In one of the famous Homeric hymns, Castor and Pollux were twins and the sons of Zeus, the god of the Greeks. They sailed with the Argonauts to rescue their sister, Helen (of Troy).

Zodiac Origins

Traditionally Gemini is a Zodiac constellation between Taurus and Cancer that contains the twin stars, Castor and Pollux, and the 3rd sign of the Zodiac. The Greek myths of Castor and Pollux (the Latin form of Polydeuces) may be used to shed further light on the paradoxical duality in the nature of the classic Gemini individual.

In one of the famous Homeric hymns, Castor and Pollux were twins and the sons of Zeus, the god of the Greeks. They sailed with the Argonauts to rescue Helen (of Troy), their sister, in another version of the myth recorded by both Homer (9th Century BC) and Hesiod, and later Pindar tells how Castor was mortally wounded in a fight with rival twins, Idas and Lynceus. Pollux pleaded with Zeus to be allowed to share his brother's suffering. Zeus granted them life, but on alternate days, insisting they must share a single life between them.

This story sheds an interesting light on the dual nature of the Gemini, where each 'half' of the personality shares in the single life of the individual, as it were. Just as twins are separate and yet 'halves of each other' because they sprang from one source, the 'twin' aspects of the Gemini's nature may be seen as somewhat separate, yet 'halves of each other' having a 'shared life' in the Gemini individual.