Antinous
(109-130) Bithynia (Turkey)
Emperor Hadrian's lover
 Antinous was born in the town of Bithynion-Claudiopolis, in the Greek province of Bithynia on the northwest coast of Asia Minor. His birth was definitely in November and most probably on the 27th. The year of his birth is not known, but at the time of his death in 132, he was described as "ephebe" and "meirkakion," two words meant to convey a boy is his late teens or a young man of around twenty. His parentage is unknown, as no details of his family have remained extant. It is thought that his parents may have originally been mentioned in the epitaph on the obelisk that Hadrian erected for the boy after his death, but the section where such mention is thought to have been contained is agonizingly chipped off the stone.
 Little is known as to how Antinous came to be in the house of Hadrian. It is thought that he was taken from Claudiopolis during one of Hadrian's tours of the provinces in 123, when the boy was around twelve. Whether he was taken by force or went willingly is open to speculation, but that he later became the Emperor's favorite seems to preclude his ever being a slave since Hadrian was known to accept social boundaries. The fact that many busts where made of an Antinous aged around thirteen would indicate that he was a member of the Emperor's circle soon after leaving his home. It is thought that he was taken to Rome as a page and perhaps entered into the imperial paedagogium. The paedagogium may have, in part, served as a harem of boys, but its official role was that of a polishing school designed to train the boys to become palace or civil servants. It is impossible to say exactly when Hadrian became enamored of Antinous but it is thought to have been sometime between the Emperor's return to Italy in 125 and his next trip to Greece in 128, on which tour Antinous accompanied him as favorite.
 It is important when discussing the relationship between Hadrian and Antinous to give acknowledgement to the system of pederasty that existed their time. It was primarily a Hellenic institution and that Hadrian should have felt drawn to it is not at all unusual given his love of all things Greek. In the old Grecian way, the love of a man for a boy was considered to be the purest form of love. Love for a woman, ancient philosophers held, was a waste for a woman was an inferior being and lust felt for a woman was a dirty thing only necessary for procreation. But a boy was equal in all ways save age and hence worthy of adoration. The boy in such couples, known as the "eromenos," would generally be entering puberty when the relationship began and would leave it when he began to show facial hair in his late teens or early twenties. Any male who preferred the submissive role in relationships after this point was refereed to as pathetic.  The older man in the relationship, referred to as "erastes," was usually between the ages of twenty and forty, for as was proverbially stated, "to be a lover when old is the worst of misfortunes." (Obviously, Hadrian did not follow this advice.) In return for the respect, devotion, and sexual satisfaction offered by the eromenos, the erastes would provide the boy with training in mind, body, morals, customs, and responsibilities as well as devoted affection. As the boy's family would most likely never have given him more than passing attentions, the affections of his erastes were seen as healthy and good for the child. That spiritual love should also have a physical component was seen as obvious and proper in most circles and hence few thought anything at all wrong or even odd about the system of pederasty. Indeed, so much poetry and art was dedicated to it that even men who never took eromenoi and who seemed to have actually preferred the attentions of a woman often wrote verses praising boys anyway, just so that they would be accepted by their peers.
 Antinous was the perfect eromenos for Hadrian. He was accounted beautiful by all that beheld him, was said to have great intelligence and a sharp wit, and was a great hunter and athlete. Hadrian was a man who took much pleasure in art, his villa was filled with pieces collected on his travels, and would surely have been pleased by the appearance of Antinous, who even in life is said must have resembled the statues of beauty that he is still known for. One of Hadrian's well-publicized passions was for the hunt. It is well known that under Plotina's guidance, Hadrian had become well learned and developed an appreciation for intelligent conversation such as Antinous could be expected to provide. And, of course, Antinous was a Greek. He was young enough and from a stature of enough distance from that of Hadrian that the Emperor could easily feel the superior in the relationship, but Antinous was also extraordinary enough to maintain Hadrian's attention for a period of several years.
The Death of Antinous
 Precisely what happened to Antinous in October of 130 is unknown. The Historia Augusta reports,"he [Hadrian] lost his Antinous along the Nile." Hadrian simply wrote, "He fell into the Nile." That this is all the extant written comment from the Emperor on the subject is made all the more frustrating by the fact that the word he used for "fell" can imply either an accident fall or a deliberate one. It is quite impossible to definitely pick one of these options, particuarly in light of the fact that the body of Antinous has been lost. An accidental fall seems unlikely, but it is an option that modern scholars are unable to completely disregard. Most historians prefer instead a theory of self-sacrifice.
