mardi 22 juillet 2008

Gemini 3


In Greek mythologyThe Twins represents the two brothers, Castor and Polydeuces (in Latin, Pollux). Their mother was Queen Leda of Sparta, who was seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan. That same night she also slept with her husband King Tyndareus. As a result she bore the Twins, one of whom was mortal, and the other immortal.Castor was the mortal Twin and the son of King Tyndareus. Pollux was immortal; Zeus had fathered him. According to other stories, there were two girls born as well - Helen, who was implicated in the Trojan War - and Clytemnestra.

And the children are usually portrayed as coming from an egg - probably because of Zeus seduced the queen in the form of a bird.The two brothers were good companions and became gods, patrons of athletes and protectors of sailors at sea. Castor and Pollux had power over the winds and waves. Castor became famous as a rider of horses. He was skilled with the sword as well and taught the art of sword fighting to the young Hercules. His brother Pollux became equally skilled at boxing and fighting battles.The twins were raised by the centaur Chiron (now the constellation Sagittarius) and later joined Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.Eventually they decided to take wives and selected the two beautiful daughters of the king of Sparta. Now it happened that the two women were already married to Idas and Lynceus, cousins of the twins. But this seems to have made little difference to the Twins.

They simply carried the girls off and settled down with them.A few years later, the cousins, in friendly company of the Twins, made a joint raid on some cattle. It is said that trouble between the two pairs of thieves began when they tried to divide the cattle among themselves.Idas had the solution. He hacked one of the cows into four equal pieces and said that whichever two individuals completely finished eating their quarters first would divide the spoils.

This took the Twins off guard and they watched helplessly as their two cousins wolfed down their quarters of the cow. Idas and Lynceus then drove off the entire heard.Tricked, Castor and Pollux vowed to get even with their cousins. Within a few days they set out after the two cousins to recover their share of the cattle.

During the fight that followed, Idas killed Castor with a spear.Infuriated over the loss of his twin brother, Pollux chased his cousins and killed Lynceus with a single blow. Just as Idas was about to hurl a tombstone at Pollux, Zeus came to Pollux's aid and hurled a thunderbolt at Idas, killing him on the spot. Pollux, the immortal son of Zeus, begged to die so that he would not be separated from his brother. Not even the mighty Zeus could do such a thing so he placed them together in the sky as the constellation Gemini, the twins.

Aucun commentaire: