It depicts the moment when the Roman supreme god Jupiter disguised as an eagle catches the young shepherd Ganymede and lifts him into the air.

The account most familiar to artists in Rubens' time was that as told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses: “The king of the gods Jupiter once burned with love for the Phrygian Ganymede, and something was found which Jove would rather be than what he was.

[2] The tall vertical format of the finished painting in the Prado suggests that it was intended to be placed between windows in the king's hunting lodge.

The preparatory sketch in the Princeton University Art Museum and the final version in the Prado show various differences including in Ganymede's expression and physique, the addition of a quiver with arrows and the position of the eagle, whose beak catches the strap of the quiver rather than the small piece of red cloth in the sketch.

In the final version Ganymede’s left hand rests on the eagle’s outstretched wing, which may have been inspired by Michelangelo's treatment of this subject.

[4] The quiver added to the final version is placed and depicted in a manner which is very suggestive of an erect male member and clearly points to the erotic connotations of the story.