One bold on foot, and one renowned for horse.
And Martial in like vein:
And Pollux strong to deal the manly deed.
After returning from Colchis the brothers waged a successful war against the pirates who infested the Hellespont, from which circumstance they have ever since been regarded as "the sailor's stars," and the friends and protectors of navigation. It is related that Neptune had rewarded their brotherly love by giving them power over wind and wave, that they might assist the shipwrecked.
Through billows and through gales,
If once the great Twin Brethren
Set shining on the sails.
Macaulay.
In the Argonautic expedition, during a violent storm, it is said two flames of fire, "St. Elmo," or "St. Helen's light," were seen to play around the heads of Castor and Pollux, and immediately the tempest ceased, and the sea was calm. In honour of the Twins, these lights were sometimes known as "Ledean lights," and sailors believed that whenever both fires appeared in the sky, it would be fair weather, but when only one appeared, there would be storms.
In the Odes of Horace, Mr. Gladstone's translation, we read:
Oft have delivered stricken barks from wreck.
Homer in his Hymn to Castor and Pollux thus alludes to their supposed influence over the sea:
