The horse-taming brother of the boxer Polydeuces, one of the twin Dioscuri of Sparta and brother of Helen; in Homer both are sons of Tyndareus by Leda, though later tellers make Castor the mortal twin while Polydeuces is the son of Zeus.1
On the wall of Troy, Helen searches the Achaean ranks for her two brothers and cannot find them: Castor, tamer of horses, and the goodly boxer Polydeuces, whom the same mother bore. She does not know that the life-giving earth already holds them back in Lacedaemon.2
In the underworld Odysseus sees Leda, who bore to Tyndareus two stout-hearted sons, Castor the tamer of horses and the boxer Polydeuces. The earth covers them though they are alive, and below it they still have honour from Zeus: one day the pair live and one day they are dead, so that they hold a privilege equal to the gods.3
Apollodorus splits the brothers' fathers: on the night Zeus came to Leda as a swan, Tyndareus also lay with her, and she bore Pollux and Helen to Zeus but Castor and Clytaemnestra to Tyndareus. Hyginus likewise calls them both beardless sons of Jove and Leda, ranks them among the mortals made immortal as brothers of Helen, yet still reckons Castor and Clytaemnestra of the seed of Tyndareus and Pollux and Helen children of Jove.4
Of Leda's sons Castor practised the art of war and Pollux the art of boxing, and for their manliness the pair were called the Dioscuri. Wishing to marry the daughters of Leucippus, they carried them off from Messene and wedded them, Castor taking Hilaira, by whom he had Anogon.5
Apollonius numbers Castor among the Argonauts: Aetolian Leda sent him with Polydeuces from Sparta, skilled to guide swift-footed steeds. When the heroes reached the Bebrycians and Polydeuces had boxed down their king Amycus, Castor stood among his brother's champions, striking down a Bebrycian with a blow that cleft the man's head in two.6
In Apollodorus the brothers' end follows a cattle-raid: driving booty from Arcadia with their cousins Idas and Lynceus, the Apharetids, they let Idas divide the spoil, and he cheated them and ran the herds off to Messene. The Dioscuri marched after it and lay in wait, but keen-eyed Lynceus spied Castor in hiding and pointed him out to Idas, who killed him; Pollux gave chase and ran Lynceus through, and when Idas struck him down with a stone Zeus blasted Idas with a thunderbolt and bore Pollux up to heaven.7
Hyginus traces the feud instead to the stolen brides: Hilaira and Phoebe had been betrothed to Idas and Lynceus, and when the Dioscuri carried them off the Apharetids took up arms to win them back. In this telling Castor first kills Lynceus in battle, and as Idas builds his brother's funeral monument Castor intervenes; Idas, enraged, runs him through the thigh with his sword, or some say pushed the monument down upon him, and Pollux then overcomes Idas in single combat.8
Because Pollux, raised to heaven, would not accept immortality while his brother lay dead, Zeus let the two share a single life, one day among the gods and one among mortals; and when the Dioscuri passed to godhead Tyndareus summoned Menelaus to Sparta and handed him the kingdom. Hyginus sets them among the stars as the Twins, of all brothers the most affectionate, who shine on alternate days.9
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
