These names were titles held by Nergal, the god of plague, pestilence, and the king of the Underworld. They were identified as the minor gods Meshlamtaea and Lugalirra – which translates to “The One who has arisen from the Underworld” and the “Mighty King” (respectively). To the ancient Babylonians, the stars were known as the Great Twins. Since ancient times, the Gemini constellation and “The Twins” have been recognized by many cultures. Zeus granted his wish and placed the twins in the sky to remind us of all of brotherly love. When Pollux regained consciousness and realized Castor was joined, he begged Zeus to remove his immortality. Luckily, Zeus was watching and ended the ordeal with a thunderbolt. When Pollux avenged his brother, the other cousin knocked him unconscious with a rock and went in for the kill. Unfortunately, a cousin discovered Castor first shot him. Of course, Castor and Pollux followed, taking a shortcut to wait. When their ill-gotten booty was divided, the cousins took the loot and ran. Their final adventure took them to the lands of Arcadia with two cousins (ex-Argonauts) to raid cattle. As soon as he got a clear shot, Pollux drove his fist into Amycus’ temple, crushing his skull and ending the battle. The brothers were fit and ready, so Pollux was the first Argonaut to take on the challenge. It has since become part of the 88 modern constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union.Īn amphora dating between 540-530 BCE that shows Castor and Pollux. Gemini is bordered by the constellations of Lynx, Auriga, Taurus, Orion, Monoceros, Canis Minor, and Cancer. Its brightest stars are Castor and Pollux, which are easy to spot and represent the “Twins,” hence the nickname. One of the original 48 is Gemini, a constellation located on the ecliptic plane between Taurus (to the west) and Cancer (to the east). This treatise, known as the Almagest, would be used by medieval European and Islamic scholars for over a thousand years to come, effectively making it the astrological and astronomical canon until the early Modern Age. Ptolemy) compiled a list of the then-known 48 constellations, the sum of thousands of years’ worth of charting the heavens. In the 2nd century CE, Greek-Egyptian astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (aka. Welcome to another edition of Constellation Friday! Today, in honor of the late and great Tammy Plotner, we take a look at “the Twins” – the Gemini constellation.
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