Zeus
Jiahao Chen
In Antonio da Correggio’s Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle. The painting was painted during 1531-1532. And it was an oil on canvas painting. The painting describes the Greek god Zeus was depicted as an Eagle, that is taking a boy up in the sky. That boy is Ganymede, and he is Trojan Prince as in Greek mythology, Ganymede was described as an extremely handsome young man (Morford, Mark, et al. 147). There is a dog looking up at the eagle and Ganymede at the ground and ready to jump up to save Ganymede. Correggio depicted Ganymede smiling when he was snatched by the eagle. And Ganymede’s hand is holding the eagle’s wings to prevent himself from falling off. Zeus fall in love with Ganymede and took him up to Olympus to become his cupbearer. In Olympus, Ganymede will be immortal and never age (Morford, Mark, et al. 147). This article will mainly talk about the diverse character of Zeus. And sexuality, relationships, and marriages in Greek culture. Lastly, briefly mentioned the conflicted fact of the power of goddesses depicted in the myth and Greek women had nearly zero power in the reality.
According to Greek mythology, Zeus is the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Zeus and his sibling battled Cronus after Cronus vomited up the omphalos stone. Zeus and his siblings won the ultimate battle (La Fond, “Clash of the Titans,” slide 2.3). Therefore, Zeus and his siblings govern the world in different sections. For example, Poseidon governs the sea, Hades controls the underworld, and Zeus controls the heaven, the upper world. Since heaven is above every section of the Earth, that makes Zeus the king of gods. Ganymede was the son of Tros and the Trojan prince (Morford, Mark, et al. 147). The city of Troy was famous for producing people with great beauty. One day when Ganymede was tending the flock of sheep at Mount Ida, Zeus turned himself into an eagle and abducted Ganymede. Zeus took him to Olympus and became immortal. Zeus later compensated Ganymede’s father by sending Hermes to deliver him horses (Hoakley, et al). This showed a distinct side of Zeus from the normal peremptory picture of him. Compare this particular painting to other paintings about Zeus abducting Ganymede, for example by Gustave Moreau. Correggio depicted the scene in a less sexual way. There was no resistance from Ganymede when Zeus was abducting him. Instead, Ganymede was smiling, and he was holding the eagle’s wing (Zeus). It represents that Correggio was trying to show Ganaymede did not think he was being taken away, at least from that moment. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn’s Abduction of Ganymede was the opposite. In that painting, Ganymede is fighting, he was crying and resisting.
Zeus is a diverse character in Greek mythology. Zeus has been a ruthless figure in Greek mythology. He chained up Prometheus and let eagles eat his organs. Because Prometheus is a god and he is immortal, his organs would grow back after the eagles ate his organs every day as an infinite punishment for Prometheus bringing fire to mankind. But Zeus also compensates Ganymede’s dad by sending Hermes to give him horses. Despite the fact, Zeus took Ganymede from his father just because he was in love with him. But Zeus did not just take his son and did nothing, he at least made some kind of compensation. Zeus has been considered an almighty god, but in fact, his power is not always absolute. According to Morford, Zeus’s authority is subject to the feminine fates, and the goddess of love, Aphrodite. She is the greatest deity of all, and she can bend humans and gods (including Zeus). Zeus was not only depicted as a husband and father but also as a lover (Morford, Mark, et al. 147). And the concept of love happens outside of Zeus and his wife Hera. This is a drastic difference between the Greek view and the modern view. Because under the modern view, husband, father, and lover (especially when this love is with someone other than his wife) are less likely used to describe the same person. All these factors attribute to the diverse character of Zeus.
