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In Greek mythology, Ganymede (;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=English Dictionary: Definition of Ganymede )〕 ;〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=American English Dictionary: Definition of Ganymede )〕 Greek: , ''Ganymēdēs'') is a divine hero whose homeland was Troy. He was the son of Tros of Dardania, from whose name "Troy" was supposed to derive, and of Callirrhoe. His brothers were Ilus and Assaracus. In one version of the myth, he is abducted by Zeus, in the form of an eagle, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. Homer describes Ganymede as the most beautiful of mortals: The myth was a model for the Greek social custom of ''paiderastía'', the socially acceptable erotic relationship between a man and a youth. The Latin form of the name was Catamitus (and also "Ganymedes"), from which the English word "catamite" derives.〔According to ''AMHER'' (2000), ''catamite'', p. 291.〕 ==Myth== Ganymede was abducted by Zeus from Mount Ida, near Troy in Phrygia.〔Idaea was a mountain nymph, mate of the river god Scamander, and mother of King Teucer a primeval Trojan king. On the same sacred mountain Paris lived in similar exile as a shepherd on Mount Ida, for his disastrous future effect on Troy had been foretold at his birth, and Priam had him exposed on the sacred slopes.〕 Ganymede had been tending sheep, a rustic or humble pursuit characteristic of a hero's boyhood before his privileged status is revealed. Zeus either summoned an eagle or turned into an eagle himself to transport the youth to Mount Olympus. In the ''Iliad'', Zeus is said to have compensated Ganymede's father Tros by the gift of fine horses, "the same that carry the immortals",〔The Achaean Diomedes is keen to capture the horses of Aeneas because "they are of the stock that great Jove gave to Tros in payment for his son Ganymede, and are the finest that live and move under the sun": ''Iliad'' 5.265ff.〕 delivered by the messenger god Hermes. Tros was consoled that his son was now immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. Walter Burkert found a precedent for the Ganymede myth on an Akkadian seal that depicts the hero-king Etana riding heavenwards on an eagle.〔Walter Burkert, ''The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age'', 1992, p. 122; Burkert notes that there is no direct iconographic link.〕 In Olympus, Zeus granted him eternal youth and immortality and the office of cupbearer to the gods, supplanting Hebe. Edmund Veckenstedt associated Ganymede with the genesis of the intoxicating drink mead, which had a traditional origin in Phrygia.〔Edmund Veckenstedt, ''Ganymedes'', Libau, 1881.〕 All the gods were filled with joy to see the youth, except for Hera, Zeus's consort, who regarded Ganymede as a rival for her husband's affection. Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, which is associated with that of the Eagle (Aquila). A moon of Jupiter, the planet named for Zeus's Roman counterpart, was named Ganymede by the German astronomer Simon Marius.〔Marius/Schlör, ''Mundus Iovialis'', p. 78 f. (with misprint ''In'' for ''Io'')〕 Ganymede was afterwards also regarded as the genius of the fountains of the Nile, the life-giving and fertilizing river. Thus the divinity that distributed drink to the gods in heaven became the genius who presided over the due supply of water on earth. Plato accounts for the pederastic aspect of the myth by attributing its origin to Crete, where the social custom of ''paiderastía'' was supposed to have originated (see "Cretan pederasty").〔Plato, ''Laws'' 636D, as cited by Thomas Hubbard, ''Homosexuality in Greece and Rome,'' p252〕 Xenophon has Socrates deny that Ganymede was the "catamite" of Zeus, and say the god loved him non-sexually for his ''psychē'', "mind" or "soul," giving the etymology of his name as ''ganu-'', "taking pleasure," and ''mēd-'', "mind." Ganymede, he points out, was the only one of Zeus's lovers who was granted immortality.〔Xenophon, ''Symposium'' (8.29–30 ); Craig Williams, ''Roman Homosexuality'' (Oxford University Press, 1999, 2010), p. 153.〕 In poetry, Ganymede became a symbol for the beautiful young male who attracted homosexual desire and love. He is not always portrayed as acquiescent: in the ''Argonautica'' of Apollonius of Rhodes, Ganymede is furious at the god Eros for having cheated him at the game of chance played with knucklebones, and Aphrodite scolds her son for "cheating a beginner." The Augustan poet Virgil portrays the abduction with pathos: the boy's aged tutors try in vain to draw him back to Earth, and his hounds bay uselessly at the sky.〔Virgil, ''Aeneid'' V 256–7.〕 The loyal hounds left calling after their abducted master is a frequent motif in visual depictions, and is referenced also by Statius:
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