SAINT of Antinous Klaus Nomi was a German-trained Baroque opera countertenor who transformed New Wave, Synth Pop and Disco and who inspired David Bowie, Lady Gaga and other artists.
Born 24 Jan 1944 in Bavaria, he died 6 August 1983 in a New York hospital room, shunned and alone because he had AIDS.
He performed to the end, despite the fact that his body was ravaged by lesions. Watch his last performance:
CHAVELA VARGAS, 17 April 1919 - 5 August 2012, the forceful lesbian songstress who was born in Costa Rica and rose to fame in Mexico, and influenced generations on both sides of the Atlantic, is a Saint of Antinous.
When she died in 2012 at age 93, she was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres of popular Latin American music.
Never one to hide her lesbianism, she has been an influential interpreter in America and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz áspera de la ternura," the rough voice of tenderness.
FLAMEN ANTONIUS SUBIA speaks for millions of gays in the Spanish-speaking world when he says her passing is a saddening loss. He grew up with her music.
ANTONIUS RECALLS:
My parents had always played her music it...among many other singers...she was the only one who made an impact on me. She was the only one who stood out...mostly because I could tell that she was crazy...she wasn't trying to sound pretty or traditional...but more like someone having an attack of too much feelings.
It wasn't until I was in my late teens that a friend pointed out that all her love songs are sung about women, I hadn't even noticed, I had just taken them at face value, you broke my heart songs, without really thinking about the context...that was when I really started to like Chavela Vargas...when it suddenly dawned on me that this dramatic, bellowing woman, who was such a favorite of my parents, was A LESBIAN!!!
As it turns out she was a hard-core lesbian, though never public about her sexuality, she never actually hid it...it was pretty much right there for everyone to see. She drank heavily, carried a gun and wore a big red poncho...how can you not love a lesbian such as that?! Eventually the drinking became too much and she dropped out of making music for a long, long time...only to return about 10 years ago, at 83 years of age with a new album...and it was during her return that I finally learned that, yes indeed, just as I suspected, she was in fact a Lesbian. My favorite quote is when she said:
"I've never even been to bed with a man. Never. That's how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am." - Chavela Vargas
Chavela Vargas is a blessed Saint of Antinous.
ANTONIUS SUBIA
WE have seen every sort of Antinous collectible ... jewelry, coffee mugs, T-shirts, amulets, posters ... but even the most avid collectors were surprised (and envious) to learn of the existence of an Antinous coloring book.
Thirty years ago there was a spate of paper-doll cutout books and coloring books for adults. Paper dolls of Joan Crawford and Mae West, for example.
These "children's" books were targeted at adult specialty genre collectors.
Some were published as refrigerator magnets ... the most famous being Michelangelo's "David" with a wardrobe of magnetic fashion accessories.
By and large, these books were gimmicky and often campy. But some took on serious highlights from art history ... offering coloring books which gave collectors a tongue-in-cheek gallery of famous works of art. There were coloring books of all sorts of things, including ancient civilizations.
But we had never heard of a coloring book featuring Antinous ... until now ....
One of our far-flung correspondents literally stumbled upon it ... here is what he says:
"I am always on the look out for Antinous finds. You know that feeling when you come face to face with our Beloved. You blink once, twice. Is that him? Then in your heart you know.
"Sharing my first find is a coloring book titled: 'Liber Romanus Pingendus A Coloring Book of Rome'. I found this in a used book store. You know the kind. The books are stacked floor to ceiling. They all have dust and that smell of old. I know it's weird but, I like that smell, the smell of history. Here are some pages that I know you will like."
Yes indeed ... we certainly like them. And we know you will too. The coloring book includes detailed plates showing Emperor Hadrian, his hand-picked heir Lucius Verus (hand-picked by Hadrian to be co-emperor with Marcus Aurelius), as well as a depiction of the Assumption of Antoninus Pius (Hadrian's immediate successor) ... and two pages devoted to Antinous himself.
Above is Antinous as Phanes encircled by astrological signs and enwrapped by a serpent.
At right is a line drawing of the famous Lanuvium bas-relief showing Antinous as the rustic deity Sylvanus/Aristaeus harvesting grapes with a dog looking up at him adoringly.
Get out your crayons!
ANTIOCH was called the "golden" city because of its wealth and gilded architecture and statuary.
On August 1st the Religion of Antinous commemorates the entry of Hadrian and Antinous into Antioch. It was founded by one of the generals of Alexander the Great, who reportedly had camped on the site and said it would be a good location for a great city.
Indeed it was, and Antioch rivaled Alexandria as the most important city in the Eastern Empire.
The emperors preferred Antioch. Julius Caesar visited the city. Tiberius and others showered favors on Antioch because it was far more strategically important than Alexandria.
Alexandria was between the desert and the sea. Antioch was at the crossroads of major trading routes and military roads.
Antioch was a pure Hellenistic city refounded by Augustus in 25 BC as a Roman colony. Hadrian felt very much at home here in this Hellenistic atmosphere.
Antioch was to be the base of Hadrian's Imperial administration until early spring of 130. This prolonged stay was spent visiting the regions of Syria. Starting with Antioch, the whole atmosphere of the Imperial Tour began to change. Antioch is a turning point.
Unlike the cities of Asia Minor, which had opened their hearts to Hadrian and proclaimed him a living god, the people of Antioch were cold and critical of Hadrian's policies.
