Jun. 1st, 2020

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I 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 )
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Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 17. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"The presence of a cuckoo seated on the sceptre [of Hera] they explain by the story that when Zeus was in love with Hera in her maidenhood he changed himself into this bird, and she caught it to be her pet [in order to seduce her]."

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 36. 1 :
"A mountain [near Halike in Argos], called in old days Thornax; but they say that the name was changed because, according to legend, it was here that the transformation of Zeus into a cuckoo took place. Even to the present day there are sanctuaries on the tops of the mountains : on Mount Kokkux (Cuckoo) one of Zeus, on Pron one of Hera."


So, these are the two sources that exist for the cuckoo myth. Simple, to the point, and without much of any detail at all.

And yet there's a lot out there goes with "he immediately transformed back and raped her and she was shamed into marrying him" (despite the fact that she can and has left him when she didn't feel like putting up with him and he had to win her back). I know Zeus have done lots of questionable things, but a lot of the various sources can be translated differently and a lot of them don't specify forcible sex (some of them absolutely do, and undeniably so), and this thing? Is one of them.
Can you speculate that "he immediately transformed back and raped her" was what happened? Sure, but that's as unsupported as "he stayed a cuckoo for some time", for example. And like, yes, this is trickery, but note that Zeus has turned himself into a small bird. This is no predator, no majestic eagle. He turns himself into something small and presumably helpless and lets himself be taken care of - he's literally humbling himself for Hera.

But no, apparently all most people are interested in is poor, beleaguered Hera being forced into a marriage from the start and Suffering through all of it, instead of it being built on some genuine bridge-building and common affection and love, even if they also have huge problems as a couple.

December 2024

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