PRIEST NIKIAS AND THE MIRACLE OF ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

(From THE MEMOIRS OF AN ANCIENT PRIEST by Ernest Gill)

 

THIS tale was told at the great Temple of Antinous at Rome under the most exalted Priest Nikias.

Nikias of Rome was the author of a famous inscription in Greek which addresses Antinous as NEOS HERMES the "New Hermes" who conveys the deceased through the portals of death into transcendent light. A great Antinoo-Hermeticist, Nikias had taught them much about the triumph of Antinous over death.

One day an old farmer lost his best stallion and went to Priest Nikias to ask for a miracle from Antinous to change his bad fortune, but Nikias told the farmer, "Who knows what is good and what is bad."

The next day the stallion returned bringing with him three wild mares. The farmer rushed back to praise Antinous for the miracle which brought such good fortune, but Priest Nikias simply said, "Who knows what is good and what is bad."

The following day, the farmer's son fell from one of the wild mares while trying to break her in and broke his arm and injured his leg. The farmer went to the temple in mourning to ask for prayers to reverse the bad fortune which had befallen his son.

But Priest Nikias only placed his hand on the farmer's shoulder and said, "Who knows what is good and what is bad."

The next day the army came to the farm to conscript the farmer's son for the Legions, but found him invalid and left him with his father.

The farmer rushed to the temple and prostrated himself before Priest Nikias, kissing the hem of his garment and saying over and over, "Who knows what is good and what is bad."

NATALIS ANTINOI 2013

Click on this video to see the ceremonies 

Celebrating the Birthday of Antinous 

On November 27, 2013, 

At the Hollywood Temple of Antinous 

With participants from around the world via Skype:

YOUR ONLINE ANTINOUS SHOP

LOOKING for that perfect holiday season gift? One-stop shopping is just one click away at the online TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS SHOP

This shop features official Antinous articles selected and designed by FLAMEN ANTONYUS SUBIA personally.

If you admire the artwork of Antonyus, then order your own posters of his hand-picked favorite paintings and photographs.

A wide range of T-shirts is available, including classic "T", fitted "T", ringer "T", sleeveless, long-sleeve and baseball jersey — in up to nine colors, depending on the style and design you prefer.

The handy Antinous Tote Bag is a must-have as is a wide array of Antinous lapel buttons and refrigerator magnets in various sizes and designs.

Naturally, there are coffee mugs — and even an official Antinous beer stein appropriately adorned with the well-known Subian portrait of Antinous/Dionysus.

One of our favorites is the Antinous Keepsake Box, available in red-mahogany or black, with a tile cover portrait of the Louvre's breath-taking Ecouen Antinous. This roomy box is perfect for any home shrine or altar and is the perfect jewelry box.

And of course the ever-popular Antinous bumper sticker (at the top of this entry) provides the Beauteous Boy's blessings on any vehicle.

All items are ordered with safety and guaranteed efficiency through cafepress, which has a sound reputation for speedy delivery around the world, with secure payment in all major currencies.

JEAN-BAPTISTE de LULLY SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON November 28th the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lully, who was born on this day in 1632 in Florence, Italy. 

Parlaying his looks, his dancing and his musical genius into an erotic/artistic career, he rose from being a scullery knave to becoming director of music in the Court of French King Louis XIV. 

By the time he died on March 22, 1687, he had created a new art form and had changed the course of the performing arts forever.

Lully's story has some parallels to the story of Hadrian and Antinous. The parallels are not exact. It is more as though Lully and Louis XIV were a "parallel universe" story of Antinous and Hadrian with bizarre twists thrown in to the plot of the story.

Lully was totally dependent upon the Sun King and was totally devoted to him. When the king expressed a whim to learn to dance, Lully became his dance instructor, creating a whole new art form involving dance and song.

Quite aside from his infamous carousing with boys, Lully was desperately in love with Louis XIV. It was an impossible love, of course. It could never be consummated.

The king viewed Lully as his artistic mentor, but nothing more. Lully viewed the king as the love of his life, and his art was merely an expression of that love.

Unwittingly, Lully planted the seeds for his own doom. Others took his idea and developed it further: And Opera was born.

The king became infatuated with Opera and totally lost interest in Lully's Baroque stage productions. He forgot all about Lully.

For Lully, that was tantamount to death, and he soon died as the result of a tragic "accident" -- he plunged a sharp baton-sceptre through his foot in a rage of despair after the king failed to appear at the debut of his latest masterpiece.

The wound became gangrenous, but when physicians advised that the foot must be amputated, St. Jean-Baptiste refused, saying that if he could never dance again, then he would prefer to be dead.

Yes, his life was like some nightmare, parallel-universe version of the Hadrian and Antinous story, set against the backdrop of men in silk brocade costumes and in four-inch heels and wearing ornate wigs. It is a story of a man's unconditional love and self-sacrifice for his Sun King.

St. Jean-Baptiste de Lully had a deep fondness for the Roman Gods, and he portrayed them with the gay flourish of the the court of the Sun King. It remains a style all its own, completely out of fashion...even among classical music weirdos.

We adore St. Lully's music...we adore the grace and profound emotions that pour from his chords. We love the beauty of his style of dance.

No doubt when Monsieur St. de Lully arrived at the Divine court of Hadrian the God, he immediately set about rearranging the Imperial Orchestra, replacing the Ney Flutes with Bassoons and Oboes, dismissing the Cythara in favor of Violas de Gamba.

Perhaps the old Greek musicians might have taken insult at being swept aside, but with a wave of his hand...Antinous calmed them.

