HADRIAN AT THE CITY NAMED FOR THE FISH THAT DEVOURED THE PHALLUS OF OSIRIS

AFTER the death of Antinous in October 130 AD, grief-stricken Hadrian continued his journey up the Nile to Upper Egypt.

Hadrian returned downstream a few weeks later, stopping at Antinoopolis to review the progress of the new city. During a nocturnal ceremony the mummified body of Antinous was brought into the new temple called the Antinoeon still under construction and the ceremony known as the Opening of the Mouth was performed.

The immortal spirit of Antinous was enabled to receive the offerings left by worshippers in his temples everywhere in the world.  The body of Antinous was returned to his boat-shaped coffin and carried onto the ship for return to Rome.

Hadrian arrived at the city of Oxyrhynchus, about halfway to Alexandria. The city was located on a canal that flows from the Nile to lake Moeris in the East.

The city may have originally been dedicated to Seth as it was the gateway to the desert Oases, but was later dedicated to Osiris because after his dismemberment, this where the penis of Osiris was eaten by a fish and was the only part of his body not recovered by Isis, who then created a magical phallus to take its place.

The elephant-nosed fish is called Oxyrhynchus or sharp-nosed by the Greeks and is the sacred animal of the city.  During the Ptolemaic era it was home to a large population of Greeks and was the third largest city in Egypt.

Thousands of papyrus fragments were unearthed on the site, including many important documents about Antinous and the citizens of Antinoopolis, such the Diocletian poem, the cult calendar, Aurelius Horion named as the convener of the Antinous games and the fragments of the Lion Hunt by Pancrates.

Hadrian's arrival was greeted with celebration by the Greek population, many of whom would soon become the first citizens of Antinoopolis.  In the year 205CE renovation work was ordered to restore the Baths, or Hadrianon Thermon which were built during Hadrian’s visit, among other projects.

The papyri fragments remind us of how easily knowledge can be lost, and so we remember the city of Oxyrhynchus, where the sharp-nosed fish consumed the sacred phallus of Osiris, because it was here that so many of our Antinous documents were found, where a temple of Antinous once stood and where his sacred games were celebrated. 

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