The Abduction of Ganymede Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)

Description of Peter Rubens’ painting The Abduction of Ganymede

There is a beautiful story in Roman or ancient Greek mythology about a very handsome, one might even say divinely handsome young man named Ganymede. His beauty was so captivating that the nymphs and even the goddesses of Olympus instantly fell in love with him. Eventually, Zeus himself fell in love with him, just like that. And he simply had no other idea than to kidnap Ganymede, so that no earthly woman or nymph or goddess would have him. Zeus transformed himself into a huge eagle, which he did, by the way, often, and carried Ganymede to Olympus on his wings.

Soon Ganymede was granted immortality, and he became the cupbearer on Olympus. Although no one in Olympus drank wine except Bacchus. The gods mostly drank nectar on Olympus, but nevertheless Ganymede had this very position. He stayed on Olympus.

And it was this abduction that Rubens depicted. The main one on this canvas is the eagle. It is so realistically drawn that it seems to come to life and fly away, along with a beautiful young man. And by the way, Rubens on this canvas, this myth told in full, showing all the stages of the story. And he even indicated what Ganymede would be doing on Olympus. Notice what the girl is holding out to Ganymede... It’s a bowl, a large gilded wine bowl.

The whole action is already in heaven, already on Olympus, already at the feast, because in the distance you can see the gods at the table, where the angels are serving them. That is, Ganymede, is already performing his duties and distributing bowls of wine. And by the way, Zeus never returned the young man, he kept him... As one source of mythology says, "Ganymede shared a bed with Zeus." It is difficult to say whether this is true or not, but the fact that the young man was constantly around is confirmed by other sources. Of course, this topic is very relevant nowadays, but in Rubens’ time it was under some serious ecclesiastical ban. It was blatantly sacrilegious, but as life shows, many often broke the ban. Forbidden fruit is always sweet, but certainly not to this extent.