So it was that the celestial Imperial Orchestra performed the new opera Of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lully. The Imperial Court was astonished to hear the new sound. Even the Greeks were amazed (and the Greeks had heard everything). And With a wreathed nod of his illuminated head, Hadrian enthroned commanded his beloved Antinous to dance.

When we join the court of Hadrian in the heavens, we will see Antinous dance to the new music of Saint Jean-Baptiste de Lully.

ANTINOUS WAS BORN ON THIS DAY 1,902 YEARS AGO

ANTINOUS was born on this day, November 27th in the year 111 AD — 1,902 years ago!

Festive celebrations are being held by worshipers all over the world, with special rites being conducted at the HOLLYWOOD TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS.

Antinous was born in the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis, modern-day Bolu in Turkey.

It was a major city in those days with a Hellenistic/Roman heritage dating back centuries. It was nestled among snow-capped peaks and woodlands full of wild beasts and full of mythical magic.

The portrait of the newborn baby Antinous and his mother against the backdrop of a Bithynian conifer forest is by PRIEST UENDI, a New York artist who now lives in Hollywood.

Modern Claudiopolis/Bolu is a sleepy health resort. Not too many foreign tourists go there, but the area is a popular with Turkish vacationers because of its pine-covered mountains and its sparkling lakes and spa waters.

The altitude makes it refreshingly cooler than lower-lying regions, so Turks go there to get away from the heat and noise of places like Istanbul and Ankara.

Wikipedia says: "Local specialities include a sweet made of hazelnuts (which grow in abundance here) and an eau-de-cologne with the scent of grass. One feature of Bolu dear to the local people is the soft spring water obtained from fountains in the town."
 
Hazelnut candy? Grass-scented cologne? Amazingly soft spring water? Somehow that one little paragraph makes it sound like a place where Antinous would have to have been born.

The area where Antinous was born is a beautiful place, nestled high in piney forests and yet only a short distance from the sparkling Black Sea coast about halfway between Istanbul and Ankara.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium. As a boy, Antinous must have played in these forests and bathed in these sparkling lakes.

He would have remembered these boyhood days during his travels with Hadrian to the far corners of the Empire. We often forget that Antinous had a family who must have loved him and missed him. They were no doubt proud of him, but they missed him.

And he missed them as he also missed his lovely Bithynia with its mountains and lakes and deep forests which, in winter, are covered in deep snow.

The first snows may have already fallen "back home" at the end of October in 130 AD when Antinous stood on the banks of the Nile in Upper Egypt. Perhaps he had received a letter from home with the latest family gossip and news of the first snowfall. He would have remembered the scent of pine forests and fresh-fallen snow.

As he looked into the green waters of the Nile in far-away Egypt at the end of his brief life, perhaps he thought of "home" and lakes and dark forests and pine cones and the scent of hazelnuts being roasted and mixed with rose water and honey to make candy.

November 27th is an introspective moment ... an evaluation of things past ... and things to come. And above all, it is birthday party time. Let the Festive Season Begin with an Antinous Birthday Party!

HOW TO PLAN YOUR OWN FESTIVE ANTINOUS BIRTHDAY PARTY

ANTINOUS was born on November 27 and worshipers around the world are busy planning their own festivities ... from Chile to Canada and from New England in the US to New South Wales in Australia.

November marks the start of the ancient pagan Festive Season, a season which is still full of fabulous party dates ... including Christmas, New Year's Eve, Twelfth Night and of course American Thanksgiving. Dia de los Muertos and Halloween/Samhain usher in this Festive Season of twinkly lights and over-eating and drinking way too much. 

The images on this page offer inspiration for Antinous Birthday festivities. Above is "Das Gastmahl" (The Symposion Feast) by Anton von Werner (1877) - preliminary color sketch as part of a series of wall murals on the theme of "Roman Life" for the Café Bauer (53 x 89 cm) (Privately Owned).

The other images are courtesy of the gifted artist FELIX D'EON and serve as an inspiration for Antinous Birthday festivities in the open air.

These ancient festivities go back WAAAAY before Christianity, of course. So it's a safe bet that Hadrian and Antinous would recognize many of the features of these festivities

So when you plan your Antinous Birthday Party, you can mix-and-match customs from all sorts of pagan Festive Season holidays, in full knowledge that Hadrian and Antinous would nod in approval.

It should be celebrated with feasting and drinking and singing and carousing. Green boughs (palm fronds, holly, pine boughs or whatever is native to your climate) should decorate the feast room in honour of the forests of Bithynia, the highlands of modern-day Turkey where Antinous was born.

Electric lights should be turned off in favor of candlelight or at the very least those strings of tiny "fairy lights" which Moslems use during Ramadan and Hindus during Divali and Christians at Christmas.

The one really bright spot in the room should be a bust or image of Antinous, which is spotlighted, signifying our belief that Antinous brings light into the world.

The Antinous Rosy Lotus would be perfect. But since not everyone has access to lotus blossoms in late November, orchids would also be fine. Bithynia was well known evenin Ancient Times for its forest orchids and the Romans loved orchids -- even orchid root beverages!

Orchids would be lovely as well as being a Hellenistic conversation piece. If they are too pricey, then your favorite seasonal flower will do. Look around and find something that is beautiful and unique to your own locale which you think would be very nice.

The Birthday of Antinous would be a wonderful opportunity for a costume party, also in keeping with the Halloween/Carnaval/Christmas flavor of these ancient pagan holidays. Guests might be encouraged to come as Greco-Romans or Egyptian priests.

