A daughter of Leucippus and, with her sister Phoebe, one of the Leucippides; the two were carried off and married by the Dioscuri, and to Hilaira Castor begot a son, Anogon.1
Apollodorus reckons Hilaira among the children of Leucippus, brother of Aphareus: Leucippus had two daughters, Hilaira and Phoebe, and besides them begot Arsinoe, mother (by Apollo) of Asclepius. The two sisters the Dioscuri carried off and married.2
He tells too of the carrying-off itself: wishing to marry the daughters of Leucippus, Castor and Polydeuces bore them away from Messene and wedded them, and Castor had a son Anogon by Hilaira while Polydeuces had Mnesileus by Phoebe. From this came the cattle-raid in Arcadia with Idas and Lynceus, the dispute over the divided spoil, and the deadly quarrel in which Castor fell.3
Hyginus gives the rape a sharper cause: Hilaira and Phoebe, most beautiful maidens, were the betrothed brides of Idas and Lynceus, the sons of Aphareus — Hilaira a priestess of Diana, Phoebe of Minerva — when Castor and Pollux, inflamed with love, snatched them. The robbed bridegrooms took to arms, and so began the fight that left the brothers dead on both sides.4
At Sparta the sisters were honoured as the goddesses Leucippides, whose priestesses were young maidens bearing the same name; Pausanias notes that the poet of the Cypria called the two daughters of Apollo rather than of Leucippus, and that their abduction by the sons of Tyndareus was pictured on the throne at Amyclae.5
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story
