Castor and Pollux

Castor and PolluxA print of Castor and Pollux the Dioscuri of Greek mythology, twin brothers and patrons of horsemen, boxers, sailors and travellers, and one of the central fraternal pairs of classical myth. The twins were born to Leda, queen of Sparta, after Zeus came to her in the form of a swan on the same night she lay with her mortal husband Tyndareus. Pollux (Polydeuces) was the immortal son of Zeus; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus; they were inseparable

From the Renaissance onward the fragment has been a generative form for European sculpture rather than a diminished version of an ideal whole

Walter Crane (1845–1915) was central to the Arts & Crafts movement and one of the defining illustrators of Victorian children's literature

and Crane's illustration

He worked almost always out of doors

so Hercules could not kill it with any weapon

The scene was painted by Botticelli

Proserpina's desperate arm raised against her abductor

making them particularly striking in large-print format

His attributes — winged sandals

Venus falls for Adonis

a wine cup or a thyrsus

the diazoma