The menu could be Mediterranean, with lots of finger foods such as tahini and couscous and humous and pita bread, stuffed olives, eggplant/aubergine, goat's cheese and so on. Refried beans (which the Egyptians call "fuul" and eat for breakfast) would be ideal since the theory goes that the Moors introduced "fuul" to the Spaniards, who introduced it to the New World, where it became refritos -- Mexican refried beans.

But you should feel free to go local with favorite regional dishes of your home area. There must be lots of good South American dishes which would be perfect, or Scottish specialties, or Aussie barbecued prawns or New England pot pies -- good simple "plebeian" food which is festive and spicy and filling.

In keeping with these pagan festivals, foods should represent birth and regeneration: beans, peas, black-eyed peas, pumpkins, squash, nuts, berries.

It doesn't really matter what food is served, of course, as long as it's delicious and plentiful, and as long as there is plenty of drink to wash it down, wine or beer or just good old iced tea.

Beer is quite appropriate, since the Ancient Egyptians were brewing beer thousands of years before Antinous was born.

Just imagine: Antinous' last meal may have been refried beans and beer and flat bread.

In a change from holiday cakes and cookies, how about baking Antinous cookies? Bake simple sugar cookies which have been cut out to resemble stars, comets, an imperial crown and Bithynian fir trees and lions and so on and decorate them with Antinoian lettering or symbols.

Instead of gingerbread men, make gingerbread Antinouses. The gingerbread man, after all, is thought to come from pagan rituals for honoring Thor or other gods. Generally, they are sweet dough which is filled with a nut-date-spice filling representing rebirth and spiritual sustenance. You still find them today on St. Nicholas' feast day throughout Europe.

Whatever you bake, make sure to include a small "surprise" somewhere in the cake or muffin or cookes for some lucky guest to chomp down on. It doesn't have to be a diamond ring, but a trinket of some sort is always fun. 

If that is too challenging for your skills as a confectioner, then just an ordinary cake with the letters "A-N-T-I-N-O-U-S" in store-bought candy lettering would do the job just as nicely. 

Or just a large "A" in icing in the middle of the cake.

Another tradition should be oracle games. This is the first major festival of the New Year in the Antinoian liturgical calendar, so oracles are appropriate.

And when your guests suggest you are robbing traditions from Christian festivals, just look them square in the eye and insist that the Christians stole these wonderful traditions from us pagans because the Christians didn't have any of their own. Where would Christian holidays be without pagan traditions?

Who knows? Perhaps Hadrian and Antinous enjoyed these very same pagan traditions in their Saturnalia revelries.

One more thing: Mistletoe. Mistletoe is plentiful in the forests of Bithynia. Antinous would be well familiar with mistletoe. I'm sure he would like it as a reminder of his boyhood hikes through the woods of home.

Use your imagination and you'll come up with lots of ideas.

Let the Festive Season Begin with an Antinous Birthday Party!
 

VANDALS PILFER GANYMEDE STATUE FROM A MUSEUM IN CARTHAGE

VANDALS have broken into the Paleo-Christian Museum in Carthage and stolen a 5th Century AD marble statue depicting the mythological figure of Ganymede embracing Zeus in the form of an eagle. 

First discovered in pieces during a 1977 excavation in a cistern under the House of the Greek Charioteers in Carthage, the statue measured over a foot and a half (30 cm) once it was restored. 

Study of the sculpture and others like it made clear that wealthy Christians of the period did not hesitate to decorate their homes with pagan sculptures. 

The Tunisian police and Interpol are now on the lookout for the statue.

Throughout history, Antinous has been compared with Ganymede, with Hadrian as Jupiter/Zeus. 

Ganymede was the local deity of Pergamum. So when Antinous and Hadrian arrived in the spring of 129 AD, Hadrian was worshipped as the new Zeus/Jupiter (an honor he did not refuse) ... and Antinous was adored as the new Ganymede.

After Antinous died, Hadrian looked into the heavens and saw a new star in the Constellation of Ganymede ... which he renamed the CONSTELLATION OF ANTINOUS. 

Flamen Antonyus says: "The triumph of Antinous is the Ascension of Ganymede within the Cosmos of our own soul. There is a bit of Ganymede in each of us ... for we have been chosen ... we are GAY" ....

FREDDIE MERCURY SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON November 24th the Religion of Antinous celebrates the outrageous life of St. Freddie Mercury.

St. Freddie Mercury whose death from AIDS on this date in 1991 shocked the world, was a courageous performer whose gayness, while not always stated, was a visible part of his persona. He served as an inspiration for millions of gay men, particularly those who, like him, fight ethnic prejudice every day of their lives.

St. Freddie, who was of Indian Parsi descent, and who was born on the island of Zanzibar and grew up in India, has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star."

Like all great showbiz artists, St. Freddie was acutely aware of his public image and went to great lengths to cultivate the persona of Freddie Mercury -- and to hide any trace of the little Parsi boy named Farrokh Bulsara. Freddie Mercury -- or rather the showbiz image called Freddie Mercury -- was beyond all definitions of ethnic origin, or sexual orientation or political affiliation. Not surprisingly, many people were confused and sometimes irritated by the image.

People criticized him for "hiding" his ethnic background. But as a friend told an interviewer after Freddie's death, "[Farrokh] Bulsara was a name he had buried. 

He never wanted to talk about any period in his life before he became Freddie Mercury, and everything about Freddie Mercury was a self-constructed thing."

People also criticized him for not "coming out" publicly. But again, Freddie Mercury (the showbiz image) was beyond gender limitations. 

