page_title: Antinous
section_title: Deification and the cult of Antinous
hierarchical_section_title: Antinous / Deification and the cult of Antinous
caption_attribution_description: Just to the west of the access road leading to the Vestibule is a sacred precinct with two temples with white marble facing. The two temples faced one another across a plaza, in the middle of which is a base that probably supported an obelisk. Delimiting the precinct on the west was a colonnaded hemicycle with a central room. Date palms were planted in the open areas. A number of pieces of Egyptianizing sculpture were found here during the recent excavations. Other statues, found earlier in the general area, probably came from here as well, including the Antinous-Osiris (now in the Vatican Gregorian Egyptian Museum; inv. 22795) as well as the Harpocrates (Capitoline Museums, inv. MC646). The excavators, Z. Mari and S. Sgalambro, think the sanctuary was dedicated to Antinous, Hadrian's younger friend who died by drowning in the Nile in 130 CE. They speculate that the obelisk dedicated to Antinous, which now stands on the Pincian Hill in Rome, was originally erected on the base in the middle of the plaza; they also restore the two Egyptianizing telamones found nearby (Vatican Museums, inv. 196, 197) to the porch in front of room 7 (Z. Mari and S. Sgalambro, "Antinoeion," AJA 111 [2007] 87, 98-99). The structure dates to ca. 134 CE. Source: vwhl.clas.virginia.edu/villa/antinoeion.php
context_page_description: Antinous was a Bithynian Greek youth and a favourite beloved of the Roman emperor Hadrian. After his premature death before his twentieth birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian’s orders, being worshipped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god and sometimes merely as a hero.
  Little is known of Antinous's life, although it is known that he was born in Claudiopolis, in the Roman province of Bithynia. He was probably introduced to Hadrian in 123, before being taken to Italy for a higher education. He had become the favourite of Hadrian by 128, when he was taken on a tour of the Empire as part of Hadrian's personal retinue. Antinous accompanied Hadrian during his attendance of the annual Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens, and was with him when he killed the Marousian lion in Libya. In October 130, as they were part of a flotilla going along the Nile, Antinous died amid mysterious circumstances. Various suggestions have been put forward for how he died, ranging from an accidental drowning to an intentional human sacrifice or suicide.
  Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout the Empire.
context_section_description: Hadrian was devastated by the death of Antinous, and possibly also experiencing remorse. In Egypt, the local priesthood immediately deified Antinous by identifying him with Osiris due to the manner of his death. In keeping with Egyptian custom, Antinous's body was probably embalmed and mummified by priests, a lengthy process which might explain why Hadrian remained in Egypt until spring 131. While there, in October 130 Hadrian proclaimed Antinous to be a deity and announced that a city should be built on the site of his death in commemoration of him, to be called Antinoöpolis. The deification of human beings was not uncommon in the Classical world.  However,  the public and formal divinisation of humans was reserved for the Emperor and members of the imperial family; thus Hadrian's decision to declare Antinous a god and create a formal cult devoted to him was highly unusual, and he did so without the permission of the Senate. Although the cult of Antinous therefore had connections with the imperial cult, it remained separate and distinct. Hadrian also identified a star in the sky between the Eagle and the Zodiac to be Antinous, and came to associate the rosy lotus that grew on the banks of the Nile as being the flower of Antinous.
  It is unknown exactly where Antinous's body was buried. It has been argued that either his body or some relics associated with him would have been interred at a shrine in Antinoöpolis, although this has yet to be identified archaeologically. However, a surviving obelisk contains an inscription strongly suggesting that Antinous's body was interred at Hadrian's country estate, the Villa Adriana at Tibur in Italy.
  It is unclear whether Hadrian genuinely believed that Antinous had become a god. He would have also had political motives for creating the organised cult, for it enshrined political and personal loyalties specifically to him. In October 131 he proceeded to Athens, where from 131/32 he founded the Panhellenion, an attempt to foster Greek self-consciousness, erode the feuding endemic to the Greek city-states, and promote the worship of the ancient gods; being Greek himself, the god Antinous helped Hadrian's cause in this, representing a symbol of pan-Hellenic unity. In Athens, Hadrian also established a festival to be held in honour of Antinous in October, the Antinoeia.
  Antinous was understood differently by his various worshippers, in part due to regional and cultural variation. In some inscriptions he is identified as a divine hero, in others as a god, and in others as both a divine hero and a god. Conversely, in many Egyptian inscriptions he is described as both a hero and a god, while in others he was seen as a full god, and in Egypt, he was often understood as a daemon. Inscriptions indicate that Antinous was seen primarily as a benevolent deity, who could be turned to aid his worshipers and cure them of ailments. He was also seen as a conqueror of death, with his name and image often being included in coffins.
caption: The remains of the Antinoeion at Hadrian's Villa
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