The pagan myth of Ganymede shall be discussed here. Although this
myth has its origin at least in ancient Greek culture, much of
this myth has been supressed, bowdlerized, or modified as a result
of a later Christian bias.
The ganymede pagan myth from ancient Greece was elaborated during the
Italian Renaissance, later picked up during the Baroque period. As this
myth and its associated art spread to Germany, France, England and Russia,
the image of ganymede as a pubescent adolecent boy used for sexual
purposes by an older adult man changed, and the young boy became somewhat
desexualized and became a child. This change was due to the influence of
Christianity and was reflected in this Christianized view of art. While
this Christianized view of art was being popularized, Christianity
continued to use castrati in church music.
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. Even now,
the word "uccello" (bird) is still used as
a synonym for a man's penis ("cock") in
English. 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.
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.
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