THE newly ordained priests of Antinous were busily overseeing the mummification of his body in the 72 days between his death in late October of the year 130 and early January of 131, many experts believe.
Hadrian founded the city of Antinoopolis on the banks of the Nile where Antinous died and proclaimed the new religion.
While the Emperor continued his tour of Egypt, the priests scurried to carry out his imperial commission.
We do not know for certain what transpired with the remains of Antinous ... or whether they were ever retrieved from the Nile. Perhaps they were cremated. But perhaps the body was mummified.
Using an Antinous Action Figure, we can demonstrate how it may have been done:
In ancient times the process took 72 days.
ON January 1 the Religion of Antinous marks the moment the Egyptians called SEP TEPY, the moment of endings and origins, the moment that is not a moment and is every moment, the place that is no place and is every place.
The God Janus, doubled-faced, observes the passage of the common year. Hadrian mourns the tragic death of his Beloved Antinous, who died in October of the year which has now passed.
The Prince of Flowers is dead, and the New God Antinous is rising, just as the STAR OF ANTINOUS will rise in the heavens during the year to come.
Hadrian's Beloved Antinous resides in SEP TEPY, the inner-most celestial sphere, where he is filled with the Semen of the First God which infuses him with godhood.
ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD emerges from that moment which is no/all moments and from that place which is no/all places, and he strides forth as one of the Imperishables of heaven.
The Religion of Antinous recognizes the common calendar and uses the date as a reckoning that pertains only to our place in time and a space within the earthly sphere.
We know that, though our bodies are of Earth, our spirit is of the Heavens, and through the conquest of Antinous over the 72 Archons our spirit is set free.
Father Janus opens the way for the passage of Antinous through the outer limit of the celestial sphere. Janus is the mouth of the serpent that bites its tail, and we observe that as the common year is born, so the liberation of Antinous from our cosmos nears completion, with only eleven heavenly spirits standing before him.
This is the Holy Day of The Gate, the tool of the priesthood of Religion of Antinous. We wash our sacred stones and seek new auguries for the year.
ON January 1st we celebrate the brief but shining life of Lucius Aelius Caesar, Hadrian's "other favorite" and chosen heir who predeceased the Emperor by dying suddenly on 1st January 138 AD. Antonius Subia says:
Long Live Lucius Aelius Caesar
The Prince of Flowers!
Hadrian's First Love
Who raised Temples to Antinous
Lucius Capricornius, who reigned for one day
And for all eternity
Beauty and Spirit of the Latins
The shining one who gave his blood for laurels
~ ANTONIUS SUBIA
ON December 31st we commemorate the Apotheosis of Aelius Caesar.
Hadrian adopted Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus, and called him Aelius Verus Caesar (portraits by Priest Uendi).
It was said that beauty was his only recommendation. His poor health soon overtook him and Hadrian is reported to have said, "We have leaned against a tottering wall and have wasted the four hundred million sentences which we gave to the populace and the soldiers on the adoption of Commodus."
He died on the Calends of January in the year 138 ... only a few months before Hadrian ... from an overdose of medicine given to help him make a speech to the Senate thanking Hadrian for the succession.
After Aelius Caesar's death, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86 - March 7, 161) on the condition that Antoninus Pius adopt the younger Lucius Verus and Hadrian's great-nephew by marriage, Marcus Aurelius (April 26, 121 - March 17, 180).
Marcus later co-ruled with Lucius as Marcus Aurelius until Lucius' death in 169, at which time he was sole ruler until his own death in 180. Collectively, they are remembered as the Antonine Dynasty of emperors who ruled wisely over a period noted for its peace and prosperity.
In his classic text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 18th Century historian Edward Gibbon considers the reign of the Antonines, as well as those of their predecessors Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, the height of the Roman Empire, after which time the empire began its inexorable decline.
Aelius Caesar is a major character in Marguerite Yourcenar's epic historical novel Mémoires d'Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian).
Lucius, as we affectionately call him, is the recipient of much bittersweet love and adoration from followers of the Religion of Antinous.
For us he represents so many pretty young men whose bright futures are thwarted by tragic illness.
Aelius Caesar is often called the Western Favorite, because of the possibility that he rivaled Antinous for Hadrian's love.
We venerate Aelius Caesar as the fallen Prince of Flowers, the spiritual twin brother of Antinous whose death is the end of the Saturnalia.
