The Black Grap Hook

Ganymede & Zeus, French, Neoclassical painted wall panel, circa 1790, detail, The Getty Museum

Ganymede was an extraordinarily beautiful young man when the great God, Zeus, gazed on him that first time. Ganymede, the beloved son of the king of Troy was herding sheep for his father upon the slopes of Mount Ida, for he was earnest and attentive. Zeus, swiftly engorged with lust for the youth, swept down from the heavens in the semblance of a splendid eagle and with a mighty whirr and scattering of sleek ebony feathers sweetly grasped Ganymede in bitter talons, piercing the youth, but gently, with their thick dulcette prick. Zeus, his prize now clutched to his downy breast, whispered sweet promises to Ganymede of bearing the wine of God in a gilded kylix, yet all the while in their dizzying ascent pressed ever closer into the youth's sweet lithe flesh until bright red droplets of his life's fountainhead stained the underbelly of the God and mingled with the viscous ambrosia of Zeus. Not e're after, but for indeed a goodly time, Ganymede bore the cup of his doting Lord, Zeus, until Hera with covetous womanly wyles caused Ganymede's banishment to the heaven's, requiring Zeus to sequester him in the constellation Aquarius for eternity. Retold by D.W.F.Larson