In fact, Mercury referred to himself as "gay" in a 1974 interview with NME magazine. He was frequently spotted at the cruisiest gay bars across Europe, the UK and America. On the other hand, he would often distance himself from partner Jim Hutton during public events in the 1980s.

Freddie Mercury (the rock icon) was too big to be contained in one gender mold.

He was diagnosed with HIV in 1987. Everyone knew he was sick and everyone surmised the reason. But Freddie Mercury (the image) could never die.

And so it was, that Freddie Mercury never acknowledged his illness until November 23, 1991, when a tersely worded statement was issued announcing that he had AIDS.

A few hours later, he was dead. At the age of 45.

Although he cultivated a very flamboyant stage personality, several sources (including people of my own acquaintance who knew him "intimately") refer to Mercury as having been very shy in person. He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself: "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."

One man was an Indian Parsi kid called Farrokh Bulsara who had been born in Zanzibar.

The other man was FREDDIE MERCURY:

Farrokh Bulsara died on November 23, 1991.

Freddie Mercury will live forever.

The Religion of Antinous honors Freddie Mercury as a Saint of Antinous because he embodies the artistic genius and the flamboyant courage that inspires each of us to strive to be a "star". St. Freddie Mercury admonishes us to strip off the guise of conventionality and the put on our "star" outfits and to take the stage of life. He teaches us to live each day as if it is forever.

HADRIAN'S VILLA IS REBORN AS A VIRTUAL 3-D WORLD YOU CAN INHABIT

IN a dramatic first, experts have brought Hadrian's Villa to life in virtual 3-D with the much-anticipated official public launch of the Hadrian's Villa Project in Washington, DC.

Bernie Frischer, a digital archaeologist at Indiana University and one of the first academics to use 3-D computer modeling to reconstruct cultural heritage sites, spent five years leading the development of this extraordinary 3-D VIRTUAL HADRIAN'S VILLA. 

The virtual simulation interprets the entire 250 acres and the more than 30 buildings of the 2nd-Century site.

The image above shows the digital 3-D virtual recreation of the Piazza D'Oro and adjacent gardens at Hadrian's Villa. The other image shows the ruins which visitors to the site see today.

Using a live 3-D multi-user online learning environment, visitors can interactively explore the entire villa complex.

A RELATED WEBSITE documents the state of the site today and gives the scholarly background needed to understand the virtual simulation. 

The project combines information garnered from scholarly studies of how the villa was used with the virtual world gaming platform Unity 3D.

Frischer and the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory, which he directs at IU's School of Informatics and Computing, worked with the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts at Ball State University to offer visitors the opportunity to take on the roles of historically accurate avatars.

 That means you can slip into the avatar identity of members of the Imperial Court and Roman senators as well as soldiers and slaves. 

"The website makes it possible to study the state of the ruins today, including many sites on private land or in parts of the archaeological park closed to the public," Frischer said.

"The simulation shows how the site looked during the reign of Hadrian," he added. "It can be freely explored and used to support teaching and research." 

Non-playing characters also populate various places in the virtual villa, carrying out daily activities that would have occurred during the final years of Hadrian’s reign from 117 to 138 A.D. 

A visit to the website might include eavesdropping on an imperial audience, participating in a feast, bathing or worshipping.

"A user can select from a variety of avatars representing class, gender and ethnicity, including courtiers, senators, scholars, freemen, soldiers and slaves," Frischer said.

"This avatar system was based on scholarly studies of the circulation and flow throughout the villa," he added. "The goal was to make everything evidence-based, from the avatars' costumes to their gestures." 

For an example of the avatar experience, join Frischer on an eight-minute YouTube tour of the virtual villa, with Frischer playing the avatar's role of Hadrian.

TALK ABOUT FOOD PRESERVATIVES MUMMY MEALS WERE MEANT FOR ETERNITY

EGYPTOLOGISTS studying a 3,400-year-old mummified beef rib have discovered that "meat mummies" intended to serve as food in the afterlife were treated with a resin balm that was more sophisticated than the ones used on human mummies. 

Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol in the UK and a team of researchers are investigating how meat products were preserved for provisioning ancient Egyptian tombs. 

"We've done quite a bit on human Egyptian mummies and even a fair bit on animal mummies. But the meat mummies…they'd been sort of left on their own," he explained. 

For example, a calf and a goat leg he and his team examined with mass spectroscopy had been wrapped in bandages and smeared with animal fat. 

A few hundred years earlier, beef ribs prepared for a the 14th Century BC tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III were treated with an expensive resin imported from the Mediterranean. 

The resin may have been used to flavor food at this time, but it was eventually used in human mummification. 

"I think you’d be extremely unwise to try to eat them," he added.

But they apparently for delicacies for the KA of the deceased.

Of course, we wonder what foods were placed in the Tomb of Antinous ... the tomb which has never been found ... yet.

QUENTIN CRISP SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON November 21st the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Quentin Crisp, who died on this day in 1999. He was born on Christmas Day in 1908. 

He became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, his true-life account of his defiant exhibitionism and longstanding refusal to conceal his homosexuality.

John Hurt helped to make Quentin Crisp a media star in the movie adaptation of The Naked Civil Servant in the 1970s. In a sequel 30 years later Hurt made him a screen legend, very much in keeping with the lifelong ambition of Quentin Crisp.

In the second film, An Englishman In New York, Hurt portrayed the elderly Quentin Crisp as the New York gay icon based in Manhattan's funky-gritty Lower East Side in the 1980s and '90s.

At an age when most people would retire to a nursing home, Quentin Crisp left his native England and moved to New York City, where he pursued a career as a bon vivant and raconteur.

