Okay, as I promised to @benophiefangirl, it's time to expose the hcs about the man who occupied my mind for a long time without any justification (because I don't really like him). He is one of my blorbos, an interest that came about investigating Helen's family at the beginning of this whole mythology mess in my life: POLYDEUCES (or POLLUX)
This is complete nonsense. If I had to write something or represent them artistically, I would have to do a lot more research and with this I don't intend for it to be canon, so to speak. I am deliberately ignoring many sources, LOL.
tw: sequelae of ear injuries caused by blows.
Let's start by clarifying that in my version, even though many sources describe the Dioscuri as identical, I can't get used to the idea that they are identical. I do make them both sons of Zeus (although I really like the story of brotherly love, for example, recounted in Apollodorus' library, where Polydeuces renounces his immortality so as not to be separated from his brother), I base this on the tradition shown in the Homeric hymns that both are sons of Zeus, raised as sons of Tyndareus (Tyndarides). So this is my hcs of him, with Castor I might do another post:
I know that sources tend to depict the Dioscuri as blond because of the gold star symbolism (they were associated with the Gemini constellation), but I lean more towards silver in all aspects.
The eyes are grey (glaukopis like Athena 😊)
Thick black eyebrows with a slight frown
In appearance for his youth (when the golden fleece expedition takes place), he most closely resembles this photo of Antinoös, although I would not make his lips so round, but more elongated, but the nose is the same and so is the jaw. When he is older, he is different, he does not have a child's face.
His hair is shiny jet black, long to the middle of his back, with bangs, and very curly, like springs. I imagine this every time I visualise him:
(in aspect like Antinoös, the curls like the phone wire and of the third photo and the fringe like in the last two photos)
Bust of Antinous from the Villa Adriana in Tivoli. The crown of the head, the bronze ivy crown and the torso are modern restorations....Torso of a Kouros, terracotta. Praisos (east Crete, town of Eteocretans in ancient Greek times), 6th century BC. Arhaeological Museum of Heraklion.....Kouros (statue of a young man) from Tenea, Greece, ca. 575–550 bc in the Antikensammlung, Munich.....Fresco of bull-leaping from Knossos
Olive skin, much darker in the sun when is tanned.
He is 2 m (6.65 ft) tall. I make all the children of the gods very tall (I absolutely include nymphs in that category). Although not all tall people are children of gods, all children of gods are tall LOL.
Since sources describe Polydeuces as a skilled pugilist (aka boxer), I made him with a boxer's body and one of the two ears is boxer's ears (Cauliflower ear)
By boxer's body, I mean the kind of body that isn't super super ripped and super super defined, but if it hits you, it leaves you dead. Not accurate to the representations of pugilists in Greek sculptures.
Cauliflower ear are common in many combat sports. Basically, it is necrosis of the cartilage that the body compensates for with fibrous tissue growth, leaving it looking like this:
See the photos and then also see the ear of the bronze statue that is called Boxer of the Quirinal, from Hellenistic period, late 4th–2nd century B.C., bronze with copper inlays. Museo Nazionale Romano, Italy.
Here is the body type I'm referring to:
Peter "Black Prince" Jackson, Willie Pep and Juan Francisco Estrada vs Jesse "Bam" Rodriguez.
Don't ask me why, but I have also “designed”, so to speak, a Dioscuri tunic, which is the same for both of them, but Polydeuces has a blue one and Castor has a red one.
This does not rule out the possibility of imagining them in classical period clothing; I simply love Mycenaean clothing, but classical clothing is just as beautiful. But since this takes place before the Trojan War, which is roughly in the 13th century BC, I like to make it look Mycenaean.
Based on the cloak or tunic he receives in Apollonius' Argonautica from a Lemnian woman and in the Orphic Argonautica, where he receives a flowery cloak as a prize in a competition, I hc he likes fashion and is a bit pompous, so in his afterlife as a god he is very akin to the textile side of Athena and, why not, of the Graces, and one of them made his outfit.
Mycenaean-style clothing: I like to imagine him as Peter Connolly suggests (with a tunic and kilt, but the kilt could be optional).
First Peter Connolly image from his book "The Legend of Odysseus" and the second image is the Crater of Mycenae, Late Bronze Age, 12th century BC, National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
The tunic is lapislázuli blue with slightly wide borders. The borders are woven with representations of the life of the Dioscuri and their personal tastes, such as horses, ships, horsemen, boxers, and representations of lightning and the sea (due to their association with St. Elmo's fire), other events such as their birth (whether from an egg or not), childhood and adolescence, the entire journey of the expedition for the Golden Fleece, the funeral games of Pelias, the invasion of Iolcus help Jason, the Calydonian Boar Hunt, the rescue of Helen, the conquest of Aphidna, the abduction of the Leucippides, their weddings, the birth of their children, the issue of Idas and Lyceus (or according to much later sources, they remain alive until Helen disappears from Sparta and they die trying to rescue her in some way...), their apotheosis, Hera gives them horses and the twins are named gods of competitions and sailors.
Note: it is possible that in between these events they may have participated in other activities, ahem, ahem... the GIGANTOMACHY.
The decorated edges are inspired by the edges found in depictions of priestesses' dresses in Minoan and Mycenaean frescoes, but the scenes I have described are more inspired by the art found on these daggers, with real scenes featuring people and animals:
Mycenaean bronze daggers, inlaid with gold and silver. ca. 1550-1500 BC, National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
LOL this is only on the bands, but on the tunic itself:
The fabric itself has a border like sea waves forming squares, and in the middle of each square is a circle split by a lightning bolt (the accurate to those depicted on ancient pottery lol). Some of these circles are marked in such a way that each twin has their own part of their constellation. He also wears a kind of short skirt with blue and white bands and fringes.
Zeus Hera and Iris, see the lighting bolt; from a Attic red-figure belly-amphora, Nikoxenos painter, ca. 500 BC, owned by the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, Germany.
And, of course, a flowery cloak like the one in the Orphic Argonautica LOL (nothing to do with it, but in Apollonius' Argonautica, many cloaks are mentioned. Another day, I'll talk about Jason's). But the thing here is that they would be marine angiosperm flowers (flowering plants). Yes, yes, yes, there are marine plants that are not algae and also have flowers!!!
The layer would be displayed as follows but with embroidered sea flowers:
Eric Shanower's comic Age of Bronze.
My favourite, and the one shown in my profile photo, is the Posidonia oceanica flower. But there are other marine plants: Cymodocea nodosa, Zostera noltii (= Nanozostera noltii), Zostera marina, Halophila decipiens (not Mediterranean).
Posidonia oceanica flower👆
Imagine patterns of this wooven by Athena or the Charites (Graces)😭😭🤩🤩🤩🤩
The son of Aeson himself proposed funeral games, and as prizes for the winner of the funeral games the gifts which Hypsipyle had given them on Lemnos. To Ancaeus he gave the prize for wrestling, a very large, golden two-fold drinking vessel [...] To Castor, the winner of the equestrian contest, he gave a golden decorative horse collar. To the victorious boxer Polydeuces, he gave a woolen cloth embroidered with flowers. Jason himself seized the pliant bow and arrows.
Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2. 30-34:
Hereupon the son of Tyndareus laid aside his mantle, closely-woven, delicately-wrought, which one of the Lemnian maidens had given him as a pledge of hospitality; and the king threw down his dark cloak of double fold with its clasps and the knotted crook of mountain olive which he carried
@benophiefangirl hope you enjoy all this🤗🤗🤗
