Dioscūri
（
Διόσκουροι—i. e. sons of Zeus). The horse-tamer
Castor (
Κάστορ) and Polydeuces (
Πολυδεύκης, Pollux), the master of the art of boxing. In Homer they are
represented as the sons of Leda and Tyndareos, and called in consequence Tyndaridae; as dying
in the time between the rape of Helen and the Trojan War, and as buried in Lacedaemon. But
even under the earth they were alive. Honoured by Zeus, they lived and died on alternate days
and enjoyed the prerogatives of godhead. In the later story sometimes both, sometimes only
Polydeuces is the descendant of Zeus. (See
Leda.) They
undertook an expedition to Attica, where they set free their sister Helen whom Theseus had
carried off. They took part in the expedition of the Argonauts. (See
Amycus;
Argonautae.) Castor, who had been born mortal, fell in a contest with Idas and Lynceus,
the sons of their paternal uncle Aphareus. The fight arose, according to one version, in a
quarrel over some cattle which they had carried off; according to another, it was about the
rape of two daughters of another uncle Leucippus, Phoebé and Hilaïra, who
were betrothed to the sons of Aphareus. On his brother's death, Polydeuces, the immortal son
of Zeus, prayed his father to let him die, too. Zeus permitted him to spend alternately one
day among the gods his peers, the other in the lower world with his beloved brother. According
to another story, Zeus, in reward for their brotherly love, set them in the sky as the
constellation Gemini, or the morning and evening star. They are the ideal types of bravery and
dexterity in fight. Thus they are the tutelary gods of warlike youth, often sharing in their
contests, and honoured as the inventors of military dances and melodies. The ancient symbol of
the twin gods at Lacedaemon was two parallel beams (
δόκανα),
joined by cross-pieces, which the Spartans took with them to war. They were worshipped at
Sparta and Olympia with Heracles and other heroes. At Athens, too, they were honoured as gods
under the name of
Ἄνακες. At sea, as in war, they lend
their aid to men. The storm-tossed mariner sees the sign of their beneficent presence in the
flame at the mast-head (
Hor. Carm. i. 3). He
prays and vows to them the sacrifice of a white lamb, and the storm soon ceases. (See
Helena.) The rites of hospitality are also under their
protection. They are generally represented with their horses Xanthus and Cyllarus, as in the
celebrated colossal group of the Campidoglio in Rome. Their characteristic emblem is an oval
helmet crowned with a star.
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Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). (From a Coin in the British Museum.)
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The worship of Castor and Pollux was from early times current among the tribes of Italy.
They enjoyed especial honours in Tusculum and Rome. In the latter city a considerable temple
was built to them near the Forum (B.C. 484) in gratitude for their appearance and assistance
at the battle of the Lake Regillus twelve years before. In this building, generally called
simply the Temple of Castor, the Senate often held its sittings. It was in their honour, too,
that (after B.C. 305) the solemn review of the Roman
equites was held on
the 15th of July. The names of Castor and Pollux, like that of Hercules, were often in use as
familiar expletives, but the name of Castor was invoked by women only (Aul. Gell. xi. 6),
since man had caused his death. Both were worshipped as gods of the sea, particularly in
Ostia, the harbour town of Rome. Their image is to be seen stamped on the reverse of the
oldest Roman silver coins. See
Numismatics.