Hadrian in Mourning
"He lost his Antinous while sailing along the Nile and wept for him like a woman. Concerning this, there are various reports: some assert that he sacrificed himself for Hadrian, others what both his beauty and Hadrian's excessive sensuality make obvious."
(from the Historia Augusta)
 It is almost certain that the death was by drowning such as Hadrian claims as the cults of Antinous, as well as the deities to which is he often compared, proclaim. There are some that have in intervening centuries suggested death by other means, but with little to no evidence. One theory is that Antinous was a victim of a court plot and hence murdered. However, Antinous had no real power at court and absolutely no gossip relating to a murder or even strife centering on him has survived, if it ever existed.
 That Antinous may have sacrificed himself has much support. Firstly, he was at the time in Egypt. The last two floodings of the Nile had been unsatisfactory and there was an ancient tradition in Egypt to send a sacrifice to drown in the river as a way of influencing the river gods to send better floods in upcoming years. There was undoubtedly much talk of reviving that custom in 130 for a third drought would bring famine to Egypt, which would lead to turmoil in the Empire. That persons drowned in the Nile tended to be deified on death may well have appealed to Antinous.
 Secondly, there was a theory in ancient Greece that by dying one could add years to the life of the one for whom one died. The anti-psyche, as the Greeks referred to the custom, was afurthering of the concept that love freely given has the power to heal. That Hadrian was at the time suffering from the illness that was later to kill him is quite possible and Antinous may have thought that his death would heal the Emperor, who had only days before saved Antinous's life when a hunted lion nearly felled him.
 
Coins depecting the lion hunt on which Hadrian saved the life of Antinous by slaying the cat.
One may well wonder why a young and vibrant man would sacrifice himself for his Emperor and for Rome. There is the obvious answer that people often do strange and illogical things for love. Antinous may well have believed that he would win immortality in the waters of the Nile and hence may not have seen his death as an end to his life. And, although there is no direct evidence that Antinous was suffering from a depression, he had to have realized that he was passing the age of eromenos.
 Within a year or two at most Antinous would either have to give up his position as royal favorite or accustom himself to the condemnation, "pathetic." Whatever would become of Antinous after his decline from favorite could only be a lessening of position and if he truly loved Hadrian he would undoubtedly be alarmed at the prospect of ending their relationship not only for reasons of status, but for reasons of the heart. Or, perhaps, Antinous had simply grown to feel shame at his position and was driven into the waters with a sense of helplessness and lack of self worth that could scarcely be considered rare in teenagers of any time period.
For whatever reason Antinous entered the waters of the Nile, he did obtain a form of immortality. Had he passed quietly from his role as favorite he may well have disappeared from history, but with his death and Hadrian's response to it, he was assured a place in future remembrance.
Deifying Antinous
 It is unclear as to who first proclaimed the deity of Antinous. Emperor Hadrian was grief stricken by the death of his favorite to the point that many contemporaries wondered if he was still able to do his job properly. It was not uncommon for the admirers of youth prematurely deceased to make a great show of despair and that Hadrian had not only lost his beloved but most likely felt deep guilt for the death, whether it was suicide, sacrifice, or a simple accident. The problem was that as Emperor, Hadrian was expected to be able to separate his private grief from his public self, which he seemed to have great difficulty doing.
It is possible that in his grief, Hadrian simply envisioned his lost Antinous as a god, perhaps after a dream. However, what seems most likely is that the Egyptians decided to bestow deity on the boy without Hadrian's influence, as it was a fairly common practice to deify those who died in the Nile. That the god Antinous is often seen as an aspect of the Egyptian god Osiris, who also drowned in the Nile, may bee seen to support this. It is certain that if the Egyptians did begin to refer to Antinous as divine that the grief burdened Emperor would have latched onto the theory.
 Hadrian was to remain in morning for the next eight years, ending the period only with his death. He was surrounded by sculptures of Antinous as a god and dedicated numerous temples to the new deity throughout the Empire as well as the Antinous's largest monument, the Nile city of Antinioopolis. A new star was discovered promptly after Antinous's death and given his name in the theory that it was his soul shiny down on Earth. A certain bright red flower was quickly renamed Antinoeios, wreaths of which would be given to winners in the competitions held in Antinous's name. A poet named Pancrates wrote a Homeric epic about the last lion hunt Antinous participated in, during which Hadrian had to intercede to save the boy's life. Pancrates was immediately granted a life membership into the Museion by the Emperor. Soon statues and poetry dedicated to the young god abounded.
