formulaic epithet Tππο ́ δαμο ‘horse-taming’, and in the two Homeric
Hymns addressed to the Dioskouroi they are ταχων $πιβ τορε ππων
‘riders on swift steeds’.^76 They ‘travel over the broad earth and the whole sea
on their swift-footed horses’ (Alcaeus fr. 34. 5). Pindar (Ol. 3. 39) uses of
them the epithet εOιπποι, ‘having good horses’, which matches the suás ́va ̄
predicated of the As ́vins (RV 7. 68. 1, cf. 69. 3). Their horses are always
described as white; and the As ́vins famously gave a white horse to the hero
Pedu, who won ninety-nine victories with it.^77 In another place (Pyth. 5. 10)
Pindar speaks of ‘gold-charioted Castor’. The As ́vins’ car too is golden (RV 4.
- 4, 5; 5. 77. 3; 7. 69. 1; 8. 5. 35).
The Dioskouroi are celebrated and prayed to as saviours and rescuers from
danger, especially at sea and in battle. In an anonymous verse they are invoked
asp Ζην: κα? Λ δα κα ́ λλιστοι σωτHρε, ‘O (sons of ) Zeus and Leda, finest
saviours’ (PMG 1027(c); cf. Trag. adesp. 14). The longer of the two Homeric
Hymns (33) describes how sailors in a rough sea pray and sacrifice to them,
and they come darting through the air on their wings (ξουθHισι πτερ3γεσσι)
and calm the winds and waves. Alcaeus’ prayer to them is very similar. Easily
they come and rescue men from death, ‘leaping from afar in brightness upon
the masts of well-thwarted ships, in arduous night bringing light to the dark
ship’.^78 Legends tell of their appearing on battlefields to assist armies, for
example for the Locrians at the river Sagra in the battle against Croton, and
for the Romans at Lake Regillus.
The As ́vins act in similar fashion. They are bright with fire, dı ̄ ́diyagnı ̄ (RV 1. - 11; 8. 57. 2). They bring light to men (1. 92. 17, 182. 3). ‘That sustaining
light, O As ́vins, which brings us across the darkness, grant to us!’ (1. 46. 6).
They are púrus ́candra ̄, ‘much-gleaming’ (8. 5. 32), as is their chariot (7. 72. 1);
the attribute has been compared with the name of Polydeuces, interpreted as
by dissimilation from Πολυλε3κη, ‘very lucent’.^79 They are winged
(suparn
̇
a ̄ ́, 4. 43. 3).
They are rescuers (1. 112. 5–8, 116. 3–24, 117. 3–18), most prompt to come
against misfortune (3. 58. 3). The hymnists list many legendary instances in
which they saved persons from diverse predicaments. They have brought, and
can yet bring, help in battle (1. 112. 14, 22; 116. 20 f.; 8. 8. 21, 35. 12). They
(^76) Hymn. Hom. 17. 5, 33. 18; cf. Alcman PMGF 2, Simon. eleg. 11. 30, Pind. Isth. 1. 17.
(^77) Pind. Pyth. 1. 66, Eur. Hel. 639, Cic. De nat. deorum 2. 6, Ov. Met. 8. 373; RV 1. 116. 6, 118.
9, 119. 10; 7. 71. 5; 10. 39. 10.
(^78) Alc. 34. 7–12. Cf. also Eur. El. 992 f., 1241 f., 1347–53, Hel. 1495–1505, 1664 f.; PMG 998 (=
Pind. fr. 140c), 1004; Theoc. 22. 6–22, etc.
(^79) Durante (1976), 164 n. 7. For a different etymology of Polydeuces’ name see R. Janko,
Glotta 65 (1987), 69–72.
188 4. Sky and Earth