Asked by a BBC interview if he intended to die in New York, Saint Quentin emphatically said: "Oh no, I didn't come to New York to die. I came to New York to LIVE."

Arriving in New York in his 70s, he lived in his accustomed artistic squalor in a Lower East Side walk-up with a view through a grimy window pane of the next door neighbor's grimy bedroom window.

Every bit the considerate Englishman, he turned off his bare-bulb light at 11 p.m. and sat in the dark, lest the neighbor complain the glare from the 60-watt bulb (through two filthy window panes) kept him awake.

Saint Quentin experienced a meteoric rise after his cunning agent launched him into a career as a raconteur in an off-Broadway one-man show and he became a movie reviewer for a Christopher Street magazine.

But he experienced a meteoric fall from grace when, during one of his frequent TV talk-show appearances, he flippantly remarked that AIDS was "just a fad" which would soon be out of fashion, and the gay community viciously turned on him. Quentin, who had never apologized for anything in his life (and was not about to start apologizing), was perplexed when he was dropped by his agent and editor until his eyes were opened when he got to know young artist Patrick Angus, who later died of AIDS.

But in a Hollywood happy ending, Quentin was rescued by performance artist Penny Arcade, who put him back on stage, and Christopher Street re-hired him, paving the way for a glorious comeback and reconciliation with the gay community when he was in his 90s.

It is fitting that most people know Saint Quentin only through these two films. As might be expected, the best recommendation for the films comes from Quentin Crisp himself, who once famously said: "Any film, even the worst, is better than real life."

KLAUS WITZELING A "BLESSED" OF ANTINOUS

ON November 20th we honor a modern-day mortal whose loving support has been instrumental in establishing the Religion of Antinous in the 21st Century.

Klaus Witzeling, born on this day in 1944, spearheaded the effort to expand our religion from North America back to its roots in Europe.

Born in Graz, Austria, he was trained as an actor at the famed Max Reinhardt Institute in Vienna before moving to Hamburg, Germany, where he become a well-known drama and dance critic.

His open gayness and his tireless efforts to promote new talent were instrumental in the resurgence of modern dance and independent theatrical groups in the German-speaking world over the past 30 years.

He was known for his fair and unbiased critiques. And he was especially noted for promoting obscure dance troupes and unknown actors. His insistent emphasis on furthering new talent helped to make stars out of actors and dancers who otherwise might never have become well known.

Modest to the point of introversion, he wanted no funeral services or wake. But following his death on September 29th, 2013, scores of theatrical directors, actors, dancers, agents and fellow journalists spontaneously organized a gala evening at a theatre in Hamburg in his honor.

As a Blessed of Antinous, Klaus intercedes on behalf of those in the performing arts who know the angst of standing in the wings ... waiting for their cue to go out on stage. We offer this prayer to Antinous for Klaus to intercede on their behalf:

May Klaus Witzeling have the gift of unlimited 

Antinous heka magic ...

May he have the gift of unlimited Semen of the First God ...

That he intercedes for those who dedicate their lives 

To the performing arts

That they stride onto the stage of life

With confidence and audacity

That they generously open their hearts

To the Homotheosis of Antinous

Living it in the midst of the challenges

And demands of their calling

As a spotlight on the dark stage of mortal existence

Shining as a beacon for those sitting in the darkness

That they might also fulfill their gay spiritual potential

Through Antinous the Gay God

WORLD'S OLDEST PORN FEATURES GAY SEX SCENE

ONE of the world's earliest carvings conveying human sexuality shows homosexuality was common, even over 3,000 years ago

The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs, rock carvings found in a remote region in northwest China, show a fertility ritual.

Archaeologist Wang Binghua discovered the symbols in the late 1980s, but little has been written about them.

In a new report from Mary Mycio, the carvings show 100 figures which abstractly depicts different ways of expressing sexuality.

While carvings have been found dating back over 20,000 years, these petroglyphs are probably the most explicit and intricate.

Mycio writes: "The few scholars who have studied the petroglyphs think that the larger-than-life hourglass figures that begin the tableau symbolize females. They have stylized triangular torsos, shapely hips and legs, and they wear conical headdresses with wispy decorations.

"Male images are smaller triangles with stick legs and bare heads. Ithyphallic is archeology-talk for 'erect penis,' and nearly all of the males have one.

"A third set of figures appear to be bisexual. Combining elements of males and females, they are ithyphallic but wear female headwear, a decoration on the chest, and sometimes a mask. They might be shamans.

Mycio describes four fully-developed scenes, beginning at a height of 30 feet.

In the first, nine large women and two small men dance in a circle while a dual-gender person to the side shows off an obvious erection.

The second scene shows women and men dancing in a frenzy around a large erect dual-gender person about to penetrate a small female. On the left, another bisexual in a money mask is about to penetrate another faceless person.

The next scene is smaller, showing a chorus line of infants emerging from a female being penetrated simultaneously by a male and a bisexual while three other erect males await their turn.

In the last full scene, it contains no women at all.

Mycio writes: "Ithyphallic males and a bisexual take part in a frenzied dance. One male seems to have his arm around another while a loner near the bottom seems to be masturbating as a parade of tiny infants streams from his erection. It looks a lot like a frat party."

It could be argued the bisexuals are not people attracted to both genders, as the figures could be transgendered or similar to the ‘two-spirit’ people found in North American tribes.

STUNNING NEW VIDEO RECREATES LOCATIONS IN HADRIAN'S LIFE

A stunning new video by the ALTAIR4 team of 3-D archaeological recreations portrays locations in Emperor Hadrian's life.