The large Jewish population resisted the policies of Hellenization, which Hadrian promoted. They would not cooperate with the new religious order of unity, and condemned the whole effort as blasphemous.
The Christians were equally seditious, and defiant. They were disgusted by the presence of Antinous by the side of the Emperor, and called the whole affair an abomination.
Antioch was the center of Christianity in the ancient Roman world. It had been the base from which Paul the Apostle operated, and was considered to be his seat.
It was from Antioch that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans that is now part of the Bible, which specifically forbids and condemns homosexuality, and thereby dictates the position of the Christian religion on same-sex love (a position never taken by Jesus).
Flamen ANTONIUS SUBIA explains the significance of the visit to Antioch:
"Antioch represents the enemies of homosexuality as embodied by the Apostle Paul. It was here that Hadrian and Antinous first discovered that their love was considered to be unholy, a reality that was to over cloud the religion of Antinous and of same-sex love for centuries to come.
"We observe that when Antinous entered Antioch, the darkness of hatred for homosexuality was born. Our enemies in the Christian Church took inspiration from the beauty of Antinous and used his deification as a weapon for our destruction. It was in Antioch that homosexuality was crucified.
"We lament the misery brought against our kind, and we remember those countless souls who were brutalized and murdered for our cause, and for our form of Love. Through Antinous, upon whom the hatred of Antioch fell, we pray for salvation as we enter the second year of the Sacred Peregrination. "
Antioch today is a pile of ruins ... periodic earthquakes have taken their toll on the Roman forum and the beautiful marble palace where Hadrian and Antinous resided in August of the year 129. The tremors of their tour of the Eastern Empire sent shock waves which reverberate to this very day.
HADRIAN designed the Antinous Mortuary Temple at his Villa outside Rome so that the rays of the rising sun would illuminate the inner sanctum on the Egyptian festival of the Nile Inundation, according to a US research team.
The new findings come on the heels of studies by other researchers showing that Emperor Hadrian, a skilled architect and astronomer/astrologer in his own right, aligned the Pantheon and the observatory at his Villa to the Solstices.
The new findings are the first indicating a celestial configuration for the Mortuary Temple of Antinous at Hadrian's Villa.
Archaeo-astronomers at Ball State University in the United States say the mystery-shrouded temple, called the ANTINOEION, was aligned so that the first rays of the rising sun would illuminate the East Face of the OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which would then cast a shadow across a monolithic statue of Antinous-Osiris deep in the inner sanctum of the temple.
Using "solar tracking" technology and highly sophisticated 3-D computer imaging, the Ball State experts say that this sunrise configuration only occurs on July 20th each year.
July 20th was when the Egyptians, at that point in their long history, celebrated the annual Inundation of the Nile, the flood waters which brought nutrient-rich sediment down the river to Egypt to ensure bountiful crops for the coming year.
At other points in Egyptian history, that "Egyptian New Year" festival was celebrated on other dates, owing to vagaries of ancient calendars. But according to Roman writer Censorinus, the Egyptian New Year's Day fell on July 20th in the Julian Calendar in 139 AD, which was a heliacal rising of Sirius in Egypt.
The Ball State University findings are all the more interesting because the First Miracle of Antinous, the July after his death in October 130 AD, was the NILE INUNDATION MIRACLEwhich ended a years-long drought which had threatened the entire empire with famine since Egypt was Rome's "breadbasket" for grain and produce.
The Obelisk is now located atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, but it almost certainly originally stood at the Antinoeion within the Hadrian's Villa compound. The plinth for the obelisk is still visible.
The Obelisk is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which constitute a prayer of praise for Antinous the God, describing his blessings.
The Egyptian hieroglyphs on the East Face of the Obelisk quote Antinous the God as asking Ra-Herakhte the sun god for blessings on Hadrian, and also asking Hapy, the Nile Inundation deity, to bring about a bountiful inundation on his behalf.
In effect, the rays (or "hands") of the sun god "activate" the Egyptian hieroglyphs, bringing this divine prayer to religio-magical life, as the shadow of the Obelisk covers the statue of Antinous-Osiris, master of death and transfiguration.
The Ball State University findings have yet to be verified independently, and the researchers said further studies are underway.
It is possible, of course, that the date July 20th had another significance of a more personal nature involving Hadrian and Antinous.
On the final leg of a three-year tour of the Eastern Empire, Hadrian and his Imperial entourage arrived in Egypt in the summer of the year 130 AD.
It is known that Hadrian and Antinous spent time in Alexandria, as well as in the coastal resort of Canopus. And they also slew a man-eating lion in Egypt in the summer of 130 AD.
So July 20th could refer to one of those events. It could, of course, also refer to something of a more intimate nature between the two men which transpired on that date.
Perhaps Hadrian and Antinous took part in celebrations for the Nile Inundation on July 20th of 130 AD in Egypt at which drought-weary Egyptians looked to Emperor Hadrian, as their pharaoh, to provide a miracle.
Ancient writers speculated that Antinous may have been eager to find a religio-magical way to help his beloved Hadrian, possibly sacrificing his life in return for blessings on the Emperor.
Whatever the date may signify, we know that, barely three months later, Antinous drowned in the Nile, and that grief-stricken Hadrian proclaimed him a God, the last Classical Deity before the Fall of Rome.
He died under mysterious circumstances, with Hadrian saying only that he "fell into the Nile." The Inundation Deity Hapy ensured that the Nile overflowed its banks generously the following July 20th.
