Ganymede

Ganymede was a Trojan prince whom the gods carried off to Olympus because of his beauty, to serve as Zeus’ cupbearer. Homer calls him the most beautiful of mortal men and gives his father as Tros, the king after whom the Trojans are named. Later writers add an eagle and make him the water-bearer of the constellation Aquarius.

Family

In the Iliad Aeneas traces the royal line of Troy through Dardanus and Erichthonius to Tros, and says that Tros had three blameless sons, Ilus, Assaracus and godlike Ganymede (Homer, Iliad 20.230–232). Apollodorus gives the same three sons and a daughter, Cleopatra, and names their mother as Callirrhoe, daughter of the river Scamander (Library 3.12.2); Diodorus lists the same three sons of Tros (Diodorus 4.75.3). Ganymede was thus the brother of Ilus, the founder of Ilium, and of Assaracus, the ancestor of Anchises and Aeneas, and the uncle of Laomedon, the father of Priam (Diodorus 4.75.4). Euripides follows a different genealogy and calls Ganymede the son of Laomedon (Trojan Women 821–823).

Zeus and Ganymede

The oldest account is brief. Ganymede “became the most beautiful of mortal men”, and the gods snatched him up to pour wine for Zeus, so that he might live among the immortals (Iliad 20.232–235). The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite repeats it: wise Zeus seized golden-haired Ganymede for his beauty, and he now pours nectar from a golden bowl in the house of Zeus, honoured by all the immortals (Hymn to Aphrodite 202–206). Neither passage mentions an eagle or calls him a lover of Zeus.

The eagle comes later. Apollodorus says that Zeus caught Ganymede up on an eagle and made him cupbearer to the gods in heaven (Library 3.12.2). In Virgil, a cloak given as a prize at the funeral games of Anchises shows the royal boy hunting stags on Mount Ida, and the eagle, the armour-bearer of Jupiter, snatching him up in its talons while his old guardians stretch their hands to the sky in vain (Aeneid 5.250–257). Ovid has Jupiter himself take the shape of an eagle, the only bird worthy of bearing his thunderbolts, and says that Ganymede still mixes the cups and serves nectar, to Juno’s displeasure (Metamorphoses 10.155–161). In Hyginus, the constellation Aquila is the eagle said to have carried off Ganymede and handed him to Jupiter, who loved him (Astronomica 2.16). Strabo notes that writers disagreed about the place: some said he was taken from Harpagia near Cyzicus, others from the Dardanian promontory near Dardanus (Geography 13.1.11).

Ancient writers differ on how to describe the relationship. Euripides calls Ganymede the beloved delight of Zeus’ bed as he pours wine at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis (Iphigenia in Aulis 1049–1053), and Ovid speaks of Jupiter burning with love for him. In Plato’s Laws the Athenian says that the Cretans invented the story of Ganymede, so that they might claim Zeus as an example for their own customs (Laws 1.636c–d).

Gifts to his father

Tros grieved for his son, not knowing where the storm wind had carried him. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Zeus pitied him and gave him swift horses, the kind that carry the immortals, as a compensation; Hermes brought him the message that his son would be immortal and ageless like the gods, and Tros ceased to mourn (Hymn to Aphrodite 207–217). Homer too says that Zeus gave Tros horses as the price for his son, the best of all horses under the dawn and the sun (Iliad 5.265–267). Anchises later bred mares from this stock in secret, without Laomedon’s knowledge, and gave two of the foals to Aeneas (Iliad 5.268–272). Pausanias saw at Olympia an offering with images of Zeus and Ganymede, and he links it to the same Homeric passages (Pausanias 5.24.5).

Homer does not describe Hera’s feelings. In Virgil she carries the wrong done to her by the “honours of ravished Ganymede” among the causes of her anger against Troy (Aeneid 1.28).

The Aquarius constellation

Hyginus writes that very many authors say that Aquarius is Ganymede, whom Jupiter took from his parents because of his beauty and made the servant of the gods; the constellation is shown pouring water from a jar (Astronomica 2.29). He also records another view: Hegesianax says that Aquarius is Deucalion (Astronomica 2.29). The earliest accounts do not turn him into a constellation: in Homer he simply lives on among the gods as cupbearer (Iliad 20.234–235), and the link with the stars comes from the later astronomical writers.

In the Fall of Troy by Quintus of Smyrna, Ganymede watches from heaven as the Greeks break into Troy and begs Zeus, as his father, to protect his homeland, and Zeus covers the city in mist (Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 8).

Ganymede Sources

Homer, Iliad 5.265–272, 20.230–235; Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 202–217; Apollodorus, Library 3.12.2; Diodorus 4.75.3–4; Virgil, Aeneid 1.28, 5.250–257; Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.155–161; Hyginus, Astronomica 2.16, 2.29; Strabo 13.1.11; Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1049–1053, Trojan Women 821–823; Plato, Laws 1.636c–d; Pausanias 5.24.5; Quintus of Smyrna, Fall of Troy 8.

See Also: Zeus, Hera, Tros, Troy, Hebe, Aquarius, Ilus, Assaracus