The video shows portions of Hadrian's Villa, Nero's Golden House, the Acropolis in Athens, the Temple of Isis at Philae and Karnak in ancient Thebes....

Click HERE for more 3-D archaeological recreations.

VIRTUAL ARCHEO-MUSEUM RECREATES VESUVIUS DRAMA IN AN ECO-FRIENDLY WAY

THIS weekend celebrations are taking place at Herculaneum to mark the second anniversary of a Virtual 3-D Archaeological Museum which has drawn 150,000 visitors since opening on November 16th, 2011.

The response has been overwhelming and very encouraging to archaeologists, who have been alarmed that Pompeii and Herculaneum are now falling to ruin again ... as wind, rain, and thieving tourists threaten to remove the last vestiges that the volcano's lava and pyroclastic surges missed in 79 AD.

To help avert a second disaster whose ramifications would be irreversible, experts opened the MUSEO ARCHAEOLOGICO VIRTUALE (MAV) ... just a stone's throw away from the archaeological dig at the ancient Herculaneum.

It is one of the most advanced centers of culture and technology applied to Cultural Heritage and communication in Italy.

It houses a unique and extraordinary museum: a virtual and interactive tour during which visitors experience the emotion of travelling back in time to the moment before the eruption of 79 AD, described by Pliny, which destroyed the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

Over seventy multimedia installations bring back the life and splendor of the main archaeological areas of Pompeii, Herculaneum, Baia, Stabia and Capri.

Through scene reconstructions, visual interfaces and holograms, you are led into a virtual dimension, experiencing the archaeological heritage interactively by exploiting the new opportunities offered by multimedia technologies.

The MAV is a place for learning and understanding, where the real and the imaginary meet to give life to new ways of learning and of entertainment.
  

LOZEN, APACHE WARRIORESS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

WE honor Lozen, the lesbian Apache warrioress and holy woman who fought with Geronimo, and who was with his final band of warriors when they surrendered.

She is a blessed Saint of Antinous.

A contemporary observer said:

"Lozen had no concern for her appearance and, even though she is seen in several famous photos of Geronimo with his warriors, there is nothing to indicate that she is a woman. You would never spot her. She was very manly in her appearance, dressed like a man, lived and fought like a man. She never married, and devoted her life to the service of her people, to the very end."

MARGUERITE YOURCENAR SHOWS YOU HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE NAME 'ANTINOUS'

IN a rare interview with our beloved Marguerite Yourcenar, author of the landmark classic historical novel MÉMOIRES D'HADRIEN (Memoirs of Hadrian), notice how she pronounces the name "Antinous."

CLICK HERE for the interview that was done for French television in 1979.

You will hear his name spoken correctly at exactly 5:45 minutes into the VIDEO where she says that "Hadrian was the only man to raise a cult for a male lover for a boyfriend for whom he was preoccupied with creating the greatest multitude of portraits in antiquity of any other person than of ANTINOOS!"

She pronounces it "On-Dthee-Noh-Oows" which is the Greco-Latin way. And according to the glyphs on the Obelisk of Antinous, it is the correct pronunciation. 

In English it is usually pronounced "an-TINN-oh-us" which cannot be how he called himself.

Flamen Antonyus Subia, who is from El Paso, explains:

"Latin is only straight-forward for Latinos...and by that I do not mean only for Hispanics, but for all Latinos...Anglo-Saxons pronounce everything in their Germanic accent...all the vowels and some of the consonants are usually wrong.

"I feel sweetly vindicated and comforted by hearing that the Grand Lady herself says his name the same way that I say it...the way I knew that it should be pronounced...

"We should speak his Most Holy Name the way that He himself said it, the way that his his mother said it the day he was born, and the way that Hadrian said it...when he spoke to him directly...and the way the ancient priests said it when they prayed to HIM."

ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

INVITES YOU TO TAKE HIS HAND

AND FLY WITH HIM OVER THE CITY OF ROME

AT THE HEIGHT OF HIS RELIGION

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY A.D.

TARRY A MOMENT WITH ANTINOUS IN HADRIAN's PANTHEON (4:00 min.)

A LITTLE ANTINOUS CAN GO A LONG WAY ... THANKS TO EBAY

WE like to keep a constant watch on EBAY for Antinous-related items which, for the most part, are photographs, lithographs and the occasional book ... or else magnificent sculptures for astronomical prices.

So when this lovely head of Antinous came up for sale from a dealer in Greece, we sat up and took notice. 

It is a modern-day tourist souvenir. In earlier centuries, wealthy American and European tourists bought finely crafted plaster or ceramic souvenirs of Antinous.

But now, thanks to epoxy plastics, it is possible to buy bonded-stone replicas for modest prices.

This head is imitation bronze, made of epoxy-bonded metal which gives the look and feel of bronze. It weighs 1.5 kilos and stands 19.5 cm (nearly 8 inches).

What Antinoophile could resist such a beautiful souvenir? Well, no one, apparently. It was snapped up for $79 almost instantly.

Once again, it pays to keep your eyes open ... and to program EBAY to alert you to any "Antinous" items. 

BOOK SAYS ROMANS INVENTED SOCIAL MEDIA BY POSTING ON THE WALL 2,000 YEARS AGO

THIS blog, Facebook and Twitter are simply the latest versions of social platforms invented by the Romans, according to a new book.

Its author claims that the internet has enabled the way people communicate with groups to return to its natural social state, as used by the Romans some 2,000 years ago.

