WELL-PRESERVED TOMB UNEARTHED

IN VICINITY OF ANTINOOPOLIS

 

EGYPTOLOGISTS are calling it the best-preserved tomb since the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb — and it is located only 5 km (3 miles) south of the Sacred City of Antinoopolis.

The well-preserved 4,000-year-old coffin and funerary equipment of a Middle Kingdom provincial governor was found in the famous Deir Al-Barsha necropolis on the east side of the Nile between the Upper Egyptian cities of El-Minya and Mallawi.

The site is directly across the river from El-Ashmunein, which the Ancient Egyptians called Shmunu, and which the Greeks called Hermopolis, the Sacred City of Thoth/Hermes. During Hadrian's Imperial Tour, Hermopolis was the last city that Antinous saw before his tragic death in late October of the year 130 AD.

Emperor Hadrian said Antinous "plunged into the Nile" and ordered that a city be built at the site on the east bank of the Nile — the SACRED CITY OF ANTINOOPOLIS.

The Deir Al-Barsha necropolis or cemetery is in what we would call the "suburbs" of Antinoopolis, just south of the Sacred City. This necropolis is famous among Egyptologists for the many tombs located there dating back to all periods of history — from the earliest pharaohs to the Roman era, during which Antinoopolis rose to glory as the new capital of the Thebaid district.

It is important to remember that this district was the Sacred Heart of Ancient Egypt — mid-way between Thebes in the south and Memphis/Mennefer in the north. The "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten located his "City on the Horizon" Akhetaten in this area, just 20 km (12 miles) south of Antinoopolis.

And it was at Hermopolis, according to legend, that the priests of Thoth kept the Scroll of Life by which Isis raised Osiris from the dead. The fact that Antinous died here spawned speculation throughout the ages that he may have been engaging in a religio/magical rite to sacrifice himself so as to prolong the life of his sick and aging lover Hadrian.

Because of this ages-old association with the triumph of life over death, this area is dotted with thousands upon thousands of tombs, the vast majority of which have never been investigated. No one knows what happened to the mortal remains of Antinous, whether they were cremated or interred — or whether one of these tombs might in fact be the LOST TOMB OF ANTINOUS.

So any tomb discovery in this region is important and immediately raises hopes among Egyptologists that they may be one step closer to that big discovery.

In this case, Belgian archaeologists from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven stumbled onto a major tomb dating back to the beginning of the Middle Kingdom — 2,000 years before Antinous was born.

"It is the first time in over a century that a relatively well preserved tomb of this kind has been found," said Mohamed Ibrahim, Minister of State for Antiquities. He went on to explain that, although the tomb was robbed at least twice in antiquity and has suffered extensive damage since, a large part of the funerary collection was found well-preserved and intact.

Initial investigation suggests that the tomb must belong to one of the nome or district governor or a member of his family.

The finds included ritual funerary objects in alabaster, faience, copper and pottery found intact and untouched — still embedded in the dried lime crust, according to Mohamed Ismail, the director of Foreign Missions Affairs at the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA). The exquisite discoveries include many alabaster model vessels, offering table head rests, faience libation vases, copper vases and dishes.

These funerary items, Ismail explained, enable Egyptologists to envision how ancient Egyptians practiced their religious rituals in detail. He went on to say that Ancient Egyptians might have installed the sarcophagus in the middle of the burial chamber and then started the purification and offering processes.

Harco Willems, field director of the Belgian mission, told Ahram Online that the sarcophagus is inscribed with texts showing that it belonged to a man called Djehutinakht.

"Djehuti" is the Ancient Egyptian name for Thoth/Hermes. And "Nakht" means "Strong One." So the name Djehutinakht literally means "Strong One of Thoth." The Sacred City of Thoth, Hermopolis, was immediately across the Nile from this burial site.

"Djehutinakht is known to have been the last nomarch of the Hare Nome of the First Intermediate Period. It can now be concluded that this person was buried here."

'ROBOT ARCHAEOLOGISTS' DISCOVER ANCIENT ROMAN SHIPWRECKS

 

ROBOT SUBS have discovered two Ancient Roman shipwrecks almost a mile deep in the high seas of the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy — disproving the ages-old theory that ancient mariners always stuck close to the shore to improve chances of survival in event of peril.

And we can thank "Robot Archaeologists"  for finding these cargo vessels which went down 1,700 years ago.

The discovery of the 3rd Century shipwrecks between Corfu and Paxoi are the latest example of how 21st Century technology is proving to be a valuable tool for archaeologists. Satellite imagery is helping to map out tombs and even entire cities buried under the sands of Egypt while deep-sea submersibles are turning up sunken treasures which otherwise would go undiscovered.

Italian archaeologists, using state-of-the-art submersible probes and sonar, have discovered numerous ANCIENT ROMAN SHIPWRECKS in recent years which date to the era of the Antonine Emperors, including Hadrian and his heirs. 

The two Roman shipwrecks are the latest example, discovered at the bottom of the sea, nearly a mile deep, far beyond the reach of divers. 

