Castor
and Pollux
by Heather Arnott
"That's it!"
said Gladys. "I thought of another good
story: Castor and Pollux.."
"Oh, how can a
happy story come from Greco-Roman
culture? You know
they all get brutally killed, just look at what happened with Romulus
and Remus," said Eileen.
"I didn't say
it was happy, I said it was good,"
corrected Gladys.
"How can a myth
be positive and not be happy? That's
ridiculous," stated Eileen.
"You'll see.
Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of
Leda. Leda was
the wife of a man, Tyndareus, but was raped by Jupiter disguised as a
swan on her wedding night. So, Leda became pregnant by both her husband
and Jupiter. Soon, she gave birth to four babies at once, two fathered
by Tyndareus, two fathered by Jupiter. Pollux and his sister, Helen..."
"Helen of Troy?
I don't think this story can be good
is it starts
off with a rape. Maybe you are just confused, dear. Remeber, you are
telling me stories about good sets of twins," reminded Eileen.
"Yes, Helen of
Troy. And I'm not confused, I just
haven't gotten to
the sweet part. So, Pollux and Helen were born from an egg, while
Castor and Clytemnestra were born in the normal fashion.Castor and
Pollux were identical and raised together, but Pollux was
immortal and
Castor was not. Pollux grew up to be a great boxer, while Castor was a
great horseman. In fact, Hercules was a student of Castor. Both twins
were tough and started plenty of fights. But it was this willingness to
fight that gained them the respect of seafaring people; most of their
fights were with pirates or other bad guys! One day, the boys decided
to join Jason and the Argonauts on their journey to find the Golden
Fleece. The soldiers on board the Argo said that they saw flames leap
up on the mast when the boys got on board."
"Probably just
St. Elmo's Fire," stated Eileen.
"What is St.
Elmo's Fire?" asked Gladys.
"St. Elmo's
Fire is when a thunderstorm causes the
air between the
clouds and the ground to get electrically charged. Then, the charge has
to find a close electrical conductor to discharge on, usually the mast
of a ship, a tall building, or something like that. Everyone knows
that, dear."
"I didn't.
Okay, that may have been what happened
when they got on
the ship, but I'll never know because I was not there. The twins were
quite successful on their journey with the Argonauts; Pollux even
killed an evil king! But, sadly, not everything the boys did was
heroic. They spent much of their time raiding villages for women
and
cattle. On one of these raids, they stole a bunch of cattle from their
cousins. One of their cousins, Idas, actually killed Castor during the
raid. But Pollux was not killed because he was immortal. When Jupiter
saw what had happened he threw down a lightning bolt, his weapon of
choice, and killed Idas."
"Well,
now much longer can the story go on?
Castor's dead! And
this story hasn't had much good to say about twins yet!" exclaimed
Eileen.
"Just give me a
minute. This gets really sweet, in a
sad way.
Pollux was understandably upset and grieved very hard. He got to the
point that he could not bare the serparation from Castor. Pollux
decided that the only way to possibly see his brother again was to
petition Jupiter to let him die. So, Pollux asked Jupiter to make him
mortal and allow him to live in Hades. Jupiter was so moved by Pollux's
devotion to Castor that he made a bargain with him. Jupiter said that
he would allow Pollux to divide his time between Hades and Olymupus,
where Jupiter lived and reigned. The twins and their devotion to each
other was immortalized by Jupiter in the constellation Gemini. Gemini
shows Pollux following Castor through the sky every night, right by his
side. See, isn't that sort of sweet?" asked Gladys.
"Well, I guess.
But it seems kind of silly for
someone to want to
die just because his brother did. I just hope the grandbabies won't be
all weirdly obssessed with each other. It can't be healthy to be that
attached to your sibling," argued Eileen.
"Oh, I don't
know about that," sighed Gladys,
beginning to become discouraged.
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Author's Note: Eileen and Gladys are original characters arguing over
whether twins are good news or bad news. The story of Gemini is based
mostly on the one cited below, but also on a few things I just know.
The information about St. Elmo's Fire is from Ask Yahoo.
Biliography:
"Gemini - The Twins"
by Anne Wright
Website: The Fixed Stars
Weblink: http://www.winshop.com.au/annew/Gemini.html
"What is St. Elmo's Fire?"
Website: Ask Yahoo
Weblink: http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20000622.html
Image Information:
"Meissan biscuit porcelain group of Castor and Pollux, Circa 1790"
Website: E.H. Manner's European Porcelain
Weblink: http://www.europeanporcelain.com/feb2000/37.htm