And after three months we departed
From Melita; here they stayed the three winter months, which were
unseasonable for navigation; but now the spring coming on, and
the weather agreeable, they left the island, and sailed
in a ship of Alexandria; (See Gill on Acts 27:6);
which had wintered in the isle;
perhaps all the said three months, for the same reason:
whose sign was Castor and Pollux;
or Dioscuri, that is, the sons of Jupiter; for Castor and Pollux
were his sons, by Leda: these are placed among the constellations
in the Zodiac, and go by the name of Gemini, or the twins; and
these were supposed to have a power of saving men in danger at
sea: wherefore such as were about to go to sea, first paid their
devoirs, and made vows to them; which they performed when they
returned, and were delivered from shipwreck; and when they were
in danger at sea, they used to pray unto them: the fiery
exhalations that sometimes appear at sea, they took for them; and
when only one appeared, it was looked on as a bad omen; but when
both, it was reckoned to portend a prosperous voyage; hence they
were considered as sea deities; and the Ethiopic version
accordingly renders it here "Dioscoura", and adds, "who is the
god of the mariners": now the images of these two brothers were
sometimes set at the head, or forepart of the ship, as they were
in this, from whence the ship took its name; as it is very common
for the names of ships to be the same with the pictures or images
that are placed at the head of them: whether the centurion chose
this ship because of its sign, imagining there might be more
safety in it, he having suffered shipwreck already; or whether
this was the only one in the island, that was going for Italy, is
not certain, nor very material: the Arabic version takes the word
rendered Castor and Pollux, to be the name of a man, who was the
owner of the ship; for it reads the words thus, "in a ship of
Alexandria", that belonged "to a man of Alexandria, called
Dioscorides".