For the Egyptians, it was not difficult to accept the new deity. The believed he had sacrificed himself into the Nile in order to help them; worship was the least they could do for him. There was a whole pantheon of Nile gods who had entered the river to serve Osiris; they had once been human and were now minor gods. By Egyptian standards this was perfectly normal.
For the Greeks, the idea of a young local boy turned hero in the cause of love would have had an undeniable appeal. In his home province of Arcadia, Antinous was warmly accepted as an aspect of the god Hermes, the renowned mediator who was also rumored to have been born in Arcadia. Others saw in the beautiful youth aspects of the popular god Dionysos, patron of the arts, wine, cordiality, and fertility.
It is important when considering the Greek acceptance of a divine Antinous to remember that they seemed to genuinely believe in Hadrian's own divinity. Temples to the Emperor abounded in the Hellenistic provinces and statues of the Emperor as a god were very far from rarities. It is not too large a step to accept a hero, beloved of a god on earth, who may have died to help said god, into the pantheon of lesser gods.
 It is open to debate how willing the residents of Rome where to accept Antinous. Unlike the Greeks, the peoples of the Italian province had never seemed to view Hadrian as more than an Emperor. While it was not uncommon for a deceased Emperor to be entered into the hall of gods, it was seen as the utmost bad taste to deify and Emperor still living to take advantage of the title.
Although Italy seems to have had little reason to accept Antinous's initial divinity other than the will of the Emperor that he be so recognized, there is evidence that the followers of Antinous were to be found in Rome until the rise of the Christian Emperors.
Whatever the actual circumstances of his death, Antinous was seen in popular myth to have died in turn for the flooding of the Nile, the Emperor Hadrian, the Hellenistic way of life, and the Roman Empire itself. And as the spread of Christianity was later to prove, there is a powerful draw of a deity was lost his human body for the good of the world, even if that world ended at the borders of the Empire.
Hadrian After Antinous
The days following Antinous's death brought great emotional upheaval and strain to the Emperor. Trudging through a despair and sense of guilt, Hadrian's first impulse was to follow his beloved into the otherworld. However, Hadrian was Emperor and his life was not really his to give. So he struggled onward while the turmoil of two selves, the private and the empirical, straining against each other wrecked havoc on public affairs and Hadrian's health.
 It is unknown exactly what happened to the remains of Antinous. Being drowned in the Nile, his body would have been taken by the Egyptians for the embalming they believed necessary to survive in the afterlife. It is likely that Hadrian allowed this procedure to honor his beloved. The real mystery is in what happened to the body after embalming. Reports vary on the subject and to date the body of Antinous has yet to be found and identified. It is possible that he was entombed on the banks of the Nile, perhaps in the large temple that was to be the center of the city of Antinoopolis. However, it is also fairly likely that Hadrian would have objected to leaving his favorite buried in Egypt and may well have had the body transported elsewhere, perhaps to the grounds of his Italian villa. The memorial obelisk that Hadrian had constructed in honor of Antinous would do much to solve this mystery since it proclaims to mark the spot of his burial but for the fact that it was undeniably moved about by numerous Emperors. Hence, the only real clue that can be assumed from the obelisk is that the body was not left in Egypt, for the hieroglyphics it contains are thought to be a foreign attempt to imitate Egyptian writing rather than something completed by Egyptian artisans.
 Whether or not the body of Antinous was entombed there, it was to be at least two months before Hadrian was to finally leave Egypt. Much of this time was spent planning the city of Antinioopolis and the basic tenants of the cult of Antinous. While occupying his mind with these matters, he completed his tour of Egypt, which is recorded to have lasted until the December following Antinous's death. There are no factual records of his presence from that time until the following August, when he reappeared in Greece. It is a matter of some speculation as to exactly what the Emperor was doing for those four unaccounted months.
Antinous the God
 The Cult of Antinous was not destined to become one of the most influential, wealthy, or lasting religious sects of the late Roman Empire, but it was one of the widest spread. There are defiantly traces of public worship and recognition of the divine Antinous in some seventy cities throughout the Empire and the vast spread of his busts implies that even if worship of Antinous was not to occur in most homes of the Empire, his name and his features were well known by all.
