal brothers and faithfulness and salvation, with the Christian parallels in the dual nature of Christ.
• Burkert, Walter, 1985. Greek Religion (Cambridge: Harvard University Press), pp 212-13
• Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks (Thames and Hundson), pp 105-112 et passim
• Pindar, Tenth Nemean Ode