Ever since this episode, says Apollonius – and he assures us there were other voyages on which they were saviours – the twins have been the patron saints of sailors. Presumably a storm was involved, but he does not elaborate on the circumstances. Apollonius Rhodius tells us briefly that during the voyage from the mouth of the Rhone to the Stoechades Islands (the present-day Îles d’Hyères off Toulon) the Argonauts owed their safety to Castor and Pollux. On the Argonauts’ homeward trip with the golden fleece Castor and Pollux were of further value to the crew. Pollux easily avoided the rushes of his opponent, like a matador side-stepping a charging bull, and felled Amycus with a blow to the head that splintered his skull. Pollux, stirred by the man’s arrogance, accepted at once and the two pulled on leather gloves. He stamped down to the shore where the Argo lay and challenged the crew to put up a man against him. Amycus, the world’s greatest bully, would not allow visitors to leave until they had fought him in a boxing match, which he invariably won. The boxing skills of Pollux came in use when the Argonauts landed in a region of Asia Minor ruled by Amycus, a son of Poseidon. The inseparable twins joined the expedition of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece. Castor was a famed horseman and warrior who taught Heracles to fence, while Pollux was a champion boxer. They were said to look alike and even to dress alike, as identical twins often do. In the most commonly accepted version, Pollux and Helen (later to become famous as Helen of Troy) were children of Zeus, and hence immortal, while Castor and Clytemnestra were fathered by Tyndareus, and hence were mortal.Ĭastor and Pollux grew up the closest of friends, never quarrelling or acting without consulting each other. Both unions were fruitful, for Leda subsequently gave birth to four children. That same night she also slept with her husband, King Tyndareus. ![]() Their mother was Leda, Queen of Sparta, whom Zeus visited one day in the form of a swan (now represented by the constellation Cygnus). However, mythologists disputed whether both really were sons of Zeus, because of the unusual circumstances of their birth. The Greeks referred to them jointly as the Dioskouroi (Dioscuri in Latin), literally meaning ‘sons of Zeus’. The Latinized forms of their names are Castor and Pollux (sometimes Polydeuces), by which they are now generally known. Gemini represents the mythical Greek twins Kastor ( Κάστωρ ) and Polydeukes ( Πολυδεύκης ). Origin: One of the 48 Greek constellations listed by Ptolemy in the Almagest
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