In particular, British journalist Tom Standage says that the way ancient graffiti was used to boast or complain about a variety of subjects was a key moment in the birth of social networking.

In his latest book, Standage says modern users of social networks are the "unwitting heirs of a rich tradition with surprisingly deep historical roots."

In WRITING ON THE WALL: SOCIAL MEDIA - THE FIRST 2,000 YEARS, the Economist magazine’s digital editor writes that it is as if the Romans and several historical figures including Thomas Paine and Martin Luther were on Facebook as they communicated in a similar style to the statuses users post today.

He justifies the idea by defining social media as "an environment in which information was passed from one person to another along social connections in order to create a distributed discussion among a community."

For centuries, people communicated in a similar, shared way before the arrival of mass media and the printing press began spreading news in a "one-way conversation," Standage told Washington Monthly.

He believes it was similar to what we experience today when using social media and the internet, which has enabled anyone to become a publisher.

In the book, he traces the rise of social media throughout history and compares Facebook to large walls in the Forum, in Rome, where residents wrote messages about hotel reviews, political opinions and even their sexual conquests.

This painting, entitled "Pompeii At The Walls," is by Stefan Bakalowicz (1857-1947) who studied in Warsaw and St. Petersburg, then went to Paris, Algiers and Rome, where he settled in 1882. He specialized in paintings of life of ancient Rome ... he clearly adored every aspect of Roman life ....

NIANKHKHNUM and KHNUMHOTEP SAINTS OF ANTINOUS

ON November 11th the Religion of Antinous honors two men whose love for each other has survived the fall of all ancient civilizations.

We honor Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, Blessed Saints of Antinous.They lived in Egypt 2,000 years before the siege of Troy. 

They had been dead and forgotten for 2,650 years when Hadrian and Antinous visited Mennefer (Memphis) Egypt in 130 AD. 

Most likely Hadrian and Antinous stood directly on top of (or very nearly on top of) the lost tomb of these two men — two men who were buried together at the Memphis necropolis some 4,500 years ago.

When the tomb was discovered in 1964 it sent shock waves through the dusty world of Egyptology. The vividly painted reliefs on the walls of the tomb showed an intimate embrace between two male Royal Manicurists — the first recorded depiction of an openly homosexual couple.
Prudish Egyptologists have argued ever since that the two men were "just good friends" or perhaps that they were possibly "twin brothers".

But recent research by more open-minded archaeologists, such as California-based EGYPTOLOGIST GREG REEDER, has offered compelling evidence that the two men were more than "just good friends" or "close brothers."

Greg Reeder has written and lectured extensively on this extraordinary tomb, which was uncovered in 1964 in the necropolis of Saqqara at Memphis, on the west bank of the Nile. The site atop a cliff overlooking the Nile has drawn tourists since ancient times. Julius Caesar and Cleopatra stood atop this cliff and gazed in awe at its ancient tomb structures.

Hadrian and Antinous almost certainly stood on this very same spot in October of the year 130 AD, only weeks before Antinous drowned in the Nile. Beneath their feet was the Lost Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. The sand has been removed and now that long-lost tomb is no longer lost.

And what a tomb it is! It has a splendid entrance and charming layout befitting a pleasant gay holiday retreat cottage — for an eternal, never-ending holiday vacation.

While grave robbers stripped the tomb of relics in antiquity, the wall paintings reveal tantalizing hints about its original occupants. The men are repeatedly depicted together, sometimes holding hands, sometimes with their arms around each other.

In two instances they are shown with their noses touching — the most intimate embrace permitted in Egyptian art of the time — tantamount to kissing. Their bodies are pressed so closely together that their groins rub against each other in a decidedly intimate sort of way. 

In Ancient Egypt, such male-male depictions were reserved for kings who merged with gods, not for two mortal men.

They are so close together that some Egyptologists have theorized that they may have been Siamese twins joined at the hips.

Other figures, identified as wives and children, are relegated to the background. In one scene, in which the two men share a final banquet before their journey into the afterlife, Niankhkhnum' s "wife" has been plastered over by the craftsmen who decorated the tomb. Khnumhotep's spouse fails to make an appearance at all — highly unusual in Egyptian tomb art, if not totally unprecedented.

Throughout the tomb, the two men are depicted in joyous pursuits, such as this relief vignette (right) showing one of them playing flute accompaniment as the other sings.

The magnificent reliefs show a variety of scenes involving nude or semi-nude males involved in all sorts of artistic and manly activities, such as one scene (below left) of a sort of "Egyptian Rodeo" bull-roping tournament with accompanying scenes of a raucous "beef barbecue" feast.

Or the scene (below right) of athletic youths — so sparingly attired you can see they are circumcised — engaged in a playful mock battle using reed skiffs on the Nile.

Throughout the tomb, the reliefs show men, men, men (and a few token females) engaged in service to the tomb's two male occupants who are — unprecedented in Egyptian Sacred Art — wholly committed to each other. Other tombs invariably show man-and-wife. Not this one.

Hieroglyphs describe the men as "Overseers of the Royal Manicurists" to pharaoh. 
Ostensibly, they were responsible for the care of the pharaoh's hands and were among the select few permitted to touch the ruler. 

However, it is also possible that the title "Royal Manicurist" could be a ceremonial honor similar to the "Order of the Garter".

Though the hieroglyphs say nothing of the two men's relationship, Greg Reeder, an Egyptologist based in San Francisco, believes the wall paintings suggest homosexuality is the answer. Reeder points out that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep clearly chose to depict themselves in poses usually restricted to husbands and wives in other tombs. 

