Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Ganymede was the most beautiful of mortal youths, a son of Tros (or, in variant genealogies, of Laomedon) of the Trojan royal line. Zeus desired him. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite the gods carry him off for his beauty to dwell among the immortals and pour wine for Zeus in Zeus’s house, a wonder to look upon; Tros grieves until Zeus sends word and gifts. The *Iliad* knows Ganymede as made immortal and as the reason Zeus gave Tros fine horses in recompense. Apollodorus states that Zeus, in the form of an eagle (or by an eagle he sent), seized Ganymede and set him as cupbearer among the gods, granting him immortality and eternal youth. Hebe, who had poured nectar, yields or shares the office in poetic fancy; Ganymede’s place on Olympus becomes proverbial for the beloved youth raised to divine service. The myth links early Trojan genealogy to Zeus’s household and explains precious divine horses in Tros’s stalls. Later art and Roman verse fix the eagle as the visual sign of the rape; the Greek narrative core is beauty, abduction to Olympus, cupbearing, and a father’s consolation with immortal horses.