WE CELEBRATE THE FIESTA OF XOCHIPILLI GAYEST OF ALL THE AZTEC GODS

JULY 24th is the festival of Xochipilli, the Aztec god of pleasure. His name means "Flower Prince" or even "Flower Child". He is a deity of creativity, the arts, music, dance, celebration and pleasure. His main aim is to help us relax, chill out and step back from taking life too seriously. 

Xochipili is also the protector and patron of homosexuals and male prostitutes.

His statues were carved with psychoactive flowers and plants. His offerings are flowers and his symbol is a teardrop shaped pendant crafted from Mother of Pearl.

24 de julho é a festa de Xochipilli , deus asteca do prazer. Seu nome significa " flor Príncipe " ou mesmo " Criança de flor " . Ele é uma divindade da criatividade , das artes , música, dança , celebração e prazer. O seu principal objectivo é o de nos ajudar a relaxar , relaxar e voltar de tirar a vida muito a sério. Xochipilli também é o protetor e padroeiro dos homossexuais e prostitutas do sexo masculino e suas estátuas foram esculpidas com flores e plantas psicoativas. Suas ofertas são flores e seu símbolo é um pingente em forma de lágrima trabalhada a partir de madrepérola.

24 de julio es la fiesta de Xochipilli , dios azteca de placer. Su nombre significa " Príncipe de la flor" o incluso " Niño de flor " . Él es una deidad de la creatividad , las artes , la música , la danza , la celebración y el placer. Su objetivo principal es ayudar a relajarse , descansar y un paso atrás de tomar la vida demasiado en serio . Xochipili es también el protector y patrono de los homosexuales y prostitutas masculinas y sus estatuas fueron talladas con flores y plantas psicoactivas . Sus ofertas son las flores y su símbolo es un colgante en forma de lágrima elaborado a partir de Nácar .

STAGE PLAY PREMIERES TONIGHT AT HADRIAN'S VILLA CANOPUS POOL

ON July 23 and 24, 2026, at 9:00 p.m., the Canopus Reflecting Pool Arena at Hadrian's Villa Adriana in Tivoli will host "Memoirs of Hadrian," a play based on the novel of the same name by Marguerite Yourcenar, starring Alessandro Preziosi as the Roman emperor and directed by him.

The play also features Elisa Di Eusanio, with set design by Alfredo Pirri, costumes by Alessandro Lai, and music by Giacomo Vezzani. The performance takes place within the archaeological setting of Villa Adriana, where the theater interacts with the spaces of the ancient imperial residence.

The production explores the portrait of Hadrian through the writer's words, following the inner journey of a man caught between his public role as emperor and his search for his own identity. The character brought to life by Yourcenar thus becomes a figure capable of exploring universal themes such as love and death, desire and beauty, destiny, and the precariousness of power.

The text recounts the imaginary encounter between the writer and her literary creation, Emperor Hadrian, imagined in the final moments of his life on the shores of the Mediterranean as he confronts the approach of death. Through theatrical language, the production reconstructs the dialogue between memory and the present, bringing to life the reflections of a man who looks back on his own existence and the meaning of his choices.

The production is by PATO srl, in collaboration with the Teatro Stabile d'Abruzzo, with support from the MIC, Villa Adriana, Villa d'Este, and the General Directorate of Museums.

WE CELEBRATE THE NEPTUNALIA AND HONOR ANTINOUS LINKS TO NEPTUNE

THE 23rd of July is the ancient Roman Neptunalia festival, when Romans honored Neptune with feasting and frivolity.

Although identified with the Greek Poseidon, god of the sea, the Roman Neptune was originally god of fresh water and prayed to at this time of year to prevent drought.

Coins minted by a priest of Antinous in Corinth show Antinous with Neptune/Poseidon. 

More clues to the link between Antinous and Neptune come from the Black Sea coast.

Experts working at a dig on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria say they have found a well-preserved altar to Poseidon/Neptune which suggests the surrounding ruins were once a major temple to the god of the seas.

Archaeologists found the building in front of the medieval fortified wall of the seaside town of Sozopol, according to Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of Bulgaria’s National History Museum.

It is a little-known fact that Antinous was associated in a gay context with the classical god of the seas, called Poseidon by the Greeks and Neptune by the Romans.