"Same-sex desire must be considered as a probable explanation," Reeder said at a lecture in Britain which made headlines a couple of years ago.

"We can only say for certain that the carvings show a profound intimacy between the two men, and the people who built the tomb were possibly unsure how to portray this," the US archaeologist noted.

The tomb was restored by German archaeologists in the late 1970s and opened to the public in the 1990s.

While gay tour operators have not targeted the site, in large part because Egypt outlaws homosexual activity, Greg Reeder's articles and lectures have created gay interest in this long-lost tomb.

"It has now become famous and lots of gay tourists go there," he says with scholarly pride.

Reeder notes that, regardless of whether the two men were sexual lovers, they were definitely two men who loved each other so much that they wanted to spend all eternity in an intimate embrace.

Even their two names are intertwined. Over the entrance to one chamber their names are mingled together so that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep become "NiankhKHNUMhotep" — Peace and Life joined in the ram-headed Source-of-the-Nile Deity Khnum, clearly their mutual sacred patron.

Thus, their names blend together, forming a single name: "Joined in Life and Joined in Peace at the Source of All That Lives and Dies and is Born Again for All Eternity". Such is the subtlety of the Egyptian language, which turns a name into a commitment.
Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonyus Subia says:

"Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep is one of the earliest and most vivid portrayals of homosexual love, crossing all boundaries, binding two men and two families for all time, and demonstrating the profound antiquity and sacredness of our form of love."

Thanks largely to the bold and candid research of Greg Reeder, the names of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep have been rescued from oblivion, so that their KAs might live forever — together! 

ARTHUR RIMBAUD SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON November 10th the Religion of Antinous honors St. Arthur Rimbaud, the free-spirited French poet whose openly gay lifestyle shocked even the most avant garde artists of London and Paris in the late 19th Century.

On this day, in 1891, the poet Arthur Rimbaud, Saint of Antinous,  died of cancer just three months short of his 37th birthday. Despite his early death, he was already an acclaimed and controversial literary figure.

In his youth, Rimbaud had been what we would nowadays call a twink. A schoolboy friend said he was prettier than any of the girls and that he had "the most beautiful pale blue eyes" he had ever seen.

Raised by a staunchly Catholic single mother in isolation in the country, Rimbaud ran away to Paris at age 16 with no money but with a prodigious talent for poetry — he had already published a couple of highly praised poems.

In Paris, Rimbaud's behavior became outwardly provocative. The mild-mannered country boy started drinking, speaking rudely and writing scatological poems, stealing books from local shops, and instead of his previous neat appearance and in defiance of short-hair fashions, he began to wear his hair rebelliously long.

At the same time he wrote to an old school teacher of his who had encouraged his poetic talents, telling him about his method for attaining poetical transcendence or visionary power through a "long, intimidating, immense and rational derangement of all the senses. The sufferings are enormous, but one must be strong, be born a poet, and I have recognized myself as a poet."

Still a teenager, he was friends with radical Communists in Paris known as the Communards (hence the name of the '80s pop group) and he even wrote a poem about being sodomized by drunken Communard paramilitary men entitled "Le Coeur Supplicié" (The Tortured Heart).

He solicited the friendship of the established poet Paul Verlaine by audaciously writing a love letter to him and enclosing two hotly sexy poems, including the hypnotic, gradually shocking "Le Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper of the Vale), in which the forces of Nature more or less rape a sleeping soldier.
  
Verlaine, who was intrigued by Rimbaud, sent a reply that stated, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you," along with a one-way ticket to Paris.

Verlaine was so smitten with the 17-year-old Rimbaud, that he abandoned his heavily pregnant 17-year-old wife and took up living with Rimbaud instead. Verlaine quit his job to become what he called "a full-time professional drunk" At left is a caricature of Rimbaud that Verlaine lovingly sketched about that time.

All of Paris was shocked by their behavior which, even among avant-garde artists, was considered scandalous.

The two of them fled to London, where they lived the life of starving artists. Rimbaud spent most of his time in the Reading Room of the British Museum for the simple reason that "heating, lighting, pens and ink were free", he later said. 

Verlaine and Rimbaud had a volatile on-again, off-again relationship punctuated by drunken bitch fights and which climaxed with Verlaine firing a gunshot at Rimbaud which resulted in a wrist wound.

In his 20s and early 30s, Rimbaud was a vagabond poet who traveled the world, mostly on foot, doing odd jobs and writing poems. There is a marble plaque on the island of Java commemorating his short visit there as a soldier in the Dutch Colonial Army — he decided the military life was not for him and deserted almost immediately upon arrival there and returned to Europe.He was living on the Horn of Africa with an Ethiopian mistress (he had had several lovers of both sexes, basically one in every port) when his health began to deteriorate due to what would later be diagnosed as cancer — alas, the diagnosis would be made too late to save his life.

He was 17 years old when he wrote the poem The Drunken Boat: 

"..Lighter than a cork, I danced on the waves which men call eternal rollers of victims, for ten nights, without once missing the foolish eye of the harbor lights! Sweeter than the flesh of sour apples to children, the green water penetrated my pinewood hull and washed me clean of the bluish wine-stains and the splashes of vomit, carrying away both rudder and anchor. And from that time on I bathed in the Poem of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, devouring the green azures; where, entranced and pallid, a dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down; where, suddenly dyeing the bluenesses- deliriums and slow rhythms under the gleams of the daylight, stronger than alcohol, vaster than music-ferment the bitter redness of love."

We dedicate this poem and the course of the free and disordered life of St. Arthur Rimbaud to the period of 72 Archons, and our difficult passage towards godliness.