god
Ganymede
The beautiful Trojan youth carried off to serve as cupbearer to the gods. Cicero names him, with Youth (Juventas), among the poets' divine wine-pourers.
Reading notes
- On the Nature of the Gods §1.112 either Youth or Ganymede to serve the cup
In poetry the gods' cupbearers were Hebe (Latin Juventas, 'Youth') and the abducted Trojan prince Ganymede. Cotta asks scornfully what such pleasures the bodiless Epicurean god could possibly enjoy.
- Tusculan Disputations §1.65 that Ganymede was carried off by the gods for his beauty
Ganymede, the beautiful Trojan prince snatched up by Zeus (here as eagle) to be cupbearer of the gods. Cicero rejects Homer's anthropomorphic tales as wrongly bringing human passions to the gods, with consequent injury to Laomedon, Ganymede's father.