Ganymedes
Frieze-Dennison Vergil
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Ganymedi Proper-name noun: masculine dative singular of Ganymedes
- I Ganymede, a son of Laomedon (acc. to the cyclic poets, whom Cicero follows; acc. to Homer, a son of Tros; acc. to Hyginus, of Assaracus or of Erichthonius), who, on account of his youthful beauty, was carried off by Jupiter's eagle from Mount Ida to heaven, and there made Jupiter's cup-bearer in place of Hebe; as a constellation, the Waterman (Aquarius), Cic. Tusc. 1, 26, 65; 4, 33, 71; id. N. D. 1, 40, 112; Hyg. Fab. 271; id. Astr. 2, 16; 29; Verg. A. 1, 28; Ov. M. 10, 155 al.—
- B Deriv. Gănymē-dēus, a, um, adj., of or belonging to Ganymede, Ganymedean: comae, Mart. 9, 17, 6; manu mixta pocula, id. 8, 39, 4: chorus, i.e. of beautiful servants, id. 7, 50, 4.—
- II A eunuch in the service of Arsinoë, an enemy of Caesar, Auct. B. Alex. 4, 1.
(Γανυμήδης). According to Homer and others, he was a son of Tros by Calirrhoe, and a brother of Ilus and Assaracus; being the most beautiful of all mortals, he was carried off by the gods that he might fill the cup of Zeus, and live among the eternal gods. (Hom. Il. 20.231, &c.; Pind. O. 1. 44, xi. in fin.; Apollod. 3.12.2.) The traditions about Ganymedes, however, differ greatly in their detail, for some call him a son of Laomedon (Cic. Tusc. 1.22; Eur. Tro. 822), others a son of Ilus (Tzetz. ad Lycph. 34), and others, again, of Erichthonius or Assaracus. (Hyg. Fab. 224, 271.) The manner in which he was carried away from the earth is likewise differently described; for while Homer mentions the gods in general, later writers state that Zeus himself carried him off, either in his natural shape, or in the form of an eagle, or that he sent his eagle to fetch Ganymedes into heaven. (Apollod. l.c. ; Verg. A. 5.253; Ov. Met. 10.255; Lucian, Dial. Deor. 4.) Other statements of later date seem to be no more than arbitrary interpretations foisted upon the genuine legend. Thus we are told that he was not carried off by any god, but either by Tantalus or Minos, that he was killed during the chase, and buried on the Mysian Olympus. (Steph. Byz. s. v. Ἀρπαλία; Strab. xiii. p.587 ; Eustath. ad Hom. pp. 986, 1205.) One tradition, which has a somewhat more genuine appearance, stated that he was carried off by Eos. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 3.115.) There is, further, no agreement as to the place where the event occurred. (Strab., Steph. Byz. ll. cc., Hor. Carm. 3.20, in fin.) The early legend simply states that Ganymedes was carried off that he might be the cupbearer of Zeus, in which office he was conceived to have succeeded Hebe (comp. Diod. 4.75; Verg. A. 1.28) : but later writers describe him as the beloved and favourite of Zeus, without allusion to his office. (Eur. Orest. 1392; Plat. Phaedr. p. 255; Xenoph. Symp. 8.30; Cic. Tusc. 4.33.) Zeus compensated the father for his loss with the present of a pair of divine horses (Hom. Il. 5.266, Hymn. in Ven. 202, &c.; Apollod. 2.5.9 ; Paus. 5.24.1 ), and Hermes, who took the horses to Tros, at the same time comforted him by informing him that by the will of Zeus, Ganymedes had become immortal and exempt from old age. Other writers state that the compensation which Zeus gave to Tros consisted of a golden vine. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1399; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1697.) The idea of Ganymedes being the cupbearer of Zeus (urniger) subsequently gave rise to his identification with the divinity who was believed to preside over the sources of the Nile (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. 6.26; Pind. Fragm. 110. ed. Böckh.), and of his being placed by astronomers among the stars under the name of Aquarius. (Eratosth. Catast. 26; Verg. G. 3.304; Hyg. Fab. 224; Poet. Astr. 2.29.) Ganymedes was frequently represented in works of art as a beautiful youth with the Phrygian cap. He appears either as the companion of Zeus (Paus. 5.24.1), or in the act of being carried off by an eagle, or of giving food to an eagle from a patera. The Romans called Ganymnedes by a corrupt form of his name Catamitus. (Plaut. Men. 1.2. 34.)
Ganymedes was an appellation sometimes given to handsome slaves who officiated as cupbearers. (Petron. 91; Martial, Epigr. 9.37; Juv. 5.59.) [L.S]
(Γανυμήδης).
1. Governor of Aenos, in Thrace, while the town and district belonged to Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt. (Plb. 5.34.) Ganymedes betrayed Aenos to Philip II., king of Macedonia, B. C. 200. (Liv. 31.16.)
2. A eunuch attached to the Egyptian court, and tutor of Arsinoe, youngest daughter of Ptolemy Auletes. [Arsinoe, No. 6.] Towards the end of B. C. 48 Ganymedes accompanied Arsinoe in her flight from Alexandria to the Aegyptian camp; and, after assassinating their leader, Achillas [Achillas], he succeeded to the command of the troops, whose favour he had secured by a liberal donative. Ganymedes, by his skilful dispositions and unremitting attacks, greatly distressed and endangered Caesar, whom he kept besieged in the upper city of Alexandria. By hydraulic wheels, he poured sea-water into the tanks and reservoirs of the Roman quarter; cut off Caesar's communication with his fleet, equipped two flotillas from the docks, the guardships, and the trading vessels, and twice encountered Caesar, once in the roadstead, and once in the inner harbour of Alexandria. But after her brother Ptolemy joined the insurgents, the power of Arsinoe declined, and Ganymedes disappears from history. (Hirt. Bell. Alex. 4-24; D. C. 42.39_44; Lucan, 10.520_531.) [W.B.D]
(Γανυμήδης). The son of Tros, king of Dardania, brother of Ilus and Assaracus. According to Homer he was carried away by the gods for his beauty, to be the cup-bearer of Zeus, and one of the immortals. In the later legend he is carried away by Zeus himself in the shape of an eagle, or by the eagle of Zeus. To make amends to his father, Zeus presented him with four immortal horses for his chariot. Ganymedes was afterwards regarded as the genius of the sources of the Nile, and the astronomers made him into the constellation Aquarius. The rape of Ganymede was represented in a group by the sculptor Leochares (q.v.).