Also known as the Dioscuri—the Greek Kastor and Polydeuces—the twin brothers occupy a luminous place in classical mythology. In Roman legend, Castor and Pollux are said to have intervened miraculously at the Battle of Lake Regillus in 484 BCE, aiding the Roman forces. Archaeological discoveries at the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum lend some support to this ancient tradition.¹
Born to Leda, they were brothers to Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and were venerated in both Sparta and Rome as protectors of travelers and warriors.² The twins’ dual parentage gives their myth its unique tension: Pollux, son of Zeus, was divine and immortal—a champion boxer of superhuman strength. Castor, the son of the mortal king Tyndareus, was a gifted horseman but subject to death.
Their bond was tested when a violent dispute erupted with their cousins, Idas and Lynceus, over either stolen cattle or the abduction of the cousins’ fiancées—a recurring motif in Greek myth, where honor and love often ignite tragedy. Castor was killed in the ensuing fight, and Pollux, unable to bear his brother’s loss, implored Zeus to let him share his immortality.
Zeus granted the request, but with a divine compromise: the brothers would live alternately between Mount Olympus and the Underworld, spending one day among the gods and the next in the realm of the dead. Through this arrangement, they became symbols of shared fate, loyalty, and the bridge between mortality and divinity. To commemorate their eternal bond, Zeus placed them in the heavens as the constellation Gemini—the Twins.
Sailors revered them as guardians of the sea, their presence revealed in the mysterious glow of St. Elmo’s Fire, and their image appeared centuries later on the grain ship that carried the Apostle Paul from Malta to Puteoli:
And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.⁴
Throughout history, Castor and Pollux have continued to embody the archetype of divine duality—the eternal dance between body and spirit, mortality and immortality, earth and heaven. Their myth reminds us that even death can be transformed into reunion and renewal, when love transcends the limits of the flesh.
¹ Oxford Classical Dictionary, 1999, p. 303.
² Maas, Georgia S. “Castor and Pollux.” Oxford Reference. Oxford University Press. n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Link
³ Eerdmans Bible Dictionary, 1987, p. 1024.
⁴ Acts 28:11, KJV
Comments