More images have been identified of Antinous than any of the other figures in classical antiquity - with the exceptions of Augustus and Hadrian himself.So before we get to the historical portion of this post, I have to say that I learned about this from a column by a South African newspaper reporter named Bevis Fairbrother called “Butthead’s Beat.” How funny is that? OK, to proceed: did you know that, in ancient Rome, the penalty for criminal rape was having your testicles crushed by a large rock? The Emperor commissioned up to 2000 statues of his deceased lover - all sharing the similar characteristics of a broad, swelling chest head of Grecian curls and a face always turned down. He received a priesthood, and shrines to him were built all over the empire, especially - but not only - in the East.” “In Egypt, he was assimilated to the god Osiris as ‘Osirantinous’. “Antinous was deified as a hero, and in some parts of the empire as a new god,” Prof Roche said. It had never happened before - and it never happened again. While emperors and their relatives were often deified - as was Hadrian, after his death - for a commoner to be declared divine was unprecedented. Hadrian also proclaimed his dearly beloved to be a new god, risen from the Nile. Iframe src="" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="true" style="max-height: 600px " allowscriptaccess="always"> The crumbled ruins of what was once a city of worship now surround the village of El-Shaikh Ebada - and local inhabitants reportedly bulldozed the remaining Roman Circus in 2015, to extend a Muslim cemetery.
“It was made a regional capital in the late third century, and a church from the late-antique period (from after the fourth century) has been excavated from it.” “It was still thriving in late antiquity,” Prof Roche said. Images of the young man adorned the civic buildings and the hippodrome - the whole city his memorial and shrine, and perhaps his burial place, too. “When a city was founded close to the spot where Antinous drowned, he named it Antinopolis. “Hadrian was clearly bereaved and he had lots of images to put up,” curator of the exhibition, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, Thorsten Upper told The Independent. The small town of Hir-wer on the east bank of the Nile where Antinous died was renamed - becoming the only new city to be founded and replanned by the emperor. Rather than wallow in his heartbreak, Hadrian was quick to commemorate his great love. “An ancient biography ( The Augustan History) writes that he ‘wept like a woman’ - which is to say his grief was openly demonstrative, and lacking in the Roman male ideal of emotional self-control.”Ī status of Antinous is discovered in Delphi, 1894. “Hadrian’s grief was extravagant,” Prof Roche said. In ancient Egyptian tradition, sacrifices of boys in the Nile during the October Osiris festival were commonplace - with the goal to appease the gods, and ensure that the Nile flooded to its maximum capacity and fertilised the valley.Īfter learning of his lover’s death, the emperor’s anguish was uncontrollable - its intensity without precedent. If he was sacrificed, it’s more likely that it wasn’t voluntary. According to Cassius Dio, the young man had agreed to sacrifice his life to ensure the emperor recovered from illness. Malicious rumours about the circumstances surrounding Antinous’ death spread. “In his autobiography - which does not survive - Hadrian himself is said to have written that it was an accident but others believed it was some kind of sacrifice which involved Antinous’ willing suicide,” Prof Roche said. On a voyage up the River Nile - on the same day that locals were commemorating the death (by drowning in the Nile) of the Egyptian god Osiris - Antinous drowned. In the October of 130, Hadrian visited Egypt along with the imperial entourage - including his wife, and Antinous. love between an older man and a handsome youth.” “Most scholars see the relationship as pederastic in the tradition of Classical Greece, i.e. “In antiquity, Antinous is described as the emperor’s beloved,” said Prof Roche, who specialises in the literature and history of the early Roman Empire. Picture: Tom Kohn/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The marble busts of Roman Emperor Hadrian, left, and his lover, Antinous, right.