Castor and Pollux
Gemini is Castor and Pollux, twin brothers of Greek myth, one mortal and one the son of Zeus, who shared his immortality so they would not be parted.
In the tradition
When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own deathlessness. Hyginus tells how the brothers then spent alternate days among the gods and in the underworld, and were set in the sky together.
Sailors prayed to them as protectors at sea, and the glow of St Elmo’s fire on a mast was once taken for their sign. Their names stayed on the two bright stars of the constellation.
Sources
- Hyginus, De Astronomia (1st century BCE or later). The Latin handbook of constellation myths, often giving several versions side by side.
- Pseudo-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi (Hellenistic, surviving in an epitome). A collection of the myths told about how each constellation came to be in the sky.
Updated October 9, 2026.
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