How were they found? Thank evil fossil fuels. The wrecks were discovered by robot subs while surveying the route where a Greek-Italian gas pipeline is to be sunk. The Greek surveyor was examining a 77 square mile patch of seabed and their radar and robot submarines discovered amphorae (storage jars for food and drink), anchors, stones used for ballast and what looked like remains of wooden ships. They raised a marble vase and samples of pottery.

Angeliki Simossi, head of Greece's underwater antiquities department, told Nicholas Paphitis of the  Associated Press that one ship was amphorae usually produced in north Africa, so it might have sailed from there and headed for Greece after a stop in Italy.

The wrecks are from the third century A.D. and lend more evidence to the idea that bolder ancient shipmasters did not just stick to coastal routes and ventured into the open sea. Of course, since they are wrecks it also explains why more cautious trade captains absolutely did stick to coastal routes when they could.  Smaller vessels such as this, 80 feet long and usually loaded with cargo and not built for open water navigation, liked to be closer to land to save the crew if things went wrong.

THE MANY FACES
OF ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

BY ALICIA 7777777

Emperor Hadrian commissioned thousands of statues of his Beloved Antinous, showing HIM in the guise of many deities and heroes. This sublime video morphing montage shows some of the many faces
of ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD.

SOCRATES and GEORGE CECIL IVES
SAINTS OF ANTINOUS

 

ON JUNE 4th the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Socrates and also Saint George Cecil Ives.

The most Divine and gentlest of all Philosophers was born on this day in 469. He was the son of the sculptor Sophroniscus, an artist, whose profession Socrates attempted during his youth.

The artist's love of beauty was to be the foremost drive of his life. The fortune that his father's art left gave the young Socrates the independence to begin a life spent in the adoration and service of wisdom.

He was told that the Oracle of Delphi had pronounced that there was no man wiser than he, but because he felt that he was the greatest fool, he spent his life trying to disprove the Oracle by questioning the most purportedly wise men only to discover that those who professed wisdom were the least possessed of it.

His method of inquiry was the birth of human science because he found that those who understood virtue would naturally follow in its ways, while those who were ignorant of virtue would proceed without its benefit. He proclaimed that "the proper study of mankind is man," and his philosophy centered on temperance, piety, duty to parents, brotherly love, fidelity in friendship, and diligence.

He was an admirer of male, youthful beauty, and devoted his life towards the awakening of virtue in the hearts of young men. For this, in the year 400 B.C. he was put on trial by the many enemies he had made in the ruling classes of the city of Athens and condemned with these words: "Socrates is guilty of crime; first, for not worshipping the gods whom the city worships, and for introducing new divinities of his own; next for corrupting the youth. The penalty due is death."

He was sentenced to drink poison, which he readily accepted, dying as a virtuous martyr, for homosexuality and for human social consciousness.

Though he never wrote a word, he is remembered through the writings of his student, Plato, whose legacy eclipsed that of Socrates, though it was delivered and upheld as the very words of Plato's master, the Divine Philosopher Socrates, who was said by Cicero to have bright the love of wisdom down from the heavens to mankind.

George Cecil Ives was born on October 1, 1867 in England. While in London, in 1892, a gentleman by the name of Lord Alfred Douglas encouraged him to join "The Cause", which was an early British movement to bring an end to homosexual persecution. Ives was a friend of Oscar Wilde and attempted to enlist him, but was unsuccessful.

In 1897, believing that "The Cause" could not be openly discussed due to the extreme moral restriction of his age, Ives decided to go underground and founded the Order of Chaeronea, which was a secret society for homosexuals.

The name and spirit of the order was taken from the battle in which the Sacred Band of Thebes, the corps of 300 pairs of gay lovers, was defeated by Alexander and Phillip at the Battle of Chaeronea. The 300 had to be annihilated by Alexander because they refused to surrender.

Taking this Army of Lovers as their model for courage in the face of oppression, the Order of Chaeronea organized powerful and wealthy homosexuals who were otherwise unable to meet in public, into a secret political and spiritual force.

Saint George Cecil Ives, the guiding light of this first religious organization devoted to the sacredness of homosexuality, worked closely with other prominent homosexuals of the time such as Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld and Edward Carpenter, both of whom are Blessed Saints of Antinous.

In his voluminous writings, George Cecil Ives refers to Walt Whitman (another Antinoian Saint) as "The Prophet" and used lines from Whitman's poetry in the ritual and ceremony of the Order of Chaeronea. 

He is numbered as one of the Uranian poets, and referred to Antinous as a symbol of male beauty and perfection.

For his effort to undermine the oppression of homosexuals, for the holiness and sanctity upon which he upheld our sexuality, and for calling out to our beloved Antinous, we thank Saint George Cecil Ives, and pray to him to aid us in the continuation of his divinely inspired work. He died on this day in 1950.

ALLEN GINSBERG, SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON JUNE 3rd the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Allen Ginsberg who was born on this day. 

