Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Rape of Ganymede: Rembrant, 1635
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Rape of Ganymede (now a child): Rembrant, 1635
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An "erastes", an adult man, when enamoured
of a male youth, an "eromenos", he offered
as a gift to the eromenos, a bird. The bird was often a cockerel. It became
popular to use an Eagle to symbolize the idea of a ganymede.
Both Ganymedes and Cupids are pretty boys, and are often conflated together.
Note that due to Christian propaganda, the ganymede here has become a child.
Often artistic works, sculpture or visual art such as paintings show flight,
which is intended to symbolize the uplifting sensations of love. Thus scenes
of Eagles raping a ganymede or a cupid figure intend not violence, but the
pleasures of love.
Why an Eagle? An Eagle is a raptor, the name suggestive of rapture or to
ravish, to enrapture.
Classical mythology was emphasized by the Neoplatonist humanistic philosophy
of the Renaissance. Thus mythological gods and goddesses such as Jove, Apollo,
Ganymede, Venus, Baccus, Aphrodite, Zeus, Eros, Uranus, etc. were emphasized
in the art of the Renaissance. The Council of Trent (Councilium Tridentium),
1545-1563 was a response to the Protestant Reformation. As a result of the
Council of Trent, no references would be allowed to these gods and goddesses
in Neoplatonist art: no Jove, no Apollo, no Ganymede, etc. Thus references to
Ganymede rapidly disappeared in art, and when Classical Greek art was referenced,
meanings were radically changed. Thus homosexual meanings associated with Ganymede
were removed. The figure of Ganymede changed from a pubescent, attractive
effeminate figure, to a desexualized child. Thus in the painting above, the
Ganymede is now a child in pain, holding a bunch of cherries in his left hand
(cherries are a Christian symbol of childlike purity), urinating as children
will do. Astrology begins to be replaced by astronomy, as Galileo discovered
four moons of the planet Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) in 1610.
Ganymede has an entirely different meaning now.
It should be recalled that the Vatican censors objected to references to Classical
Olympian gods and goddesses in Louis de Camões' "Os Lusíadas", 1570.
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