Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Castor and Polydeuces (Pollux), the Dioscuri, were brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra—Castor mortal son of Tyndareus, Polydeuces immortal son of Zeus, in the common dual-paternity strand (or both divine, or both Tyndarid, in variants). They were famed as horseman and boxer, protectors of sailors, and Spartan cult heroes. Their end came in a quarrel with their cousins Idas and Lynceus, sons of Aphareus. Traditions differ on the spark: a cattle raid in which the Apharetidae cheated the Dioscuri of their share, or a dispute over the Leucippides (Phoebe and Hilaeira) whom the Dioscuri carried off. Lynceus, whose eyesight pierced even tree trunks and earth, spotted Castor in hiding; Idas killed Castor with a spear (or both Apharetidae struck). Polydeuces slew Lynceus; Zeus blasted Idas with a thunderbolt as he raised Castor’s tombstone (or a stolen grave marker) as a weapon. Grief-stricken, Polydeuces refused sole immortality. Zeus granted that the twinship be shared: the brothers alternate between Olympus and the underworld, living and dying by turns—or, in Homer’s softer notice, both are living though held beneath the earth by turns, honored like gods. Pindar’s *Nemean* 10 is the fullest classical telling of the cattle feud, Castor’s fall, and Zeus’s bargain. Thereafter the Dioscuri appear as constellation (Gemini), as strobile lights on ships’ masts, and as Sparta’s divine twins.