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And now behold I all the other glancing-eyed Achaians, whom well I could discern and tell their names; but two captains of the host can I not see, even Kastor tamer of horses and Polydeukes the skilful boxer, mine own brethren, whom the same mother bare.

Then quickly came back the son of Tyndareus to his great brother, and found him not quite dead, but the death-gasp rattled in his throat. Then Polydeukes wept hot tears, and groaned, and lifted up his voice, and cried: 'Father Kronion ah! what shall make an end of woes? Bid me, me also, O king, to die with him. The glory is departed from a man bereaved of friends.

They show him transformed into a bull, for Europa; into gold, for Danae; into a swan, for Leda; into a satyr, for Antiope; and into a thunder-bolt, for Semele. Then of these were born many children, Dionysus, Zethus, Amphion, Herakles, Apollo, Artemis, Perseus, Castor, Helen, Polydeukes, Minos, Rhadamanthos, Sarpedon, and the nine daughters whom they call the Muses.

Watching the Greek host from the walls of Troy, Helen says: "Clearly the rest I behold of the dark-eyed sons of Achaia; Known to me well are the faces of all; their names I remember; Two, two only remain whom I see not among the commanders, Castor, fleet in the car, Polydeukes, brave with the cestus Own dear brethren of mine, one parent loved us as infants.

But terrible also was the vengeance which by the devising of Zeus those sons of Aphareus suffered: for on the instant came Leto's son in chase of them: and they stood up against him hard by the sepulchre of their father. Thence wrenched they a carved headstone that was set to glorify the dead, and they hurled it at the breast of Polydeukes.

The gods also of the mariner, Castor and Polydeukes or, in Roman form, Pollux, the god of traffic Hermes the Roman Mercurius and the god of healing, Asklapios or Aesculapius, became early known to the Romans, although their public worship only began at a later period.

They changed for example -ramu*af- into -ram*a-, Tarquinius into -Tarchnaf-, Minerva into -Menrva-, Menelaos, Polydeukes, Alexandros, into -Menle-, -Pultuke-, -Elchsentre-. The indistinct and rugged nature of their pronunciation is shown most clearly by the fact that at a very early period the Etruscans made no distinction of -o from -u, -b from -p, -c from -g, -d from -t.

Thus by their worship with the blaze of burnt-offerings among Aitolians have the mighty sons of Oineus honour, and at Thebes Iolaos the charioteer, and at Argos Perseus, and by the streams of Eurotas Polydeukes and Kastor's spear: But in Oinone the great souls of Aiakos and his sons, who after much fighting twice sacked the Trojans' town, first when they went with Herakles, and again with the sons of Atreus.

Thus spake his father, and Polydeukes doubted not which counsel he should choose. So Zeus unsealed the eye, and presently the tongue also, of Kastor of the brazen mail. The Prytanis would seem to have been a kind of President of the Senate. The date is unknown.

This it is that beareth abroad the name of Iolaos in song, and the names of the mighty Kastor and of thee, king Polydeukes, ye sons of gods, who one day in Therapnai and the next in Olympus have your dwelling-place. This is an early ode: the victory was won either in 494 or 450.