Many of the Greek gods were bisexual. Did Zeus have any male lovers?
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12[citation needed] for "Many of the Gods were bisexual". I did not know this.– El'endia StarmanCommented Apr 28, 2015 at 16:30
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Rolled back the edit, because the link answers the question. If you have a link, it should be in an answer or comment, not an edit.– cmw ♦Commented Jun 18, 2023 at 0:08
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2 Answers
While the vast majority of Zeus's lovers were female, one of Zeus's lovers was the mortal Ganymede.
Ganymede is noted as the only one of Zeus's lovers to whom he granted immortality.
It seems there is only one: Ganymede.
I've consulted these sources for a list of Zeus' lovers:
- Zeus Lovers by J.M. Hunt
- Zeus' Lovers | GreekMythology.com
- Zeus's Love Affairs by Nancy Conner
- Zeus's Many Lovers by Kip Wheeler
Here are his lovers, in alphabetical order:
- Aegina, a nymph
- Alcmene, princess of Mycenae by whom Zeus fathered Heracles
- Callisto, a nymph
- Danaë, princess of Argos by whom Zeus fathered Perseus
- Demeter, goddess of the harvest
- Dione, a Titaness
- Electra, princess of Mycenae
- Eurynome, an Oceanide and Zeus' third bride, mother of the Charities
- Europa, a Phoenician woman
- Ganymede, Trojan hero
- Hera, Zeus' sister and first wife
- Io, a priestess of Hera in Argos
- Leda, a Spartan queen
- Leto, Titan goddess of motherhood
- Maia, one of the Pleiades
- Metis, a Titaness
- Mnemosyne, Titan goddess of time, and mother with Zeus of the Nine Muses
- Nemesis, goddess of revenge
- Persephone, Zeus' daughter
- Semele, princess of Thebes by whom Zeus fathered Dionysus
- Taygete, a nymph and one of the Pleiades
- Themis, Titan goddess of law
Again, Ganymede is the only male on this list. But given Zeus' romantic eclecticism, it's probably safe to assume he's not the only actual male lover. The earliest version of the myth (in the Iliad) doesn't claim they were lovers, however.
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2I would like to see the proof he was zeus' lover. Rather odd to have just one male. He was always portrayed as Zeus' cupberarer– Fey RayCommented Jun 18, 2016 at 22:53
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@Fey I don't have proof myself. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Hopefully this new question will get some love. Commented Jun 29, 2016 at 18:51
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@Fey Ray, check out in Homer's, Iliad, Book XX, lines 233-235: it sums up that the reason Zeus choose Ganymede was because he was the best looking of all mortals, and therefore should be among the immortals. Commented Sep 5, 2017 at 20:31
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It does not claim and possibly they became lovers the same time when homosexualism was popular among greeks.– rus9384Commented Oct 15, 2017 at 19:25
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