ANTINOUS IS THE GOD OF LOST BOYS
HE WANDERS WITH WILD BOYS
Antinous is the God of youths such as the "Forest Boy" — dubbed the "Waldjunge" by the German tabloids — an English-speaking teenager who showed up in Berlin last year saying he had been living in forests for five years. He was the biggest sensation since the mysterious "Piano Man" back in 2005 who showed up on the shores of England, clutching a music manuscript and unable to say who he was.
The
17-year-old, who turned up at Berlin's city hall, said he had been
walking for two weeks but had no idea who he was or where he was from.
He told officers that he and his father moved to the forest about five years ago following the
death of his mother and had lived off the land since, sleeping in a tent and remote huts.
He
said his father had also died recently and that he had buried him in a
shallow grave before setting off to find help. But he said he cannot
remember where he buried his father.
Detectives said the teenager, who gave his name as Ray, spoke a little German, but his first language appeared to be English.
He
was able to tell officers his name and his date of birth, but claimed
not to remember either of his parents' names or anything of his life
before he entered the forest.
Despite being dishevelled, he was described as being fit and healthy and showing no signs of malnourishment or abuse.
In
Germany, a country where EVERY person has identity papers, it is almost
inconceivable that a teenager could be totally "undocumented."
Most
European countries have ironclad bureaucratic regulations requiring
people to be registered with the
police, with tax authorities, health insurance authorities, and all
sorts of local, state and federal agencies. You can't get a job or buy a
car or rent an apartment without presenting all sorts of documents
proving you exist.
In
Britain and other English-speaking countries, of course, there are no
identity papers. Americans use driver's licenses for identification. But
in Europe EVERY body has ID papers.
So the authorities in
Germany were stumped — basically, his existence was impossible. He did't show up on bureaucratic radar. He was a non-entity.
Either
he was the most cunning fraudster ever — or there was a very great
mystery concerning him — almost as if he was a being from a distant star
who has fallen to Earth, like some old David Bowie movie.
He is Robin Van Helsum, a 20-year old from Hengelo in the Netherlands who was reported missing by his family last September, just days before he turned up in Berlin with his incredible story.
"He has admitted that he is a fraud," Thomas Neuendorf of the Berlin Police told THE DAILY TELEGRAPH.
School friends contacted Dutch police after recognising him from the photograph and his stepmother, seemingly his only family, was contacted to confirm it.
"We went to him with the new information this morning and he said: 'OK,
you got me — I am Robin and I made the whole story up," Mr
Neuendorf said on Friday.He is the biggest sensation since the mysterious "Piano Man" (photo left) back in 2005 who showed up on the shores of England, clutching a music manuscript and unable to say who he was.
He turned out to be a young man who was trying to escape a horrible father in a village in Bavaria.
German authorities finally tracked down the identity of the "Piano Man" and pronounced the case closed because they found his identity papers.
Now
German authorities — who cannot conceive of anything existing outside
of bureaucratic documentation — have an identity for the "Forest Boy." Ray/Robin has a name, but they still insist that he is delusional.
Only Antinous knows for sure — and he isn't telling!
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