by Benoit » Fri Jan 21, 2005 5:02 pm
<blockquote><i>Originally posted by Mizehrith</i><p>Castor and Pollux are the two bright stars in the constellation Gemini, Pollux being the brighter of the two. In Greek Mythology, they were the twin sons of Zeus and Leda, and it was said that after Castor's death they were reunited by Zeus in the constellation.<br></blockquote><br>That's not all of it, though. I remember reading a more detailed story about them.<br>I found a similar page through Google that is even more detailed:<p> <i>Castor and Pollux<p>Castor and Pollux were the offspring of Leda and the Swan, under<br>which disguise Jupiter had concealed himself. Leda gave birth to<br>an egg, from which sprang the twins. Helen, so famous afterwards<br>as the cause of the Trojan war, was their sister.<p>When Theseus and his friend Pirithous had carried off Helen from<br>Sparta, the youthful heroes Castor and Pollux, with their<br>followers, hasted to her rescue. Theseus was absent from Attica,<br>and the brothers were successful in recovering their sister.<p>Castor was famous for taming and managing horses, and Pollux for<br>skill in boxing. They were united by the warmest affection, and<br>inseparable in all their enterprises. They accompanied the<br>Argonautic expedition. During the voyage a storm arose, and<br>Orpheus prayed to the Samothracian gods, and played on his harp,<br>whereupon the storm ceased and stars appeared on the heads of the<br>brothers. From this incident, Castor and Pollux came afterwards<br>to be considered the patron deities of seamen and voyagers (One<br>of the ships in which St. Paul sailed was named the Castor and<br>Pollux. See Acts xxviii.II.), and the lambent flames, which in<br>certain sates of the atmosphere play round the sails and masts of<br>vessels, were called by their names.<p>After the Argonautic expedition, we find Castor and Pollux<br>engaged in a war with Idas and Lynceus. Castor was slain, and<br>Pollux, inconsolable for the loss of his brother, besought<br>Jupiter to be permitted to give his own life as a ransom for him.<br>Jupiter so far consented as to allow the two brothers to enjoy<br>the boon of life alternately, passing one day under the earth and<br>the next in the heavenly abodes. According to another form of<br>the story, Jupiter rewarded the attachment of the brothers by<br>placing them among the stars as Gemini, the Twins.</i><p>[URL=http://www.online-mythology.com/castor_pollux/]More...<p>The version I read said that they alternated between life on earth and life in the heavens between each other.