On Eagles' Wings
Had a test in Film class today so I got out at 2:25 instead of 4:50. Lots of extra time. Which I spent telling Karen to make sure that she dumps Scott for real this time. And watching Reg play with the kickball she bought at Walmart so that she and Frost could go outside and play down at the lake front. Oh. Those two crazy kids.
Xavier also came by and I talked to him one on one for the first time. He told me about his favourite piece of Edwardian literature and some gay history stuff so I decided to Wikipedia The Picture of Dorian Gray. Which made me curious to see how big the page for "homosexuality" was. Which led to The Rape of Ganymede. And then lots of reading. I've decided to share a copy and paste of some of the content because I thought it was super neato.
Ganymede was kidnapped by Zeus from Mount Ida in Phrygia. Ganymede was there, passing the time of exile many heroes undergo in their youth, by tending a flock of sheep. Zeus saw him and fell in love with him instantly, either sending an eagle or assuming his own eagle nature to transport Ganymede to Mount Olympus.
In Olympus, Zeus made Ganymede his lover and cupbearer, supplanting Hebe. E. Veckenstedt (Ganymedes, Libau, 1881) endeavoured to prove that Ganymede is the genius of the intoxicating drink mead, whose original home was Phrygia.
As a Trojan, Ganymede is identified as part of the earliest, pre-Hellenic level of Aegean myth.
All the gods were filled with joy to see the youth, save Hera, Zeus' consort, who despised Ganymede. Her hate of him was applied by mythographers to account for her abandoning the Trojans, an otherwise inaccountable shift in the alliances of the Trojan War, for the Troad was part of the homeland of the Great Goddess, of whom Hera was the main Olympian representative.
Ganymede's father grieved for his son. Sympathetic, Zeus sent Hermes to Tros with a team of two immortal horses, so swift they could run over water (or with a golden vine). Hermes also assured Ganymede's father that the boy was now immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. The theme of the father recurs in many of the Greek coming-of-age myths of male love, suggesting that the pederastic relationships symbolized by these stories took place with the consent of the father.
Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, which is still associated with that of the Eagle (Aquila). However his name would also be given by modern astronomy to one of the moons of Jupiter, who is the Roman counterpart to Zeus. 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.
In poetry, Ganymede was a symbol for the ideally beautiful youth and also for pederastic love, sometimes contrasted with Helen of Troy in the role of symbol for the love of women.
I was supposed to start making my 100 logos for GD2 at 5. I'll get on that next. It would be easier if the left button of my mouse didn't break though... I hate using the touchpad...
Xavier also came by and I talked to him one on one for the first time. He told me about his favourite piece of Edwardian literature and some gay history stuff so I decided to Wikipedia The Picture of Dorian Gray. Which made me curious to see how big the page for "homosexuality" was. Which led to The Rape of Ganymede. And then lots of reading. I've decided to share a copy and paste of some of the content because I thought it was super neato.
Ganymede was kidnapped by Zeus from Mount Ida in Phrygia. Ganymede was there, passing the time of exile many heroes undergo in their youth, by tending a flock of sheep. Zeus saw him and fell in love with him instantly, either sending an eagle or assuming his own eagle nature to transport Ganymede to Mount Olympus.
In Olympus, Zeus made Ganymede his lover and cupbearer, supplanting Hebe. E. Veckenstedt (Ganymedes, Libau, 1881) endeavoured to prove that Ganymede is the genius of the intoxicating drink mead, whose original home was Phrygia.
As a Trojan, Ganymede is identified as part of the earliest, pre-Hellenic level of Aegean myth.
All the gods were filled with joy to see the youth, save Hera, Zeus' consort, who despised Ganymede. Her hate of him was applied by mythographers to account for her abandoning the Trojans, an otherwise inaccountable shift in the alliances of the Trojan War, for the Troad was part of the homeland of the Great Goddess, of whom Hera was the main Olympian representative.
Ganymede's father grieved for his son. Sympathetic, Zeus sent Hermes to Tros with a team of two immortal horses, so swift they could run over water (or with a golden vine). Hermes also assured Ganymede's father that the boy was now immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. The theme of the father recurs in many of the Greek coming-of-age myths of male love, suggesting that the pederastic relationships symbolized by these stories took place with the consent of the father.
Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, which is still associated with that of the Eagle (Aquila). However his name would also be given by modern astronomy to one of the moons of Jupiter, who is the Roman counterpart to Zeus. 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.
In poetry, Ganymede was a symbol for the ideally beautiful youth and also for pederastic love, sometimes contrasted with Helen of Troy in the role of symbol for the love of women.
I was supposed to start making my 100 logos for GD2 at 5. I'll get on that next. It would be easier if the left button of my mouse didn't break though... I hate using the touchpad...