Coins minted by a priest of Antinous at Corinth named HOSTILIUS MARCELLUS (from whom our own Julien Hostilius Marcellus takes his priestly name) show Antinous as Neptune/Poseidon.

It is a reference to the myth that Poseidon became enthralled with another marine male deity, Nerites, who was said to be the handsomest of all males on Earth, in the Heavens or in the Seas.

The sexual union of Poseidon and Nerites produced Anteros, god of requited love.

In those days, few people could read or write, but everyone knew these myths. So anyone who held one of these Antinous/Poseidon coins could "read" the gay symbolism.

So any discovery concerning Neptune/Poseidon is of great interest to us, since the dig could ultimately reveal Antinous-related artefacts.

At the Sozopol site, Dimitrov said that the numerous pieces of marble found during excavations indicate that the temple was destroyed after the declaration of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire in 330 AD.

The structure was partially pulled down and partially reconfigured as a Christian house of worship dedicated to a Christian saint, whose iconography was similar to that of the ancient god Neptune.

Dimitrov said that in Sozopol, there was a simiar example of how a temple to the Thracian horseman in the centre of the old town was converted into a church dedicated to Saint George, riding a horse to slay a demon dragon.

He said, according to a report by local news agency Focus, that in the case of the temple to Neptune – the god of the sea – the time of its destruction saw the building of a Christian church a very short distance away, dedicated to Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of fishermen and sailors.

THE HELIACAL RISING OF THE DOG STAR

THE "Dog Days" are here! In Ancient Egypt, the "Heliacal Rising of Sirius" occurred in mid-July ... but over the course of many centuries it now occurs in late July or early August (in the Northern Hemisphere). 

But depending on where you live on our planet, you may see Sirius/Sothis rising just before dawn any day now ... as nighttime turns to daytime.

During the daytime, look to the sun and you see Antinous conjoined with Ra-Herakhte, Apollo, Invictus, Horus, Mithras, Belenus, Balder, Huitzilopochtli and countless other solar deities. ANTONIUS SUBIA offers this prayer: 

Arise in Me…Sothis,

Let me be cleansed

Let me be renewed

Let the Inundation flood

Across the heart

Dog Star Returns

A New Antinous coming forth

To set the soul in order

To purify with clear water

That we may be whole again

~FLAMEN ANTONIUS SUBIA

WE REMEMBER HEROSTRATUS THE ULTIMATE NOTORIETY SEEKER

ON 21 July we remember Herostratus, whose name is synonymous with all persons who commit heinous crimes for the sole purpose of making their names notorious ... the eternally aggrieved ego ... the call for damnatio memoriae ... destroyer of beauty, youth and success perceived as insults to the entitled outsider.

Herostratus was a 4th Century BC Greek arsonist who sought notoriety by destroying one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, prompting a law forbidding anyone to mention his name.

His name has become a metonym for someone who commits a criminal act in order to become famous.

On 21 July 356 BC, seeking notoriety, he burned down the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Asia Minor (now Turkey).

Antinous and Hadrian visited TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS in June of 129 AD.

The temple honoured a local goddess, called Artemis by the Greeks, their version of Diana goddess of the hunt, the wild, and childbirth. 

The temple was constructed of marble and was built by King Croesus of Lydia to replace an older site destroyed during a flood. Measuring 130 meters long (425 feet) and supported by columns 18 meters high (60 feet), it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Far from attempting to evade responsibility for his act of arson, Herostratus proudly claimed credit in an attempt to immortalise his name. 

To dissuade those of a similar mind, the Ephesian authorities not only executed him, but attempted to condemn him to a legacy of obscurity by forbidding mention of his name under penalty of death. However, this did not stop Herostratus from achieving his goal because the ancient historian Theopompus recorded the event and its perpetrator in his Hellenics.

Herostratus' name lived on in classical literature and has passed into modern languages as a term for someone who commits a criminal act in order to bask in the resultant notoriety.

THE BIRTH OF ALEXANDER

IT IS SAID that on the night before the mother of Alexander, Olympias, was to be married to King Phillip of Macedonia, she dreamt that a thunderbolt struck her body and filled it with power.

After the marriage, it is said that Phillip peeked into her chamber, and found her lying with a serpent, and that he afterward dreamt that her womb was sealed and that a lion dwelled within her. 

And on the night that he was born, 20th of July, 356 BC, the great Temple at Ephesus was burned to the ground by a vandal, because the goddess Artemis was away, assisting with the birth of Alexander the Great.