Zeus is a lustful god, according to Morford, “he mates with countless goddesses and mortal woman…”(Morford, Mark, et al. 139). However, according to Hays, ancient Greek marriage was usually arranged by their parents. And it was normal for the bride and groom never met each other before their wedding day (Hays). Therefore, Greeks couldn’t choose their partners, their marriages were usually arranged by their parents. But their most powerful god, Zeus, was able to mate with any woman. No matter whether they were goddesses or mortal women. That was one way Greek showed that the gods were different than mortals. That Zeus is beyond every mortal convention, he could do whatever he wanted to do. However, according to Ollie Well, for many upper-class men, marriages were not for the purpose of love, they were usually for reproduction (Wells). And love usually took place with other men or women for the Greeks. And some of the relationships were pederastic relationships (homosexuality between a man and a boy). That consists of the theme of Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle, where Zeus was in love with a boy. While upper-class men were doing things that modern people might find unconventional, Athens women “were expected to stay indoors to avoid any accusations of infidelity” (Wells). And Greek women had no political rights. Their father decides which men they should marry, and after they are married, their husbands told them what to do. Men were in charge of women in every stage of their lives. The unequal expectation for men and women in marriage all prove male chauvinism in Greek society. However, in Greek mythology. Zeus’s power was “restrained” by Aphrodite, a goddess. And only three goddesses were not subjected to Aphrodite’s amorous will (Morford, Mark, et al. 140). In the myths, goddesses seem to have a lot of power, but Greek women have much less power in reality. There was a severe unequal balance of power between males and females in ancient Greece.
Yanbo Fu
The name of this art piece is Leda and the Swan by Peter Paul Rubens in 1600 (Artincontext). There are two versions of this subject, the first one was finished in 1601 and the second one was finished in 1602. In this painting, Zeus is in the form of a swan and seduced and had sex with Leda, after this sex, Leda gave birth to two kids, Helen and Polydeuces, which directly caused the outbreak of The Trojan War. However, the last part of the story is extremely different from one to the other. In some stories, Zeus had sex with Leda on the exactly same night he slept with his husband Tyndareus. Other versions of the story depicted the kids, who were born in form of eggs and are hatched by Leda. The swan, the incarnation of Zeus, represents war and power in this painting because the consequence of this intercourse is the Trojan War and Leda had no power or right to reject Zeus. Based on the research and Yeast’s system belief in Greek mythology, the swan is the annunciation of Grecian civilization and the cause of the Trojan War (The Meaning of the Symbols of Swans). With this being said, I conclude that even though this is a very famous art piece, it showed a serious rape and sexual assault on Leda. In this painting, Leda represents the female’s subservience and Zeus represents the male dominance in ancient Greece and Greek mythology.
According to World History Encyclopedia, women in the ancient Greek world had few rights in comparison to male citizens. Unable to vote, own land, or inherit, a woman's place was in the home and her purpose in life was the rearing of children (Cartwright), this idea is perfectly represented in the art piece Leda and Swan. Her daughter, Helen, is also depicted as a perfect woman, who is the most beautiful, the most sexually attractive, the most feminine, and has the most of what makes a woman womanly (La Fond, “Destination Troy”, slide 7.4). All of these are representing that males have more control over females, even though Helen was the perfect and the best woman, she still needs to go to Troy with the Trojan Prince Paris, this perfectness can not protect her from being considered a woman, and treated like a subject to other men. In this painting, no matter which version of the story is more popularly accepted, the core of the story is not changed, that is Leda is not loyal to her husband, king Tyndareus. This is exactly aligned with ancient Greek belief, the famous Greek philosopher Plato and his famous Plato’s love provided a perfect example of this thought. Plato wrote that the best relationship would be an erotically charged relationship between men (Jacobs, Andrew T.), Zeus is the incarnation of male dominance in this painting. Zeus can seduce Leda and nobody criticizes Zeus for doing such action, while Leda was criticized for not being loyal to her husband and giving birth to bastards, and causing the Trojan War directly. This intercourse was not entirely Leda’s fault, but people are only criticizing Leda. On April 2012, the modem exhibit of Leda and the Swan was removed by the police from an art gallery in London, England because this painting is considered ‘violent pornography’ (Furness).
It’s the perfect expression of the complexity of the Greek Myth relationship in this art piece, seems like there are only Zeus and Leda were portrayed in this painting, but the background of the painting and the consequence of the painting needs to be detailly considered. Although the painting was removed by the police, there is no doubt that the painting Leda and the Swan has a significant influence on art history and provided an example for people to understand Greek mythology.
Work Cited
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