Castor and Pollux horse breaker and the boxer / Polydeuces, my brothers" ..." – Helen, "Iliad" 3.253–255), but in the "Odyssey" they are treated as alive even though "the corn-bearing earth holds them". The author describes them as "having honour equal to gods", living on alternate days because of the intervention of Zeus. In both the "Odyssey" and in Hesiod, they are described as the sons of Tyndareus and Leda. In Pindar, Pollux is the son of Zeus while Castor is the son of the mortal Tyndareus. The theme of ambiguous parentage is not unique to Castor and Pollux; similar characterisations appear in
Leda and the Swan about the disconnection of women in society and challenges societal expectations of childbirth. Several references to the myth are presented in novels by Angela Carter, including "Nights at the Circus" and "The Magic Toyshop". In the latter novel, the myth is brought to life in the form of a performance in which a frightened young girl is forced to act as Leda in accompaniment with a large mechanical swan. There is a reference to Leda and the Swan in Dorothea Benton Frank's book "All Summer Long" published in 2016. A version of the Leda and the Swan story is the