Dioscuri
Publié le 17/01/2022
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(Sons of Zeus) Greek A title used in
Greek and Roman mythology for the twin brothers
Castor and Polydeuces, whose Roman name was
Pollux. They were the sons of the mortal woman,
Leda, who was married to Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemonia
(Sparta).
There are several legends about the parentage
of these two favorite characters. One says that Zeus
seduced Leda and conceived Polydeuces on the same
night that she and her husband conceived Castor.
Polydeuces was thus a god and immortal and Castor
was a mortal. In some of the legends, Castor and
Polydeuces are the brothers of Helen of Troy and
Clytemnestra. In others, neither Leda or Zeus is
their parent.
In Greek myths, the twins rescued Helen from
the hero Theseus and took part in the expeditions of
Jason and the Argonauts. Poseidon, god of the sea,
is said to have given Castor and Polydeuces special
powers, after which mariners and sailors honored the
twins as their guardians.
One story, told by the Greek poet Pindar, says
that Castor was mortally wounded in battle. Polydeuces
begged his father, Zeus, to allow him to share
his brother's suffering. Zeus granted them a single
life, to be shared and lived on alternate days. To keep
them together forever, Zeus put them in the sky as
the constellation Gemini in the northern celestial
hemisphere. Castor and Pollux are the two very
bright stars that form the heads of the constellation.
The Dioscuri do not enter into the stories of the
Trojan War, though the abduction of their sister Helen
started the conflict, for Zeus had made them divine and
placed them in the heavens before the war began.