| override_editor

“ GANYMEDE (Greek, Γανυμήδης, Latin, Ganymedes) affords a typical example of the manner in which myth-making continued as a living process through the whole of Greek history. In the thought of the primitive Indo-Germanic race, occupied with the simplest cares of living, a very frequent subject was naturally the rain; and their thought has been preserved to us in the form of mythology. As the rain descends to earth it is the chief blessing to men, while in the clouds it gladdens the dwellers there. ”

“ The same divinity that in heaven distributes the drink to the gods is on earth the genius that presides over the due supply of water. Hence among the Greeks Ganymede, as this genius is called, exists in heaven as the Aquarius of the zodiac (Hyginus, fab. 224) , while on earth he is, as Pindar (fr. 207 [110] ) tells us, the genius of the fountains of the Nile, which was par excellence the life-giving and fertilizing river of the earth.
But the form under which the Ganymede myth most commonly appears has its origin in Asia Minor and in Crete. ”

“ The guardian and giver of the divine drink occurs in many forms, sometimes as a bird, sometimes as a divine being. Just as the eagle brings nectar to Zeus in Crete, so Odin takes the form of an eagle to steal the meth from Guttung for the use of the gods. ”