Castor And Pollux, Or The Twins

48.5 x 32 cm (19.1 x 12.6 inches).
Castor And Pollux, Or The Twins
This spectacular baroque engraving is from Bernard Picart's Le Temple Des Muses.
The engraving was made in 1733, is from the first edition and is an original antique. It has captions in French, English, German, and Dutch.
It is in very good condition for its age.
Castor and Pollux were twins in Greek mythology. Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers. Castor was the mortal son of the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with Castor to keep them together forever. Zeus transformed them into stars in the constellation Gemini. In this superb engraving by Bernard Picart, Castor and Pollux rear up on their horses, stars on their helmets and holding spears. They are about to ascend to become stars forever in the constellation of Gemini.