Asvins of the _Veda_, the bringers of light in the morning sky,
with whom they have been identified, the Dioscuri are represented as
youthful horsemen, naked or wearing only a light chlamys. Their
characteristic attribute is a pointed egg-shaped cap, surmounted by a
star.

Though their worship was perhaps most carefully observed among people of
Dorian origin, Castor and Pollux were held in no small veneration at
Rome. It was the popular belief in that city from an early period that
the battle of Lake Regillus had been decided by their interposition
(Dion. Halic. vi. 13). They had fought, it was said, armed and mounted,
at the head of the legions of the commonwealth, and had afterwards
carried the news of the victory with incredible speed to the city. The
well in the Forum at which they alighted was pointed out, and near it
rose their ancient temple, in which the senate often held its sittings.
On the 15th of July, the supposed anniversary of the battle, a great
festival with sumptuous sacrifices was celebrated in their honour, and a
solemn parade of the Roman knights (_transvectio equitum_), who looked
upon the Dioscuri as their patrons, took place. (Apollodorus iii. 10. 7,
11. 2; Homer, _Odyssey_, xi. 299; Hyginus, _Fab._ 77. 155; Pindar,
_Nem._ x. 60, 80 and schol.; Diod. Sic. iv. 43; Plutarch, _Theseus_, 32,
33; Theocritus, _Idyll_, xxii.)

See Maurice Albert, _Le Culte de Castor et Pollux en Italie_ (1883),
with special descriptions and representations in art, on coins, vases
and statues; S. Eitrem, "Die gottlichen Zwillinge bei den Griechen"
(treating of the divine beings mentioned in pairs in Greek mythology),
in _Videnskabs-Selskab Skrifter_ (Christiania, 1902); W.R. Paton, _De
Cultu Dioscurorum apud Graecos_ (Bonn, 1894); L. Myriantheus, _Acvins
oder arische Dioskuren_ (Munich, 1876); J.R. Harris, _The Dioscuri in
the Christian Legends_ (1903), and _The Cult of the Heavenly Twins_
(1906); W. Helbig, "Die Castores als Schutzgotter des romischen
Equitatus," in _Hermes_, xl. (1905); C. Jaisle, _Die Dioskuren als
Retter zur See bei Griechen und Romern, und ihr Fortleben in
christlichen Legenden_ (Tubingen, 1907); L. Preller, _Griechische und
romische Mythologie_; articles by A. Furtwangler in Roscher's _Lexikon
der Mythologie_, and by M. Albert in Daremberg and Saglio's
_Dictionnaire des antiquites._

CASTOR OIL, the fixed oil obtained from the seeds of the castor oil
plant or