AntinoosCHRISTOPHER JONES

Antinoos, now mainly remembered as

Hadrian’s young male companion and as the

subject of portraits in stone and on coins,

was born between 105 and 110 CE on the terri-

tory of Bithynion, a moderately sized city

of BITHYNIA in northwestern Asia Minor (see

HADRIAN (TRAIANUS HADRIANUS AUGUSTUS)).

Nothing is known of his parents or social sta-

tus, or of the date when he first met Hadrian.

Antinoos appeared in the emperor’s entourage

and joined him in his favorite sport of hunting

but is not recorded to have had any interaction

with any other member of the court. Though

Hadrian had strained relations with his wife,

Sabina, there is no evidence that they were

caused by his connection with Antinoos.

In 130 Antinoos drowned when the emperor

and his party were traveling up the Nile.

His mysterious death was explained as

either an accident or an act of self-sacrifice.

Whatever the true reason, the death caused

immense grief to Hadrian, who is said to

have wept for him “like a woman.” In his

memory he founded a city at the place where

Antinoos drowned, calling it “Antinoos’ city”

(“ANTINOOPOLIS”). Here, as on his obelisk in

Rome (see Figure 1), Antinoos was identified

with the god OSIRIS, who ruled the underworld

after being killed by his brother SETH and being

resurrected by his wife and sister, Isis (see ISIS,

PHARAONIC EGYPT).

In Egypt and the other parts of the empire,

Hadrian promoted the posthumous cult of his

dead favorite, though he never tried to intro-

duce it into the official cult of Rome. There is

very little trace of it in the Latin-speaking west,

with the exception of Rome and its vicinity. In

the Greek-speaking east, by contrast, cults of

Antinoos were widespread. He is sometimes

a god, but more often a “hero,” that is, a

mortal who, though dead, could still move

invisibly among the living to do good or

harm. Christianwriters held up the divinization

or heroization of Hadrian’s lover as a sign

of pagan immorality, and some non-Christian

writers take a similar view. Despite such

criticism, the cult quickly acquired a life of its

own. Poets composed poems in his honor,

and he was believed to give oracles. Many of

the huge number of surviving portraits must

have served the purpose of worship. A late

magical papyrus invokes Antinoos as a “spirit

of the dead” (nekyodaimon), able to bind

a woman to her lover. The monument of

Antinoos seen by more people than any other,

even if they do not know its function, is the

granite obelisk now standing on the Pincio

in Rome. As excavations at Hadrian’s villa of

Tibur have shown, the obelisk originally

formed the centerpiece of an “Antinoeion,” or

cult site, there. The inscription, written in

Egyptian hieroglyphs, includes a text spoken

by Antinoos. He is Osiris-Antinoos, the son of

Ra-Harakhte (one of the titles of Ra), and

Figure 1 Antinous depicted as Osiris, from Vati-

can City Museum collection. Vatican City, Rome.

© Photo Scala, Florence.

The Encyclopedia of Ancient History, First Edition. Edited by Roger S. Bagnall, Kai Brodersen, Craige B. Champion, Andrew Erskine,

and Sabine R. Huebner.

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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invokes his father’s blessings on Hadrian and

Sabina. After his death, Antinoos as a cult fig-

ure eclipsed Antinoos the playmate of

Hadrian.

SEE ALSO: Tibur (Tivoli).

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Jones, C. P. (2010) New heroes in antiquity: from

Achilles to Antinoos. Cambridge.

Lambert, R. (1984) Beloved and God: the story of

Hadrian and Antinous. London.

Meyer, H. (1991) Antinoos: die archaologischen

Denkmaler. Munich.

Meyer, H., ed. (1994) Der Obelisk des Antinoos: eine

kommentierte Edition. Munich.

Vout, C. (2007) Power and eroticism in imperial

Rome. Cambridge.

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