Gan´ymede

(3 syl. ), a beautiful Phrygian boy, who was carried up to Olympos on the back of an eagle, to become cup-bearer to the gods instead of Hebê. At the time of his capture he was playing a flute while tending his father’s sheep. There fell a flute when Ganymede went up— The flute that he was wont to play upon. Jean Ingelow, Honours , ii. (Jupiter compensated the boy’s father for the lo of his son, by a pair of horses.) Tennyson, speaking of a great reverse of fortune from the highest glory to the lowest shame, says: They mounted Ganymedes , To tumble Vulcans on the second morn. The Prince , iii. The Birds of Ganymede , eagles. Ganymede is represented as sitting on an eagle, or attended by that bird. To see upon her shores her foul and conies feed, And wantonly to hatch the birds of Ganymede. Drayton, Polyolbion , iv. (1612). ⁂ Ganymede is the constellation Aquarius .