GANYMEDE
Ganymedes (Γανυμήδης)
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THE STORY
In Aeneas' recital of the Trojan line, Tros has three peerless sons — Ilus, Assaracus, and godlike Ganymedes, born the fairest of mortal men — and the gods catch the boy up to be cupbearer to Zeus by reason of his beauty, that he might dwell with the immortals. Zeus gave Tros horses in recompense, the best of all beneath the dawn and the sun: the same stock Anchises secretly bred from Laomedon's mares and Diomedes covets on the battlefield. 1
Apollodorus keeps the rapture but names the instrument: for the sake of his beauty, Zeus caught Ganymede up on an eagle and appointed him cupbearer of the gods in heaven. The price paid for the boy outlives him in the saga — Heracles agrees to save Hesione from the sea-monster on condition of receiving the mares Zeus had given in compensation for the rape of Ganymede, and when Laomedon withholds the stipulated reward, Heracles sails away threatening war on Troy. 2
Ovid makes the abduction the god's own desire. In Orpheus' song of boys loved by gods, the king of the gods burns with love for Phrygian Ganymede, and since no bird but the eagle may carry his thunderbolts, Jove beats the air on counterfeit wings and sweeps the Trojan boy away. Even now, against Juno's will, Ganymede mixes the nectar and serves the cups of Jupiter. 3
Hyginus counts Ganymede among the most handsome of youths, beloved of Jove — though his father there is Erichthonius in one catalogue and Assaracus in another, not Tros as in Homer. His star-lore fixes the story in the sky: the Eagle that snatched the boy up for his lover was set among the constellations, flying above Aquarius — the water-pourer whom many say is Ganymede himself, made cupbearer of the gods and shown forever tilting his urn. 4
