Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/244

Rh 280 GANYMEDES. 47, when, at the head of the Chauci, he passed up the Rhine, and ravaged the western bank of the river. His inroads were stopped by Cn. Domitius Corbulo [CoRBULo], into whose hands Gannascus was betrayed, and executed as a deserter. (Tac. Ann. xi. 18, 19.) [W. B. D.] GANNYS, distinctly mentioned by Dion Cas- sius in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of book sevent5'--eight as an active supporter of Ela- gabalus, being classed in the latter passage with Comazon, is believed to be the person whose name has dropped out of the text at the commencement of the sixth chapter in book seventy-nine, who is there represented as the preceptor and guardian of Elagabalus, as the individual who by his astuteness and energy accomplished the overthrow of Macri- nus, and as one of the first victims of the youthful tyrant after he was seated upon the throne. Sal- masius (ad Spartian. Hadrian. 16) endeavours to show that Gannys and Comazon are not real per- sonages, but epithets of contempt applied by the historian to the profligate Syrian, whose sensuality and riotous folly would cause him to be designated as Tdvov Kol Kcafidi^oura (i. e. glutton and reveller). This position has, however, been most successfully attacked by Reimarus (ad Dion. Cass. Ixxviii. 38), and is unquestionably quite untenable. [Co- mazon.] ' [W.R.] GANYME'DES (Tauv/j.-nd-ns). According to Homer and others, he was a son of Tros by Calir- rhoe, and a brother of Ilus and Assaracus ; being the most beautiful of all mortals, he was carried off by the gods that he might fill the cup of Zeus, and live among the eternal gods. (Hom. II. xx. 231, &c.; Find. 01. 1. 44, xi. in fin. ; Apollod. iii. 12. § 2.) The traditions about Ganymedes, however, differ greatly in their detail, for some call him a son of Laomedon (Cic. Tusc. i. 22; Eurip. Troad. 822), others a son of Ilus (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 34), and others, again, of Erichthonius or Assaracus. (Hygin. Fid). 224, 271.) The manner in which he was carried away from the earth is likewise differ- ently described ; for while Homer mentions the gods in general, later writers state that Zeus him- self carried him off, either in his natural shape, or in the form of an eagle, or that he sent his eagle to fetch Ganymedes into heaven. (Apollod. I. c. ; Virg. Aen. v. 253 ; Ov. Met. x. 255 ; Lucian, UiuL Deor. 4.) Other statements of later date seem to be no more than arbitrary interpretations foisted upon the genuine legend. Thus we are told that he was not carried off by any god, but either by Tantalus or Minos, that he was killed during the chase, and buried on the Mysian Olympus. (Steph. Byz. s. v. 'Apirayia ; Stnib. xiii. p. 587 ; Eustath. arf //ow. pp. 0ii6, 1205.) One tradition, which has a somewhat more genuine appearance, stated that he was carried off by Eos. (Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. iii. 115.) There is, further, no agreement as to the place where the event occurred. (Strab., Steph. Byz. //. cc, Horat. Carm. iii. 20, in fin.) The early legend simply states that Gany- medes was carried off that he might be the cup- bearer of Zeus, in which office he was conceived to have succeeded Hebe (comp. Diod. iv. 75 ; Virg. Aen. i. 28) : but later writers describe him as the beloved and favourite of Zeus, without allusion to his oflice. (Eurip. Orest. 1392 ; Plat. Phaedr. p. 25,5 ; Xenoph. Symp. viii. 30 ; Cic. Tusc. iv. 33.) Zeus compensated the father for his loss with the present of a pair of divine horses (Hom. Jl. v. GAOS. 2G6, Hymn, in Ven. 202, &c. ; Apollod. ii. 5. § 9 ; Pans. V. 24. § 1), and Hermes, who took the horses to Tros, at the same time comforted him by informing him that by the will of Zeus, Ganymedes had become immortal and exempt from old age. Other writers state that the compensation which Zeus gave to Tros consisted of a golden vine. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 1399 ; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1697.) The idea qf Ganymedes being the cup- bearer of Zeus [urniger) subsequently gave rise to his identification with the divinity who was believed to preside over the sources of the Nile (Philostr. Vit. Apoll. vi. 26; Vmd. Frag7n. 110. ed. Bfickh.), and of his being placed by as- tronomers among the stars under the name of Aquarius. (Eratosth. Cutast. 26 ; Virg. Geory. iii. 304 ; Hygin. Fab. 224 ; Poet. Astr. ii. 29.) Ganymedes was frequently represented in works of art as a beautiful youth with the Phrygian cap. He appears either as the companion of Zeus (Pans. V. 24. § 1), or in the act of being carried off by an eagle, or of giving food to an eagle from a patera. The Romans called Ganymedes by a corrupt form of his name Catamitus. (Plaut. Men. i. 2. 34.) Ganymedes was an appellation sometimes given to handsome slaves who officiated as cupbearers. (Petron. 91 ; Martial, Epigr. ix. 37 ; Juv. v. 59.) [L. S.] GANYME'DES {Tawfi'^-ns). 1. Governor of Aenos, in Thrace, while the town and district be- longed to Ptolemy Philopater, king of Egypt. (Polyb. V. 34.) Ganymedes betrayed Aenos to Philip II., king of Macedonia, b. c. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 16.) 2. A eunuch attached to the Egyptian court, and tutor of Arsinoe, youngest daughter of Pto- lemy Auletes. [Aksinoe, No. 6.] Towards the end of B. c. 48 Ganymedes accompanied Arsinoe in her flight from Alexandria to the Aegyptian camp ; and, after assassinating their leader, Achillas [Achillas], he succeeded to the command of the troops, whose favour he had secured by a liberal donative. Ganymedes, by his skilful dispositions and unremitting attacks, greatly distressed and endangered Caesar, whom he kept besieged in the upper city of Alexandria. By hydraulic wheels, he poured sea-water into the tanks and reservoirs of the Roman quarter ; cut off Caesar's communi- cation with his fleet, equipped two flotillas from the docks, the guardships, and the trading vessels, and twice encountered Caesar, once in the road- stead, and once in the inner harbour of Alexandria. But after her brother Ptolemy joined the insur- gents, the power of Arsinoe declined, and Gany- medes disappears from history. (Hirt. Bell. Aleor. 4—24 ; Dion Cass. xlii. 39—44 ; Lucan, x. 520 —531.) ^ [W. B. D.J GAOS (raws), the commander of the Persian fleet, in the great expedition sent by Artaxerxes against Evagoras in Cyprus, b. c. 386. In this situation he was subordinate to Tiribazus, whose daughter he had married, and who held the chief command by sea ; but he contributed essentially to the success of the war, and totally defeated the fleet of Evagoras off Citium. But the protracted siege of Salamis having given rise to dissensions among the generals, which led to the recal of Ti- ribazus, Gaos became apprehensive of being in- volved in his disgrace, and determined to revolt from the Persian king. Accordingly, after the tenuination of the Cyprian war, he kept together