The town of Cori, the ancient Cora, located on the Lepini mountains southeast of Rome, contains the ruins of the Temple of Hercules, as well as the more fragmentary Temple of the Dioscuri. Castor and Pollux, the Dioscuri, were two semi-divine half brothers (sons of Leda, Zeus, and Tyndareus, the king of Sparta), with Pollux being immortal and Castor becoming immortal after they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. Their cult was popular in the Roman world, and the temple in Cori would have dominated the city’s skyline from an early…
