CASTOR AND POLLUX

Below: Twelfth-century statues of the Dioscuri flank the entrance to Piabba del Campidoglio, Rome, designed by Michelangelo in the 16th century.

In both Greek and Roman myth the twins Castor and Pollux were seen as symbols of ideal brotherhood. Although one was mortal and the other divine, in death they were united as the constellation Gemini.

Known as the Dioscuri (literally “sons of Zeus”), Castor and Pollux (Roman)—or Polydeuces (Greek)—were thought of in classical mythology as twins, even though they had different fathers. They featured or took part in several key Greek stories, all of which occurred before the Trojan War. In addition the Roman Castor and Pollux fought alongside Roman soldiers in an early battle.

The conception of the twins occurred one night when Zeus (or Jupiter for the Romans) disguised himself as a swan and raped Leda, a mortal. That same night Tyndareos, king of Sparta and Leda’s husband, made love to his wife. From Zeus’s seed Leda gave birth to Pollux, while Castor was Tyndareos’s offspring. According to another version that night Leda produced two eggs, one (fertilized by Zeus) containing Pollux and Helen, the other (by Tyndareos) forming Castor and Clytemnestra.

One of the Dioscuri’s earliest adventures concerned their sister Helen. Before Helen was abducted by Paris, she was stolen by the Greek hero Theseus. Son of Aegeus and Aethra, Theseus was perhaps most famous for slaying the Minotaur. Several myths, including the one of the Minotaur, show Theseus treating women badly. The same was true of his abduction of Helen. She was rescued, however, by her brothers, who captured Theseus’s mother, making her Helen’s slave, a role she maintained until the fall of Troy.