Διόσκουροι

From the study of Acts 28:11

Range of meaning

A compound of Dios ('of Zeus') and kouroi ('boys, young men, sons'). It is the standard name for Castor and Polydeuces (Latin Pollux), the twin brothers of Helen. In myth one was mortal and one immortal, and they shared immortality by taking turns. In Greek and Roman religion they were above all saviors at sea (sōtēres). Sailors called on them in storms, and the electrical glow on masts in bad weather (later called St Elmo's fire) was taken as a sign they were present. They were also linked with the constellation Gemini, and in some traditions they guarded oaths and punished liars and perjurers.

Against the English

KJV gives their personal names, 'Castor and Pollux'. BSB, WEB and NASB say 'the Twin Brothers'. ESV and NLT say 'the twin gods'. NIV combines the two: 'the twin gods Castor and Pollux'. YLT keeps the Greek word. Only renderings that use the word 'gods' (or a footnote) tell a modern reader these were deities that sailors prayed to. 'Twin Brothers' on its own sounds like a pair of human twins or a ship's nickname.

How it drifted

Most English readers no longer know classical religion. A name that every Mediterranean sailor in the first century recognised as a pair of rescuing gods now reads as decoration.

Used elsewhere in the period

Homeric Hymn 33 (to the Dioscuri) describes them coming on tawny wings to calm a storm and save a ship. Euripides, Helen 1495–1511, calls them protectors of sailors. Horace, Odes 1.3.2 ('the brothers of Helen, bright stars') and 1.12.25–32, says their star calms the sea. Diodorus Siculus 4.43 has them appear as flames over the Argonauts' ship. Their cult was strong in Egypt and at Alexandria, which fits an Alexandrian ship carrying their emblem.