Champion boxer, son of Zeus and twin of Castor. He shared his immortality with his brother so they would never be parted.
Roman name: Pollux
From Sparta. Today: Sparti, Greece.
Strength 8/10 · Wisdom 6/10 · Courage 8/10 · Divinity 5/10 · Fame 6/10
The story
Castor‘s twin, the immortal son of Zeus, a champion boxer. On the Argonauts’ voyage he defeated the brutal boxing king Amycus, who challenged every stranger who landed.
How it ends
When Castor died, Polydeuces refused immortality without him. Zeus let the twins share it, alternating between heaven and the Underworld.
Still with us today
The Romans called him Pollux, the name of the brightest star in Gemini.
Family
- Parents: Zeus, Leda
- Siblings: Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Dionysus, Persephone, Hebe, The Muses, Calliope, Heracles, Perseus, Minos
Appears in
Jason and the Argonauts, The Trojan War
Read about them in the Library
- Iliad 3: The duel for Helen
- Homeric Hymns 5: The shorter hymns
- Library of Apollodorus 13: Sparta, Troy and the children of Atlas
- Argonautica 1: The voyage begins
- Argonautica 2: To the end of the world
Ancient sources
- Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica
- Homer, Iliad
In the sky and in space
- MoonHelene and Polydeuces
Two tiny moons that share the orbit of Saturn's moon Dione, one in front and one behind. Helene and her brother Polydeuces are together in the sky as well.
- ConstellationGemini
The twins Castor and Polydeuces, whose two brightest stars still carry their names, Castor and Pollux.
- StarsCastor and Pollux
The two bright stars of Gemini, named after the twins. Sailors believed the twins protected them, and saw them in the eerie glow of St Elmo's fire on ships' masts.
- Space missionProject Gemini
NASA's two-person spacecraft of the 1960s, named after the twins because every crew had two astronauts.