Antinous, a Gay God?

Antinous was born in Greece in Claludiopolis, and he was probably a slave when he was young. During a trip to Greece, Antinous was recruited by the Emperor Hadrian and was sent to Italy.

In Italy he started the school at Caelian Hill and when the Emperor came back to Italy made Antinous his assistant and favorite person.

Antinous was very intelligent and that’s something that Hadrian liked. When the Emperor went to Greece for 3 years he took Antinous with him and the love story begun.

Antinous and Hadrian had a lot of things in common, one of them was the love for hunting, in fact, there are some stories of the hauntings they made together, one of them is from a Lion that was causing troubles to the people of Libya, they hunted the Lion and after that episode they received bronze medallions, even a tondo found on the Arch of Constantine.

When Antinous was about 20 years old, he accompanied Hadrian to Egypt and they stopped at Hermopolis Magna and then on during the journey on the Nile Antinous fell into the river and died.

The stories said that the death of Antinous was probably a murdered, another story says that he probably was castrated and died as a result of the complications and the last one says that he probably was intoxicated.

After the death of Antinous, Hadrian remained devastated and made of Antinous a God and built Antinopolis, the city of Antinous, near to the place where Antinous died.

Also some other places where built in name of Antinous. In Italy you can find Hadrian’s Villa, and some sculptures at the Vatican, Palazzo Altemps, Naples National Archaeological Museum, National Museum of Rome; in different parts of the world also you can find some statues for example at the Louvre, at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, at the New Palace in Postdam and at the Antikensammlung in Berlin.