St. Allen Ginsberg was an early proponent of freedom for men who loved other men, having already in 1943 discovered within himself "mountains of homosexuality." 

He expressed this desire openly and graphically in his poetry.He also struck a note for gay marriage by listing Peter Orlovsky, his lifelong companion, as his spouse in his Who's Who entry.

Later homosexual writers saw his frank talk about homosexuality as an opening to speak more openly and honestly about something often before only hinted at or spoken of in metaphor.

Also, in writing about sexuality in graphic detail and in his frequent use of language seen as indecent he challenged — and ultimately changed — obscenity laws.

We consecrate Irwin Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 — April 5, 1997) as a Blessed Saint and Exemplar of Antinous for attacking what he saw as the destructive forces of materialism and conformity in modern society.

THE WOLVES OF KROMER

ABOARD THE BARQUE OF MILLIONS OF YEARS

 

"TODAY is Warren's Birthday!" the DJ will announce over the amazing speaker system aboard the ANTINOUS BARQUE OF MILLIONS OF YEARS.

As I said in the earlier entry today...the whole ship will freak out...a disco ball will drop from the mast...and confetti will shoot from the cannons!

...and this is the song that they will all rock out to...a song we're all going to dance to one of these days:

The song is at the ending credits o the movie THE WOLVES OF KROMER.
a great little movie about gay werewolves (kind of)
Actually werewolves is used as a euphemism for Gay.
It stars these two super hot boys who fall in love and find out that they are both wolves,
and they run around in fur coats with tails (excellent!)
At the end of the movie (I'm just going to tell you)
The village priest hunts them down and shoots them with a shot gun.
This is how the movie ends....when they meet in the afterlife
along with also this old lady who was nice to them before she died.
When I first saw this...I thought it was great,
And I also thought that it would make a great song to dedicate to a dead Antinous worshiper.
That was years ago...and I almost forgot about the song,
But now...since the Wizard Warren is the first of the NEW BELIEVERS to die,
It almost feels as though this song were intended for him.

May Wizard Warren Live Forever

Aboard the Barque of Millions of Years!

ANTONYUS SUBIA

THE BARQUE OF MILLIONS OF YEARS

ANTINOUS was a living, breathing human being. That is historical fact. And it is also a fact that he died tragically and that his lover, the most powerful man in the world, the Emperor Hadrian, deified Antinous.

Antinous lived, he died, and he was deified. It is fact.

Now our beloved brother Warren Williamson has died. He is the first of the NEW BELIEVERS IN ANTINOUS to die and we are grappling to come to terms with his death.

And this leads me to an important topic.
How the Cult of Antinous is basically a Cult of the Dead,
...there is a deep current of after-life in our religion.
This is what the BARQUE OF MILLIONS OF YEARS is meant to symbolize,
How basically after death, we set out with Antinous
Upon a Never-Ending journey to a DARK STAR, which may or may not exist,
and to which we may or may not ever arrive.
It isn't about Heaven...but rather the journey to get there...which is everlasting,
and along the way...we simply enjoy the ride...something which in life,
We are never allowed to do for very long.

I would like to suggest that we begin to keep a passenger list,
With the Wizard Warren as the first name,
and then as more and more of us pass away from the world,
Our names will be added to the list of blessed dead.
A list to be maintained by the Priests of Antinous..for as long as there are Priests of Antinous.
In Ancient Rome, there was a funeral society dedicated to Antinous and Diana,
who's members pooled their resources in order to insure that members were given proper Roman Funerals,
even in the event that the family had no money provide for the funeral.
It was basically like an ancient Life Insurance policy,
but with a religious tone, dedicated to Antinous and Diana.

I would like to initiate such an element to our religion,
Basically a request to have a proper Antinous funeral recited at the time of death
For any one who so requests and who insures that the Priests are notified at time of death.
For the time being there would be no charge, as Priesthood is voluntary,
and funeral rites would be offered as a gesture of love and respect,
but for anything more elaborate than a basic recitation of prayers,
..then a compensation system would need to be implemented to pay the costs.
I would suggest that we devise a three tier system.

1. Free Funeral Rites...a special remembrance during a general gathering of Antinous Devotion.
2. Basic Funeral Ceremony...$20...single priest reciting Antinous ceremony long distance.
3. Full Funeral Ceremony...travel cost, and any elaborations as designated by Last Will.

The $20 by the way is merely representative of the coin that would be placed on the tongue
To pay the boatman of the River Styx...$20 seems like a reasonable charge,
But who knows...maybe you have reason to pay more, or maybe less?

The Free part is offered to everyone,
....just make sure that we know when you die.

I will need help to prepare an Elaborate Full Funeral Ceremony of Antinous,
I don't want to just write it of my own accord,
Please use the Birthday of the Wizard Warren to tell me what you think
A full funeral ceremony of Antinous should consist of,
and keep in mind what you would be willing to pay for yourself.
I know that we have a few members who are well schooled in the customs of the ancients,
let us know what you would say at the death of one whom you love.

May The Wizard Warren Live Forever!

ANTONYUS SUBIA