Gemini - The Twins
The Myth of Castor and Pollux
In Greek and Roman mythology, Castor and Pollux are twin half-brothers, both born to Leda.
(yes, you read that right - twin half-brothers. In some stories they were born out of an egg, along with their sisters Clytemnestra and and Helen of Troy. It’s a whole thing.)
Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. When Castor was killed in battle, the heartbroken Pollux asked Zeus if he could die too. He wanted to give up his own immortality to be with his mortal brother. He could not bear to live without him. Zeus had a different solution, he allowed them to split their mortality, spending half the year together in Hades, the mortal underworld and the other half on Mount Olympus with the immortals.
The brothers became the bright stars of the Gemini constellation where we can see them in the night sky January-March. The twins remain inseparable and speak to a higher story of brotherly love.
The Stars
The Constellation Gemini is dominated by Castor and Pollux, two bright stars that appear close together.
Gemini is located in the northern celestial hemisphere, between Taurus to the West and Cancer to the East. It’s prominent in the winter skies of the Northern Hemisphere, visible throughout the night in January, February and March.
(Ironically, the Constellation Gemini is not as easily visible in the sky during tropical astrology’s “Gemini Season” when the sun is considered to be in the sign Gemini, from May 22nd to July 21st. These dates are also different from when the sun actually appears in the constellation Gemini, but that’s a whole other Lab Note.)
Traditionally, the constellation is visualized connecting the stars Castor and Pollux into an O shape. But we prefer the H.A. Rey visualization shown here, where Castor and Pollux are holding hands forever immortalized in the night sky.
