"Sing to me of that odorous green eve when crouching by the marge
You heard from Adrian's gilded barge the laughter of Antinous

And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare
The ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth!"

[From The Sphinx, by Oscar Wilde]

Antinous was a Greek boy from Bithynia who captivated an Emperor. He was about 14 when he joined the Emperor Hadrian's entourage and accompanied him on his journeys throughout the empire, until his death by drowning in the Nile at the age of 19 or 20. He was subsequently deified by the grief-striken Emperor, who built a city on the site of his death that carried his name - Antinoopolis.

Whether Antinous's death was an accident, religious sacrifice, murder or suicide remains one of those tantalisingly unresolved questions in history. Even apart from the mystique of his death Antinous remains something of an enigma, but he must have been a remarkable youth to retain the attention of an Emperor for several years.

The Antinoeion is both shrine and study. You are very welcome here :)

Main image is Villa Hadrien, by Frédéric Desclos

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