049 Zeus likes the little boys

Oh those wacky Ancient Greeks, why else do you think a lot of the sexual fetishes use the Greek word -philia in the end? Now in those times what we call pedophilia was called pederasty which was a socially acknowledged relationship between an adult and a younger male usually in his teens. Scholars have debated the role or extent of sexual activity, which is likely to have varied according to local custom and individual inclination. The English word "pederasty" in present-day usage implies the abuse of minors, but Athenian law, for instance, does not recognize consent and age as factors in regulating sexual behavior. I think however classical historian Robin Osbourne  puts it best: 

"It is the historian's job to draw attention to the personal, social, political and indeed moral issues behind the literary and artistic representations of the Greek world. The historian's job is to present pederasty and all, to make sure that … we come face to face with the way the glory that was Greece was part of a world in which many of our own core values find themselves challenged rather than reinforced."

However because I'm not as mature as this historian I will still say that this story is:

Sadly I couldn't find a drawing of him in a toga, oh well.

So what is this story exactly? Well it is origin of this practice of having boys "hang out" with considerably older men. And what better character to represent the older man than the king of gods and known sexual deviant/rapist: Zeus. (Man I'm using a lot of colons today). The young man in question is a Trojan prince, because only the royalty are beautiful and worthy enough to get beloved by the gods (Actually since this is Zeus I'm talking about, that may not hold true.) Anyway let us continue on as I tell the tale of Zeus and Ganymede. (Now does that moon of the same name by Jupiter make sense?)

Getting a little excited Zeus? Because he presented you with a cock? (Look at the boy's arm closest to the staff)

One day while he was looking around the Earth and viewing it's machinations, Zeus caught sight of a young youth in the fields of Troy. His name was Ganymede, son of Tros (guess what city was named after him?) Immediately the lord of the skies was smitten in passionate lust for the beautiful youth. He went down from the heavens and stood before the boy. Ganymede was presented to be the god's youthful lover and cup bearer, in response, the boy presented a cock (Ha Ha) and gave it to Zeus. It's then that things begin to get freaky. (What they haven't already, you underestimate Greek Mythology)

Damn it Zeus, could you just fly your chariot to Olympus instead of letting your Transformation Fetish get the better of you?

So from Mount Ida, Zeus, either sending an eagle or turning himself to an eagle transported Ganymede to Mount Olympus. Once there he was accepted by all the gods and goddesses, except for Hera of course. The reason why? Because he was going to replace her daughter, Hebe, in the role of cup-bearer.

Tros grieved for his son. Sympathetic, Zeus had Hermes deliver a gift of two immortal horses, so swift they could run over water (or perhaps the gift was a golden vine). Hermes also assured Ganymede's father that the boy was now immortal and would be the cupbearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. (So simple the times were when you could kidnap someone and pay there father with horses)

It's the season of Aquarius 

Zeus later put Ganymede in the sky as the constellation Aquarius, which is still associated with that of the Eagle (Aquila). However his name would also be given by modern astronomy to one of the moons of Jupiter, the planet that was named after Zeus's Roman counterpart. Ganymede was afterwards also regarded as the genius of the fountains of the Nile, the life-giving and fertilizing river. Thus the divinity that distributed drink to the gods in heaven became the genius who presided over the due supply of water on earth.

It's a guy with two cocks (I do like alliteration)

The character of Ganymede would go on to symbolize the ideally beautiful youth and also for homosexual love, sometimes contrasted with Helen of Troy in the role of heterosexuality. (Knowing some characters in Greek Mythology, they would take both) One of the earliest references to Ganymede was in Homer's Iliad. In Crete, where, Greek writers asserted, the love of boys was reduced to a system, king Minos, the primitive law-giver, was called the ravisher of Ganymede. Thus the name which once denoted the good genius who bestowed the precious gift of water upon man was adopted to this use in vulgar Latin under the form catamitus: in Rome the passive object of homosexual desire was a catamite. The Latin word is a corruption of Greek ganymedes but retains no strong mythological connotation in Latin: when Ovid sketches the myth briefly (Metamorphoses x:152-161), "Ganymedes" retains his familiar Greek name. (Just thought I should end with this for some reason)