He was considered to be the son of Zeus, and this divine origin was  what was given as an explanation for the unprecedented conquests that he accomplished. In his youth Aristotle, a student of Plato, educated him along with his following of young princes, who were later serve as his generals, and the founders of great dynastic monarchies of the Hellenistic world.

Foremost of these was his ever loyal and devoted Hepheistion, whose reciprocated love for Alexander was homosexual in nature.

In one of their first battles, while Phillip was still king, the young Alexander proved himself by defeating the Sacred Band of Thebes, the army of homosexual lovers who were the most famous and courageous warriors of their time.

Alexander is said to have wept at their destruction, and buried them with honor, erecting a statue of a Lion over their graves.

He would later go one to conquer the entire Eastern world, Asia Minor, Syria, Judea, Egypt, and all of Persia, as far East as India. The Empire of Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the world, and made the communication of far-distant ideas possible so that the new Hellenistic culture that he created, was a combination of classical Greece and of the exotic cultures that were imported from every corner.

After the death of Alexander, at only 33 years of age, he was deified by his generals who divided his great Empire among themselves. We praise the glorious warrior Alexander of Macedonia, and elevate him, and worship him as a God, an example of the greatness of homosexuality, and a heroic protector of the Divine Antinous.

ALEXANDRIA ALIGNED TO SUN ON ALEXANDER THE GREAT'S BIRTHDAY

ALEXANDRIA, home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, may have been built to align with the rising sun on the day of Alexander the Great's birth.

The Macedonian king, who commanded an empire that stretched from Greece to Egypt to the Indus River in what is now India, founded the city of Alexandria in 331 B.C. 

It would later become hugely prosperous, home to Cleopatra, the magnificent Royal Library of Alexandria and the 450-foot-tall (140  meters) Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD.

Hadrian and Antinous visited Alexandria in the summer and early autumn of 130 AD.

Ancient Alexandria was planned around a main east-west thoroughfare called the Canopic Road, points out Giulio Magli, an archaeo-astronomer at the Politecnico of Milan. 

A study of the ancient route reveals it is not laid out according to topography; for example, it doesn't run quite parallel to the coastline. 

But on July 20th, the birthday of Alexander the Great, the rising sun of the 4th Century BC rose "in almost perfect alignment with the road," Magli was quoted as saying.

July 20th, 356 BC, is the date which has always been accepted as the birthday of Alexander the Great. Whether it was his actual birthday or only the official royal observance of his birth is unknown.

It is said that on the night before the mother of Alexander, Olympias, was to be married to King Phillip of Macedonia, she dreamt that a thunderbolt struck her body and filled it with power.

After the marriage, it is said that Phillip peeked into her chamber, and found her lying with a serpent, and that he afterward dreamt that her womb was sealed and that a lion dwelled within her. 

And on the night that he was born, 20th of July, 356 BC, the great Temple at Ephesus was burned to the ground by a vandal, because the goddess Artemis was away, assisting with the birth of Alexander the Great.

He was considered to be the son of Zeus, and this divine origin was what was given as an explanation for the unprecedented conquests that he accomplished. In his youth Aristotle, a student of Plato, educated him along with his following of young princes, who were later serve as his generals, and the founders of great dynastic monarchies of the Hellenistic world.

Foremost of these was his ever loyal and devoted Hepheistion, whose reciprocated love for Alexander was homosexual in nature.

In one of their first battles, while Phillip was still king, the young Alexander proved himself by defeating the SACRED BAND OF THEBES, the army of homosexual lovers who were the most famous and courageous warriors of their time.

Alexander is said to have wept at their destruction, and buried them with honor, erecting a statue of a Lion over their graves.

He would later go one to conquer the entire Eastern world, Asia Minor, Syria, Judea, Egypt, and all of Persia, as far East as India.

The Empire of Alexander spread Greek culture throughout the world, and made the communication of far-distant ideas possible so that the new Hellenistic culture that he created, was a combination of classical Greece and of the exotic cultures that were imported from every corner.

After the death of Alexander, at only 33 years of age, he was deified by his generals who divided his great Empire among themselves. We praise the glorious warrior Alexander of Macedonia, and elevate him, and worship him as a God, an example of the greatness of homosexuality, and a heroic protector of the Divine Antinous.