 His obvious center of worship in Egypt was his own city, Antinoopolis, which was destined not only to be a cult center but an oasis of Greek culture on the Nile. The city was founded on October 30th, 130, by Hadrian's decree, but was not completed until after Hadrian's death. The core citizens where chosen by lottery from Ptolemais, an upper Nile city known for taking pride in its "pure" Greek heritage. Other Egyptian cities, including Alexandria and Hermopolis also latched on to Antinous as a popular deity. Of course, his worship was not limited to Egypt; as we have discussed, the Greek peoples also welcomed Antinous as a god. The city of Manthineia from which the settlers of Antinous's hometown, Bithynion, originated was quick to claim its connection to the new god as a "local boy done good." Athens, with its affinity for Hadrian, also took great care to recognize Antinous, as did numerous other Greek cities, such as Delphi, Olympia, Nikopolis, and, of course, Hadrianopolis. That Antinous was particularly popular at home in Asia Minor is of no mystery. He was openly exalted in twenty odd cities in the area, including the large metropolis of Nikomedia and his now holy place of birth, Bithynion. Perhaps with less zeal, Antinous was also recognized in ten Italian cities as well as Hadrian's Villa, which turned into as much a shrine to Antinous as a home to the Emperor. That relics of Antinous have been found as far away as the Danube, Holland, Portugal, Gaul, Malta, Lebanon, and the shores of the Black Sea implies that he must have had a least a few followers in these far reaches as well.
The remains of the temples of Antinous imply that they were modest buildings of small wealth. However, the god was offered daily food and drink, birth and death festivals, and a faith filled with many mysteries and initiations. While Antinous was sometimes identified with the Imperial cult, he was held in more value a deity independent of the royal family. Unlike the Imperial deities, Antinous kept his human personality on Olympus. And, as it has oft been put, the people developed a belief in Antinous (said by some to parallel a faith in Jesus) while few ever bothered to hold a belief in the Imperials.
Antinous-Dionysos The Divine Ephebe
Throughout the Empire, Antinous's divinity took on several forms. Most popularly in Greece, he was frequently seen as the divine ephebe who personified the beauty and spirit of youth. On many coins, he is seen as a divine hero, a man who gained immortality and deity through value, virtue, and deed. Another aspect of Antinous is of a lesser god, an aspect of a major god. As an aspect, Antinous was generally connected with Hermes, Dionysos, Iachos, or Osiris, but could also be seen in Apollo, Pan, or various local deities.
In Egypt he was most popular as a daemon. A daemon referred to a spirit who was thought to reside in a temple and to inspire prophecies, heal illness and work other miracles as well as serve as a mediator between the gods and mortals. Daemons where generally benevolent and protective, but would fight in defense of a follower and where known to occasionally take on a task of vengeance. The acts of vengeance and the warnings that under the control of a powerful necromancer a daemon could be lethal where to eventually lead in the Christian concept of the demon.
 The characteristics of the god Antinous were similar to a number of other deities. He was seen as a mediator, much as was Hermes. Akin to Dionysos and Pan, Antinous was often seen as a patron of the arts, particularly of the stage. Also like Hermes, Pan and Dionysos, Antinous was thought to hold the power to renew life, which led to an image of Antinous as a protector of crops and live stock as well as a god of fecundity and procreation.
The main role which Antinous was seen to play is similar to a great number of other deities and it speaks of his character that he was not simply lost among them. The most obvious thing about the god Antinous was that he had gained divinity by rescued Hadrian from death and then triumphing over his own death. Thus he was seen as a friend to the deceased, a guardian of the soul and an escort through the realms of Hades.
Dionysos, although mostly known as a god of fertility, was also known as the "Lord of Souls" after his journey into the underworld to rescue his mother, Demeter. Hermes was another famous conductor of souls who was known to have led Persephone back from the underworld to this world on the behest of her mother.
Antinous also had an obvious connection to the god Osiris, who was famous for being saved from death by Isis and who latter went on to save his brothers from the underworld. The obelisk that Hadrian constructed for Antinous states that after his death Antinous was "raised again to life" to become a god, much like another deity then rising in popularity, Jesus Christ.
The god Antinous was a diverse deity with many facets. Although some would argue that this is a lack of focus was a detriment, it can also be seen as a strength as it allowed his cult to spread much further than a more focused worship could have.
Antinous was the last great god to arise from the Roman Empire. A beautiful provincial youth who became the beloved of an Emperor and then a god, Antinous was a strikingly popular figure and a last manifestation of an Ancient spirit that would soon be lost to the world. His name is still known, his features still recognized, and his story even now kindles interest, reverence, and moral controversy. His name is paraded as both a banner of gay pride through history and as a symbol of the decadence of the Roman Empire. However, no matter what may be thought of his morals and deeds, it is very hard to argue that providing fuel for close to two millennia of debate and speculation is not a remarkable achievement for a small town Grecian boy.
Excerpts from the essay of Andrea Marie Collins © April 13th, 1998
 
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