The Twin Horse Gods by Henry John Walker

Author:Henry John Walker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857738080
Publisher: I.B.Tauris

CHAPTER 6

THE MYTHS OF THE DIOSKOUROI

The Status and Parentage of the Dioskouroi

The Dioskouroi Tundaridai are both gods and men. The Greeks ponder this contradiction in their myths, and use the story of their birth to pin down their status. In the Iliad, Homer regards them as ordinary human beings, who died and were buried in their homeland; we are told that they have the same mother as Helenē,1 but nothing about their father. Even if Zeus had fathered them, they would still be mortal, like all the other heroic sons of Zeus. Their sister Helenē looks out from the walls of Troy and wonders why she cannot see them:

So she spoke, but the life-giving earth had already possessed them,

Back in Lakedaimōn (Sparta), in their own dear country.2

Helenē's ignorance of their death makes it all the more poignant; there is no doubt about their mortality. The Iliad is, however, a tragic poem, and part of what makes it so tragic is that Homer emphasizes the humanity of his characters. He is not at all happy with people who cross the line that separates gods from men, and he deliberately makes them stay on the human side of the line.3 Homer studiously avoids mentioning hero-cult or semi-gods;4 Helenē is a very beautiful woman, but by no means a goddess; her brothers are fine young men, but definitely mortal; Hēraklēs too is a human being, whose fate is no different from that of Akhilleus.5

Things are a little different in the Odyssey. Homer does not quite say that Helenē is a goddess, but he does tell us that she is the daughter of Zeus, and that her husband Menelaos, simply because he is married to her, will not die like other men but will go straight to Ēlusion instead.6 Hēraklēs had once been a human, and his ‘image’ (eidōlon) is left behind in the Underworld with the other human ghosts,7 but he is now recognized as a god and lives with the goddess Hēbē on Olumpos.8 A similar, but very peculiar, compromise is reached with the Tundaridai. This time, we are told the names of both their parents – they are the children of Lēdē and Tundareos.

And I saw Lēdē, the wife of Tundareos,

who gave birth to two strong-minded sons under Tundareos,

horse-taming Kastōr and the great boxer Poludeukēs.9

When Homer tells us about their status, however, he starts off with the same expression that the Iliad had used about the life-giving earth possessing their bodies,10 but then he continues very mysteriously:

The life-giving earth possesses them, but they are both alive:

Even under the earth, having this honour from Zeus,

Every second day they are alive at one time, but at another time again

They are dead: they have gained an honour equal to that of the gods.11

As sons of the mortal Tundareos, it makes sense that they are buried, but they experience mortality and immortality every second day. Zeus bestows this favour upon them, but merely because he respects them; not because he is in any way related to them.

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