Jupiter as an Eagle from the Ganymede Group (A44)

This is a re-scanned crop from Ganymede with Jupiter's Eagle (A44), the original sculpture can be downloaded here. In Greek mythology the boy Ganymede was carried up into the sky, to the home of the gods on Olympus to be the gods’ taster. According to legend it was Zeus, in the shape of an eagle, who took the beautiful boy from Phrygia in the north-western part of Asia Minor (Turkey). The effect of Thorvaldsen’s sculpture is created mostly by the contrast between the smooth skin of the boy and