![]() Here the Phrygian hunter is borne aloft on tawny wings, Gargara’s range sinks downwards as he rises, and Troy grows dim beneath him sadly stand his comrades vainly the hounds weary their throats with barking, pursue his shadow or bay at the clouds. The loyal hounds left calling after their abducted master is a frequent motif in visual depictions and is referenced by Statius: The Augustan poet Virgil portrays the abduction with pathos: the boy's aged tutors try in vain to draw him back to Earth, and his hounds bay uselessly at the sky. However, in the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes, Ganymede is furious at the god Eros for having cheated him at the game of chance played with knucklebones, and Aphrodite scolds her son for "cheating a beginner". He is not always portrayed as acquiescent. In poetry, Ganymede became a symbol for the beautiful young male who attracted homosexual desire and love. Xenophon portrays Socrates denying that Ganymede was the catamite of Zeus, instead asserting that the god loved him for his psychē, "mind" or "soul", giving the etymology of his name as ganu- "taking pleasure" and mēd- "mind." Xenophon's Socrates points out that Zeus did not grant any of his lovers immortality, but that he did grant immortality to Ganymede. Some authors have equated this version of the myth to Cretan pederasty practices, as recorded by Strabo and Ephoros, which involved abduction of a youth by an older lover for a period of two months before the youth was able to re-enter society as a man. Athenaeus recorded a version of the myth where Ganymede was abducted by the legendary King Minos to serve as his cup-bearer instead of Zeus. Plato accounts for the pederastic aspect of the myth by attributing its origin to Crete, where the social custom of paiderastía was supposed to have originated (see " Cretan pederasty"). This copy was painted in the 19th century Zeus kissing Ganymede – A copy of an original by Wilhelm Böttner. Tros was consoled that his son was now immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. In the Iliad, Zeus is said to have compensated Ganymede's father Tros with the gift of fine horses, "the same that carry the immortals", delivered by the messenger god Hermes. Ganymede pouring Zeus a libation (Attic red-figure calyx krater by the Eucharides Painter, c. In recognition of this myth, the largest moon of the planet Jupiter (named after Zeus's Roman counterpart) was named Ganymede by the German astronomer Simon Marius. In various stories, Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius (the "water-carrier" or "cup-carrier"), which is adjacent to Aquila (the Eagle). In various literature such as the Aeneid, Hera, Zeus's wife, regards Ganymede as a rival for her husband's affection. Edmund Veckenstedt associated Ganymede with the creation of mead, which had a traditional origin in Phrygia. Alternatively, the Iliad presented Hebe (and at one instance, Hephaestus) as the cup bearer of the gods with Ganymede acting as Zeus's personal cup bearer. On Olympus, Zeus granted Ganymede eternal youth and immortality as the official cup bearer to the gods, in place of Hebe, who was relieved of cup-bearing duties upon her marriage to Herakles. The bird is sometimes described as being under the command of Zeus and sometimes as being the god transformed. Ganymede had been tending sheep, a rustic or humble pursuit characteristic of a hero's boyhood before his privileged status is revealed, when an eagle transported the youth to Mount Olympus. Mythology Roman-era relief depicting the eagle of Zeus abducting Ganymede, his Phrygian cap denoting an eastern origin, and a river godĪccording to the myth, Ganymede was abducted by Zeus from Mount Ida near Troy in Phrygia. ![]() Comparative table of Ganymede's family Relation He is also known in stories as Dardanus, Erichthonius, or Assaracus. Some authors called him a son of Laomedon while others called him a son of Ilus. Other details about Ganymede differ as well. Depending on the author, he is the brother of either Ilus, Assaracus, Cleopatra, or Cleomestra. In Greek Mythology, Ganymede is the son of Tros of Dardania, from whose name "Troy" is supposedly derived, either by his wife Callirrhoe, daughter of the river god Scamander, or Acallaris, daughter of Eumedes. According to Plato's Laws, the Cretans were regularly accused of inventing the myth because they wanted to justify their unnatural pleasures. Socrates says that Zeus was in love with Ganymede, called "desire" in Plato's Phaedrus. The Latin form of the name was Catamitus (and also "Ganymedes"), from which the English word catamite is derived. The myth was a model for the Greek social custom of paiderastía, the romantic relationship between an adult male and an adolescent male.
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