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 near Sonnenallee metro station and the Estrel hotel, opposite Griessmühle. Ronsard wrote a poem on "La Défloration de Lède", perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. Like many artists, he imagines the beak penetrating Leda's vagina. "Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet by William Butler Yeats first published in the "Dial" in 1923. Combining psychological realism with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape of Leda. It also alludes to the Trojan war, which will be provoked by the abduction of Helen, who will be begotten by Zeus on Leda (along with Castor and