page_title: Castor and Pollux
section_title: Etruscan Kastur and Pultuce
hierarchical_section_title: Castor and Pollux / Italy and the Roman Empire / Etruscan Kastur and Pultuce
caption_attribution_description: English: Foot of an Attic red-figure kylix with a dedicatory inscription in Etruscan letters by Venel Apelinas (or Atelinas) to the ‘sons of Zeus’ (the Dioskouroi). Français&#160;: Pied d'un kylix attique à figures rouges portant une dédicace en alphabet étrusque de Venel Apelinas (ou Atelinas) aux «&#160;fils de Zeus&#160;» (les Dioscures).
context_page_description: Castor and Pollux were twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri.
  Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; 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. The pair are thus an example of heteropaternal superfecundation. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
  In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire. They were also associated with horsemanship, in keeping with their origin as the Indo-European horse twins.
context_section_description: The Etruscans venerated the twins as Kastur and Pultuce, collectively as the tinas cliniiaras, "Sons of Tinia," Etruscan counterpart of Zeus. They were often portrayed on Etruscan mirrors. As was the fashion in Greece, they could also be portrayed symbolically; one example is seen in the Tomb of the Funereal Bed at Tarquinia where a lectisternium is painted for them. Another is symbolised in a painting depicted as two pointed caps crowned with laurel, referring to the Phrygian caps.
caption: Etruscan inscription to the Dioskouroi as "sons of Zeus" at the bottom of an Attic red-figure kylix (c. 515–510 BC)
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