CANOPUS was the Egyptian resort where Hadrian and Antinous spent pleasant days away from the hubbub of steamy Alexandria in August and September of the year 130 ... just weeks before tragedy.
In February of 131, grieving Hadrian returned to the resort city of Canopus at the mouth of the western branch of the Nile delta, located 25 miles from Alexandria. The Imperial court disembarked from the Nile barge and settled into the luxurious port city for a period of rest after the long journey.
The boat-shaped sarcophagus of Antinous was ceremonially unloaded and carried to the temple of Canopic Osiris.
The city of Canopus was founded by Menelaus, returning from Troy, at the place where his navigator Canopus died and was elevated to the heroic stars.
Canopus was young and beautiful and was desired by an Egyptian priestess named Theonoe, but he rejected her advances, so she used magic to send a poisonous snake to kill him.
Canopus was the oldest Greek trading port on the Nile, and later became a luxury resort.
Osiris was worshiped in the temple in the form of a pot-shaped image that may have held sacred Nile water, from which the term Canopic jars was taken.
Hadrian later built the famous Canopus area of his Villa in memory of his somber return to the city of Canopus, the gay navigator, without Antinous who had become the navigator of stars.
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