Greek gods could be petty, selfish, immoral, arbitrary,
cruel, fickle, dishonest, and everything else that humans can be. Rather than serving as moral arbiters much
less as examples of virtue, their very immorality often seemed to constitute an
excuse for immoral behavior. In all this chaos and depravity, however, one
story stands out as touchingly uncharacteristic – and tellingly it is the story
of two Spartan princes particularly honored and revered in Sparta.
The Dioskouroi
According to ancient Greek mythology, the Divine Twins, the
Dioskouroi, were the brothers of Helen.
More precisely, Polydeuces was
Helen’s full-brother, likewise fathered by Zeus on her mother Leda, while
Kastor was her half-brother, the son of Leda by her (mortal) husband Tyndareus,
the king of Sparta. Raised at the Spartan court as twin sons of the king, the
Dioskouroi lived the ideal lives of aristocratic youth in the age of heroes.
They had great adventures, sailing with Jason on the Argo, hunting boar with
Herakles, rescuing their sister from the Athenian king Theseus, who had
abducted her – and then robbing two sisters from a neighboring kingdom for
their own wives. Nothing about these adventures suggestions anything
particularly virtuous or morally exemplary. They were, it seemed, just
hot-blooded young Greek heroes.
And then, in a fight over stolen cattle, Kastor was killed.
According to the myth, both brothers would have been killed, if Polydeukes
hadn’t been immortal. Because, however, Polydeukes is a demi-God, he lives
on after his mortal end. He goes to his father’s home on Mount Olympus, while
Kastor goes into the cold, dark grave, a prisoner of grim Hades, destined never
to see the light of day or breathe fresh air or enjoy any pleasures of the
senses ever again.
According the myth, Polydeukes was so distraught by his
brother’s fate that he was unable to enjoy his own immortality. Seeing his
son’s misery, Zeus took pity on him and allowed the twins to switch places on
an alternating basis. Every other day, Polydeukes took his brother’s place in
hell, so that Kastor could escape the grave.
There is, I think, something wonderfully Spartan about this
tale. It includes both the love of life, which – contrary to popular opinion –
was characteristic of ancient Sparta, and the spirit of self-sacrifice that we associate with Leonidas.
No comments:
Post a Comment