Editing Castor and Pollux (section)

===Dokana===
Dokana were ancient symbolical representation of the Dioscuri. It consisted of two upright beams with others laid across them transversely. The Dioscuri were worshipped as gods of war, and their images accompanied the Spartan kings whenever they took the field against an enemy. But when in the year 504 B.C. the two kings, during their invasion of Attica, failed in their undertaking on account of their secret enmity towards each other, it was decreed at Sparta, that in future only one king should command the army, and in consequence should only be accompanied by one of the images of the Dioscuri. It is not improbable that these images, accompanying the kings into the field, were the ancient δόκανα, which were now disjointed, so that one-half of the symbol remained at Sparta, while the other was taken into the field by one of the kings.<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities">[https://archive.org/details/adictionarygree05smitgoog/page/418/mode/2up A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Dokana]</ref>

The name δόκανα seems that it comes from δοκός which meant beam, but [[Suda]] and the [[Etymologicum Magnum]] state that δόκανα was the name of the graves of the Dioscuri at Sparta, and derived from the verb δέχομαι.<ref name="A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities"/>