Dioscuroi Sons of Zeus, the well-known heroes Castor and Polux, called by the Greeks Polydeuces.
Castor and Pollux are twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri.
According to Homer, they were the sons of Leda and Tyndareus, king of Lacedaemon, and
consequently brothers of Helen.
Castor was famous
for his skill in taming horses, and Polux for his skill in boxing. Although they were buried, says Homer yet they came to life every other day. and enjoyed divine honours. According to other traditions, both were the sons of Zeus and Leda. According
to still orhers, only Polux and Helen were the children of Zeus, while Castor was the son of Tyndareus. Hence Polux was immortal, while Castor was subject to old age and death
The Dioscuroi are famous for
(1) Their expedition against Athens, where they rescued their sister Helen who had been carried off by Theseus, and placed in Aphidnae, which they
took.
(2) Their part in the expedition of the Argonauts, during which Polux killed, in a boxing match, Amycus, king of the Bebryces. During the Argo-nautic expedition they founded tbe town of
Dioscurias, in Colchis,
(3) Their battle with the sons of Aphareus, named Idas and Lynceus.
Castor, the mortal, fell by the
hands of ldas, but Polux slew Lynceus, and Zeus killed Idas by a flash of lightening. At the request of Polux, Zeus allowed him to share his
brother’s fate, and to live alternately one day under the earth, and the other on the heavenly abodes of
the gods. According to a different version of the story, Zeus rewarded the attachment of the two
brothers by placing them among the stars as Gemini.
These heroic youths received divine honours at Sparta, from whence their worship spread over other parts of Greece, and over Sicily and Italy.
They were worshipped more especially as the protectors of sailors, for Poseidon had given them
power over winds and waves.They were regarded as presidents of the public games, as the inventors of the war dance, and as the patrons of poets and
bards. They are usually represented in works of art as
youthful horsemen, wearing piloi, the egg-shaped helmets crowned with stars, and with spears in their
hands.
Dioscuroi were twin gods of St. Elmo’s fire–an electrical discharge which appears on the rigging of ships portending deliverance from a storm. They were also gods of horsemanship and protectors of guests and travellers.
Very popular on the coins of the Indo-Greek princes of the house of Eukratides, the Dioscuroi
were represented there exactly as elsewhere in
Greek art In addition to long spears or lances they
carry palms. Often the gods are represented on coins
merely by palms and their peculiar egg-shaped caps
or helmets called the piloi. These twin gods seem to have been borrowed from the Indian mythology
The originals and transformed into new Characters. The originals,
obviously were the Asvini kumăras