Wayward Wanderer

MYTH

One function of myth is to encode the rites and customs of a culture in order to validate them and to transmit them across the generations. Therefore, if the Ganymede myth originated in Crete, we might expect to find a corresponding tradition in ancient Cretan practices. Indeed, Ephorus, an ancient Greek ethnographer, describes aCretan initiatory rite in which a man takes as lover a boy who is coming of age. To summarize it, the man chooses a boy of exceptional moral character, steals him away from his home in a ritual abduction, and takes him into the mountains, together with other companions, for a set period of time. During this period of introduction to adult ways, the two have sexual relations. At the completion of the rite, the man bestows rich gifts upon the boy and returns him to his family.