Wikipedia
Antinous (also Antinoüs or Antinoös; ; 27 November, c. 111 – before 30 October 130) was a Bithynian Greek youth and a favourite, or lover, of the Roman emperor Hadrian. He was deified after his death, being worshiped in both the Greek East and Latin West, sometimes as a god (theos) and sometimes merely as a hero (heros).
Little is known of Antinous' life, although it is known that he was born in Claudiopolis (present day Bolu, Turkey), in the Roman province of Bithynia. He likely was 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.
Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout the Empire. Hadrian founded the city of Antinopolis close to Antinous's place of death, which became a cultic centre for the worship of Osiris-Antinous. Hadrian also founded games in commemoration of Antinous to take place in both Antinopolis and Athens, with Antinous becoming a symbol of Hadrian's dreams of pan-Hellenism.
Antinous became associated with homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde and Fernando Pessoa.
Antinous is an obsolete constellation no longer in use by astronomers, having been merged into Aquila, which it bordered to the North.
The constellation was created by the emperor Hadrian in 132. According to legend, Hadrian was told by an oracle that only the death of his most beloved person would save him from a great danger. Sure enough, Antinous, a beautiful youth loved by Hadrian, died while saving the Emperor from drowning in the Nile. For his memory Hadrian identified an asterism in the sky with Antinous. Tycho Brahe was originally given credit for inventing Antinous, but current finds include a celestial globe by the cartographer Caspar Vopel from 1536 that contains Antinous, so Brahe simply measured up the sky according to contemporary traditions and decided to give Antinous a separate table in his star catalogue.
In the following modern times, Antinous has been variously considered an asterism within Aquila or as a separate constellation, until the International Astronomical Union discarded it when formalizing the constellations in 1930.
Antinous (111–130 CE) was the favorite and lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian.
Antinous can also refer to:
Usage examples of "antinous".
We could hardly have passed the tenth hour of the day, for Antinous called my attention to the red water lilies still wide open on the pond.
I had had a brief fainting fit which only Antinous and the black Euphorion had witnessed.
I made use of the time to dictate some dispatches, and Antinous stretched out at my feet.
I learned later that Antinous took advantage of my absence to persuade Chabrias to go with him to Canopus.
The cult of Antinous seemed like the wildest of my enterprises, the overflow of a grief which concerned me alone.
Athens, 1914, is still indispensable for the study of the coins of Antinous, for which it offers the only attempt, to date, in complete cataloguing and analysis.
Such new research on points of iconography or numismatics has made it possible to ascertain certain aspects of the cult of Antinous and even certain dates in that short life.
The problem of the exact location of the tomb of Antinous is still unsolved, despite the arguments of C.
Mention is made here only of a few of the more substantial accessible works, all of which could have been also included among the good modern appreciations of Antinous portraiture above: H.
On certain controversial points, such as the cause for enforced retirement of Suetonius, the origin of Antinous, whether slave or free, the active participation of Hadrian in the Palestinian war, the dates of apotheosis of Sabina and of interment of Aelius Caesar in the Castel Sant Angelo, it has been necessary to choose between hypotheses of historians, but the effort has been to make that choice only with good reason.
In other cases, like that of the adoption of Hadrian by Trajan, or of the death of Antinous, the author has tried to leave that very incertitude which before it existed in history doubtless existed in life itself.
Consequently, his relations to the wooers are newly exacerbated, particularly with Antinous, the most intimidating of the lot, who is only a little older than Telemachus but just old enough actually to remember Odysseus from his own childhood.
In making this upside-down comparison, in which he figures himself as the king of the palace, Antinous forgets that Peirithous went to Hades alive but did not return.
Eurymachus tries to blame all their misdeeds on Antinous, admitting that the real issue was the kingship after all.
Weight training left his triceps and pectorals quivering spasmodically, as Antinous taunted and cursed him.