Why on earth is there a mosaic of a naked woman with a swan on a beaver website? Why indeed! Allow me to explain myself. Perhaps in your many visits to this dark beaver forest you have gleaned that CASTOR is the latin name for beaver. You may have thought the name familiar, and something to do with mythology. It is also familiar from the old references of Castor oil – (made from the interestingly toxic castor bean and nothing whatsoever to do with beavers except it wistfully got its name when all the real castoreum supply dried up – as in no more beavers because we killed them all.) But Castor was also a famous son or Zeus.
So Castor = Beaver. Are you with me?
Okay, a diversion. One thing I have always enjoyed about the Greek Gods is that they were filled with flaws and human weaknesses. They were greedy, wasteful, petulant, vain, and lustful. (Oh how lustful!) Which kind of makes sense to me since sometimes the inexplicable things that happen on earth are easier to understand if you believe that “God” makes mistakes. Say children dying or endless wars or the success of the cruel, these kinds of things all make more sense if you believe that the Gods controlling our fates can be vindictive, impulsive or vain, instead of an all-knowing benevolent deity who always does things for a good reason.
So Zeus was the CEO of all the God’s, and like many CEOs he was constantly on the prowl and looking for new skirt to conquer. Now he happened to have a very very jealous wife (think “Dynasty” with Beatrix Kiddo overtones), who had a bad habit of working out the insecurity raised by his infidelity by destroying the babe in question. So when a woman saw Zeus was interested in her she was naturally terrified for her safety and hightailed it away. Sure he was a handsome bit of godly stuffing, but who needs her hair burned off or her eyeballs plucked out for a roll in the hay? There are plenty of fish in the sea.
Zeus was frustrated by these fears; though he cared little about the skirt’s safety ‘afterwards’, he wished very much that Hera would accept his offer of an “Open Marriage” and let him do whatever he wanted without scaring his playthings. Since that seemed to have an ice cube’s chance in Hades of happening, he developed an alternate strategy. He transformed himself into another creature, and came to the woman in disguise.
This time as a swan.
Zeus appeared as a swan to Leda and either seduced or raped her, depending on the telling (I suppose some men find it so difficult to tell the difference). The subject created an opportunity for some of the raciest art in history, drawing the tumescent brush of such greats as Michael Angelo and Leonardo Di Vinci and even raising eyebrows today! We know Leda was endowed with children from this visit, including the famous Helen of Troy and these children were hatched from eggs. In some tellings she also was impregnated by her husband that night and those children were born mortal. Regardless of which tale you’re reading, two children that hatched from the subsequent egg were the twins Polydeuces (Pollux) and CASTOR.
Castor = meaning “beaver”, or “he who excels”.
Castor and Pollux were fast friends, and heroic adventurers.Castor was a trainer and tamer of horses and Pollux an excellent boxer. They fought bravely in battle and their likeness is usually shown on horseback with a white helmet – (said to be a piece of eggshell leftover from their unusual birth!) They traveled on the argo with Jason and his Golden Fleece. At one point the waves threatened to sink the ship and fellow passenger Orpheus played his harp to soothe them. The storm ended and stars appeared on the heads of the twins, thereby making them the protectors of sailing and seamen for evermore. This morning I read that they were also considered visible in “lambent flames” (which I had to look up and you’ll be happy to know means ‘flickering’).
So when Castor died in combat, Pollux was bereft and went to his father for comfort. Zeus allowed both men to share incomplete mortality, living partly in Hades and partly in Olympus, and immortalized as the brightest stars in the constellation Gemini.
Which brings us to tonight’s sky and the point of this very strange post:
In the meantime, tonight, you can also use the waxing crescent moon to find a famous pair of stars this Friday night, April 27. They are Castor and Pollux, the beacon lights of the constellation Gemini the Twins. They’re sometimes called ‘twin’ stars even though the kinship of these stars is more imaginary than real. Why twins then? These shimmering luminaries are named in honor of mythological twin brothers, Castor and Pollux. Looking for Gemini? Here’s your constellation Pollux is the brighter of two Twin stars. Castor is six stars in one!
Here’s another thing I never knew: Castor is actually six stars – not one ! Three sets of binary stars that take turns showing their brilliance. A Colony of stars, if you will. So look towards the heavens tonight, and find our namesake and think about “he who excels”. Oh, and here’s another coincidence. Guess what loves to nest on top of Beaver Lodges?
Just sayin’
