Editing Castor and Pollux (section)

==Birth==
There is much contradictory information regarding the parentage of the Dioscuri. In the Homeric ''Odyssey'' (11.298–304), they are the sons of Tyndareus alone, but they were sons of Zeus in the Hesiodic ''Catalogue'' (fr. 24 M–W). The conventional account (attested first in Pindar, Nemean 10) combined these paternities so that only Pollux was fathered by Zeus, while Leda and her husband [[Tyndareus]] conceived Castor. This explains why they were granted an alternate immortality. The figure of Tyndareus may have entered their tradition to explain their archaic name ''Tindaridai'' in Spartan inscriptions, or ''Tyndaridai'' in literature,{{Sfn | Burkert | 1985 | p = 212}} in turn occasioning incompatible accounts of their parentage. Their other sisters were [[Timandra (mythology)|Timandra]], [[Phoebe (mythological characters)|Phoebe]], and [[Philonoe]].

Castor and Pollux are sometimes both mortal, sometimes both divine. One consistent point is that if only one of them is immortal, it is Pollux. In Homer's'' [[Iliad]]'', Helen looks down from the walls of Troy and wonders why she does not see her brothers among the Achaeans. The narrator remarks that they are both already dead and buried back in their homeland of Lacedaemon, thus suggesting that at least in some early traditions, both were mortal. Their death and shared immortality offered by Zeus was material of the lost ''[[Cypria]]'' in the [[Epic cycle]].

The Dioscuri were regarded as helpers of mankind and held to be patrons of travellers and of sailors in particular, who invoked them to seek favourable winds.<ref name = "Cotterell">{{citation | contribution = Dioscuri | title = A Dictionary of World Mythology | first = Arthur | last = Cotterell | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1997}}.</ref> Their role as horsemen and boxers also led to them being regarded as the patrons of athletes and athletic contests.<ref>{{Citation | chapter = Dioscūri | title = The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature | editor1-first = M. C. | editor1-last = Howatson | editor2-first = Ian | editor2-last = Chilvers | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1996}}.</ref> They characteristically intervened at the moment of crisis, aiding those who honoured or trusted them.<ref name="Roberts" />