Gemini
the Twins
In Greek mythology, Leda was the wife of Tyndareus,
king of Sparta. Zeus, who came to her as a swan, seduced her
and was the father of one or more of her children. There are
many variations of the legend. In one version Leda's daughter,
Helen of Troy, was hatched from an egg. In another version,
Leda bore two eggs, from which came Helen and Clytemnestra
and Castor and Pollux. Helen and Pollux are commonly thought
to have been the children of Zeus, whereas Clytemnestra and
Castor were those of Tyndareus.
Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces) were called
the Dioscuri, or Sons of Zeus, because Zeus, in the form of
a swan, fathered them by Leda. They were closely identified
with the city of Sparta, Castor as a renowned horseman and
Pollux as a boxer. They sailed with the Argonauts, participated
in the Calydonian boar hunt and later helped to rescue their
sister Helen of Troy, who had been kidnapped by Thesus and
Pirithous.
Finally, in a fight with Idas and Lynceus,
whose intended brides Castor and Pollux had kidnapped, Pollux
killed Lynceus, but Idas killed Castor and was in turn killed
by a thunderbolt of Zeus. Pollux, being immortal, was allowed
to share his immortality with Castor, thus permitting them
to spend alternate days in heaven and in the underworld, Pollux
as the Morning Star and Castor as the Evening Star. Another
version held that Zeus put both in the heavens as the constellation
Gemini.
The twins were highly esteemed by the Romans.
The legendary twins of Rome (pictured above in an ancient
bronze sculpture), Romulus and Remus, were said to be the
reason behind Rome's founding as a city and as an empire. |
