The Dioscuri, Giorgio de Chirico, 1974

Gilded silver plate from the Sasanian Empire, depicting youths with winged horses.  The iconography is adapted from Greco-Roman depictions of the Dioscuri.  Artist unknown; 5th/6th cent. CE  From Iran; now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Photo credit: Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons.

Castor, wearing a helmet.  Part of a scene thought to represent the gathering of the Argonauts.  Side A of an Attic red-figure calyx-krater, attributed to the Niobid Painter; ca. 460-450 BCE.  Found at Orvieto (ancient Volsinii) ; now in the Louvre.  Photo credit: © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons.

Helen Rescued by Castor and Pollux, Jean-Bruno Gassies, 1817

A warrior’s departure (sometimes identified with the departure of the Dioscuri to retrieve the kidnapped Helen from Theseus).  Attic black-figure hydria signed by the painter Lydos (”the Lydian”); ca. 570-560 BCE.  Found at Athens; now in the Louvre.

The Dioscuri, Zeus' Mighty Sons

Homeric Hymn 17, “To the Dioscuri” (author and date unknown) Sing, clear-voiced Muse, of Castor and Polydeuces, The Tyndaridae, who were sired by Olympian Zeus. Lady Leda bore them beneath the peaks of Taygetus, Having been secretly overcome by the dark-clouded son of Cronus.    Hail, Tyndaridae, you who mount upon swift horses. Κάστορα καὶ Πολυδεύκε’ ἀείσεο Μοῦσα λίγεια, Τυνδαρίδας οἳ Ζηνὸς Ὀλυμπίου ἐξεγένοντο· τοὺς ὑπὸ Ταϋγέτου κορυφῇς τέκε πότνια Λήδη λάθρῃ ὑποδμηθεῖσα κελαινεφέϊ Κρονίωνι.    Χαίρετε Τυνδαρίδαι, ταχέων ἐπιβήτορες ἵππων. 

Dish with Castor and Pollux Rescuing Helen, unknown Italian artist, ca. 1560.  Now in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.