Greek myth - Ganymede
Jun. 1st, 2020 10:18 pmI have thoughts that I need to get down.
This is less about Ganymede's relationship with Zeus (though it figures, of course), and more about his position and the reasons for him to have been given it. I notice a lot of vague assumption that the whole "cupbearer" thing is demeaning, not actually, like, a worthy position, and this is just... wrong?
You've firstly got the fact that Ganymede gets this position, not from some random nymph, but Zeus youngest daughter (it's a proper task for Hebe to have, as the youngest/an unmarried royal daughter!), which, I hope no one thinks that Hebe was being insulted and demeaned by performing this task! It's a position that requires loyalty and trust and is rather important.
Secondly, tying into the above, while the position is definitely mostly ceremonial and symbolic, since the (trusted!) function of a cupbearer is hardly something needed when it comes to immortal, divine beings, it's still important exactly because of the symbolic worth? Olympus mimics a human court, so maybe in some ways there's functions that are absolutely needed to be fulfilled. But even disregarding the symbol of it, in a human court at that time in history and for a long time forward, you give a position that deals with food/drink (especially drink, probably) to someone who's trusted - besides, the cupbearer of the king has a pretty unique access to the ruler.
Ganymede is a young, royal son; he gets a position that suits a youth of royal birth (since he is never going to grow older and marry).
On top of this... Like, look, as integral to the myth that the sexual/romantic elements have become and was from nearly the beginning, if you take Homer's apparently non-sexual version at face value, what you have is the gods taking the most beautiful mortal and installing him in a divine court. Why? Remember how the ancient Greeks considered physical beauty a marker of inner such? Moral goodness, etc? Ganymede's beauty isn't just a springboard off for patterning a divine version of that one particular ancient Greek custom (give the King of the Gods the best and prettiest young man, as is only suitable of course), but it's also proof of his worth of being among the gods, for his own sake.
I read some excerpts from some book while googling around a while ago, where the author pointed out that Troy in general and Ganymede's family/his father in particular, gets honour and glory from the fact that Ganymede is installed as Zeus' cupbearer, and, more to the point; the gods get honour and glory from this too, exactly because Ganymede is so pretty - inside and out.
As undeniably integral as the male/male relationship part of this myth is, it does have another side to it, which I think gives a lot more context and weight to the whole thing.
Version 2.0 below from Tumblr, though slightly different and not mentioning quite the same things:
( Under here )
This is less about Ganymede's relationship with Zeus (though it figures, of course), and more about his position and the reasons for him to have been given it. I notice a lot of vague assumption that the whole "cupbearer" thing is demeaning, not actually, like, a worthy position, and this is just... wrong?
You've firstly got the fact that Ganymede gets this position, not from some random nymph, but Zeus youngest daughter (it's a proper task for Hebe to have, as the youngest/an unmarried royal daughter!), which, I hope no one thinks that Hebe was being insulted and demeaned by performing this task! It's a position that requires loyalty and trust and is rather important.
Secondly, tying into the above, while the position is definitely mostly ceremonial and symbolic, since the (trusted!) function of a cupbearer is hardly something needed when it comes to immortal, divine beings, it's still important exactly because of the symbolic worth? Olympus mimics a human court, so maybe in some ways there's functions that are absolutely needed to be fulfilled. But even disregarding the symbol of it, in a human court at that time in history and for a long time forward, you give a position that deals with food/drink (especially drink, probably) to someone who's trusted - besides, the cupbearer of the king has a pretty unique access to the ruler.
Ganymede is a young, royal son; he gets a position that suits a youth of royal birth (since he is never going to grow older and marry).
On top of this... Like, look, as integral to the myth that the sexual/romantic elements have become and was from nearly the beginning, if you take Homer's apparently non-sexual version at face value, what you have is the gods taking the most beautiful mortal and installing him in a divine court. Why? Remember how the ancient Greeks considered physical beauty a marker of inner such? Moral goodness, etc? Ganymede's beauty isn't just a springboard off for patterning a divine version of that one particular ancient Greek custom (give the King of the Gods the best and prettiest young man, as is only suitable of course), but it's also proof of his worth of being among the gods, for his own sake.
I read some excerpts from some book while googling around a while ago, where the author pointed out that Troy in general and Ganymede's family/his father in particular, gets honour and glory from the fact that Ganymede is installed as Zeus' cupbearer, and, more to the point; the gods get honour and glory from this too, exactly because Ganymede is so pretty - inside and out.
As undeniably integral as the male/male relationship part of this myth is, it does have another side to it, which I think gives a lot more context and weight to the whole thing.
Version 2.0 below from Tumblr, though slightly different and not mentioning quite the same things:
( Under here )