Acts 28:11

"At the end of three months" These were probably the winter months when all sailing ceased. Pliny the Elder says that navigation begins to be resumed when the west winds start to blow on February 8th, while Vegetius says that the seas are closed till March 10th but this might only refer to voyages far from shore. "In actual practice, the state of the weather would determine the resumption of navigation in nay particular year" (Bruce p. 525). Thus, they remained on Malta during the months of November, December and January and now it is late February or early March in the year 61 A.D. "On an Alexandrian ship which had wintered on the island" This is. ship just like the one that sank three months earlier, it is another grain ship. "Which had the Twin Brothers for its figurehead" "It was the practice of the age to put an image of the person or thing after which the ship was named on the plow (and sometimes on the stern). Luke is telling us this Alexandrian ship had the name Dioscuri ("twin brothers"). According to mythology, Zeus and Leda, the wife of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, had twin sons, whose names were Castor (he was. horsetamer) and Pollux (he was the prince of boxers). After their death, so the fable goes. Because of their brotherly love, they were translated by Zeus into the heavens where they became the constellation we call Gemini. Neptune also wanted to honor them, and so gave them power over the winds and waves so that they might assist shipwrecked sailors. Castor and Pollux thus came to be known as the tutelary gods of sailors" (Reese p. 929). Such eyewitness detail simply reminds us that first century Christians were surrounded by pagan myth and idolatry even in the everyday common actions of life. They lived in the world just like we do.