Westropp, Hodder M.: Handbook of archaeology: Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman (London, 1867)

200

HANDBOOK OF AHCIIJKOLOGY.

The Dioscuri.—Castor.—Pollux.

To the Dioscuri, who always retained very much of their divine
nature, belong a perfectly unblemished youthful beauty, an equally
slender and powerful shape, and, as an almost never-failing attribute,
the half-oval form of the hat, or at least hair lying oloso at the back
of tho head, but projecting in thick curls around the forehead and
temples. The distinction between Polydeuces tho boxer, and Castor,
in his equestrian costume, is only to be found where- they are
represented in heroic circumstances, not where they are exhibited
as objects of worship, as the Athenian Anakes and as genii of light
in its rising and setting. The most celebrated statues of these
horse-tamers are the two on the Quirinal Hill at Pome ; though

CASTOli MANAGING A IIi'KSE.

styled the works of Phidias and Praxiteles, they are supposed to
have been executed at liome, probably after the time of Augustus,
from Greek originals ; they aro of colossal proportions, being 18 feet
high.

Statues :—

Castor and Pollux, Quirinal Hill, liome.