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

Ancient Greek marble statue of one of the Dioskouroi

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 MEGALOU EUKRATIDOU "of Great King Eucratides".

They are called the Dioscuri (Dios kouroi), meaning the "youths of Zeus". Their Vedic parallels in the 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] Whether the children are thus mortal and which half-immortal is not consistent among accounts, nor is whether the twins 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 they were granted an alternate immortality. It is a common belief that one would live among the gods, while the other was among the dead.

They do make an appearance together in the plays by Euripides, Helen and Elektra.

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.

The Dioscuri of the Campidoglio, Rome, wearing their distinctive caps

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 Tyndaridai 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.

Castor himself was also venerated in the region of Kastoria in Northern Greece.

Dioscuri as adventurers

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

They are also mentioned among the heroes who gather to hunt the Calydonian Boar.

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

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 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.

Dioscuri in the service of Cybele

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.

Mortality and immortality

Castor and Polydeuces abducted the Leucippides ("white horses") Phoebe and Hilaeira,^[6] the daughters of Leucippus. 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 life-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

Roman Castor and Pollux

The figures of the Dioscuri frequently appear engraved in Etruscan bronze mirror backs. In the sixth century, the Dioscuri were being venerated at the Latin port city of Lavinium, near Rome, where a bronze plaque in the large sanctuary outside the city is inscribed Castorei: Podlouqueique qurois^[8] The Roman image of the Dioscuri, then, was in part drawn through the lense of inherited Etruscan culture and in part directly imported from Campanian Greeks.

Following tradition as old as Homer,^[9] Pollux was accounted a powerful boxer, and Castor a great horseman. In Roman mythology, Castor was venerated much more often than Pollux, to the extent that the pair became known as 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 with the Asvins of Vedic mythology, suggesting an Indo-European origin for the myth of the divine twins.

Castor and Pollux fighting at the Battle of Lake Regillus, 1880 illustration by JR Weguelin to the Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Macaulay

In astronomy

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

In Mountaineering

There are at least 4 sets of twin summits named after Castor and Pollux. In Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA, the peaks are found close to the headwaters of the Lamar River in the Absaroka Range. Another pair is located in the Pennine Alps at the Swiss-Italian border. A third is in Glacier National Park of western Canada, within the Selkirk mountains. The fourth is in Aspiring National Park of New Zealand, named by the explorer Charlie Douglas.

In Religion

Acts 28:11- And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign (figurehead) was Castor and Pollux (the Twin Brothers of Zeus).

In art

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) .

Castor et Pollux was the title of a 1737 opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau (libretto by Bernard), modified in 1754. The latter version became quite popular.

In popular culture

• In the movie Face/Off, made in 1997, Nicolas Cage and Alessandro Nivola play brothers Castor and Pollux Troy, a pair of terrorists-for-hire who are devoted to each other even though they are deeply psychotic and paranoid.
• In 1842 Lord Macaulay wrote a series of poems about Ancient Rome (the Lays of Ancient Rome). The second poem is about the Battle of Lake Regillus and describes the intervention of Castor and Pollux. They are referred to as the Great Twin Brethren in the poem. http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/regillus.html
• In the popular anime Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon, Castor and Pollux are two monsters specially trained by one of the Dark Kingdom Shitennou Nephrite into attacking the Sailor Soldiers. They are defeated when their team work is disrupted due to their squabbling and the Sailor Soldiers use the opportunity to launch a combined attack.
• In the video game Persona 3, Polydeuces is the Persona of Akihiko Sanada, and Castor is the Persona of Shinjiro Aragaki, Akihiko's lifelong friend. Polydeuces and Castor are of the Emperor and Hierophant arcanum, respectively.
• Castor and Pollux appear in the Cirque du Soleil show Varekai. In the show, the characters perform the Aerial Straps act.
• In the video game: Spartan: Total Warrior, Castor and Pollux are two key characters who help the unnamed spartan take revenge on the roman empire
• In the book, The Battle of the Labyrinth Castor and Pollux are twin sons of Dionysus, Castor died in battle and was burned in an honorary shroud.
• In the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys Castor made an appearance in the Season 2 Episode "Once A Hero" Here Castor was played by Peter Feeney.

Notes

External links

• Castor & Pollux clothing store in New York City

References

• 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

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