PALMYRA WAS "TERRA-FARMED" WHEN HADRIAN AND ANTINOUS VISITED

PALMYRA is in the headlines this week as the sad target of shelling by Syrian government forces because of its proximity to Homs.

Antinous and Hadrian visited the fabled "city of the desert" Palmyra during their three-year tour of the Eastern Empire.

But when they were there 1,800 years ago ingenious "terra-farming" kept the desert at bay, according to new findings.


For centuries, experts have been somewhat bewildered as to how this city could have achieved wealth and prosperity in the middle of a desert. 

In the 3rd Century AD, Palmyra was so prosperous, that its queen Zenobia launched a revolt against Rome. She conquered Egypt before being defeated and taken as a hostage to Rome by Emperor Aurelian. 

According to a new study, Palmyra was a miracle of human ingenuity and "terra-farming" which could serve as a model for water-thirsty urban areas today such as Phoenix, Arizona. Palmyra was surrounded by a number of villages that fed the city and together they harnessed rain water resources necessary for survival.

"The archaeologists gathered evidence that residents of ancient Palmyra and the nearby villages collected the rainwater using dams and cisterns. This gave the surrounding villages water for crops and enabled them to provide the city with food. The collection system ensured a stable supply of agricultural products and averted catastrophe during droughts," according to findings by Norwegian researchers.

Archaeologists from the University of Bergen in Norway and the Palmyra Museum mapped a large expanse of land around the city of Palmyra with the help of satellite photos and to their surprise, a large number of remains of villages from ancient Roman times were detected to the north of the ruined city. Remains of 2,000-year-old water reservoirs were also found.

"We were able to form a more complete picture of what occurred within the larger area," project manager Jørgen Christian Meyer, a professor at the University of Bergen, said, adding, "These findings provide a wealth of new insight into Palmyra’s history."

Once a flourishing city, with a population of 100,000 inhabitants, and a part of the Roman Empire, Palmyra was an oasis for travellers in the Syrian Desert, northeast of modern-day Damascus.

The city was first mentioned in the archives of Mari in the second millennium BC, The Roman Empire took over Palmyra in the middle of the 1st Century AD as part of the Roman province of Syria, according to UNESCO, which declared the Palmyra ruins to be on the World Heritage List in 1980.

"It grew steadily in importance as a city on the trade route linking Persia, India and China with the Roman Empire, marking the crossroads of several civilisations in the ancient world," UNESCO says about Palmyra on its official Website.

Despite its location in a semi-arid region, Palmyra became a thriving and prosperous city about 2,000 years ago by cultivating the desert soil and using rain water, something human beings of today could learn from and do even better, with all the available modern aids and methods, to feed many and bring about sustainable development.

Palmyra is still at a crossroads of history, and fighting between Syrian government forces and insurgents reportedly has damaged ruins at the ancient site.

Antinous and Hadrian visited Palmyra on their fateful tour of the Eastern Empire. 

FLAMEN ANTONYUS SUBIA writes:

"The inner circle of Hadrian's court, with a light escort, visited Palmyra in what is now Eastern Syria, near the northern Iraqi border. Palymra was an ancient buffer state between the Roman and the Persia Empires, which had now been at peace for many years. 
"Palmyra was therefore a mixture of both cultures, with its own, ancient Assyrian and Hittite blood beneath the surface. 
"According to Marguerite Yourcenar, Antinous was initiated into the Cult of Mithras while at Palmyra to the displeasure of Hadrian who was already an initiate, and perhaps an influential leader of the secret cult because of his position as Pontifex Maximus. 
"Coming after the Zoroastrian sanctification in Armenia, and given the Phrygian aspect of the Mithraic cult, and the proximity to the Persian border, and the end of the transition from the Age of Taurus to the Age of Aries, which the cult revealed, we celebrate the initiation of Antinous into the mysteries of Mithras and their cosmic revelation."

Subian Philosophy: Vastness of the Cosmos

"A few months ago, when I climbed the Mountain in El Paso and found myself all alone ... at a sacred spring in a sacred grove ... the only sensation I felt was Fear of the Vastness of the Cosmos. To look into the vastness of the eternal void and not be afraid of falling down into it. To imagine that I am able to fly  ... because of Antinous power."

HADRIAN ERA MARBLE STREET

UNEARTHED IN GREECE

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Greece have discovered a street paved with marble probably dating to the reign of Emperor Hadrian 1,800 years ago.

It is possible that the marble-paved street was part of a works project for the visit of Hadrian and Antinous to Greece in the year 128 AD. A similar marble-paved roadway was constructed at Ephesus for the visit by Hadrian and Antinous there a year later.

The discovery was made in the northern port city of Thessaloniki by construction workers digging a new subway line.

Workers found a 70-meter-long (250-foot) stretch of roadway paved in marble, indicating it was a showcase thoroughfare during the reign of Hadrian.

Some of the paving stones were etched with children's board games, while most were rutted by the wheels of carts.

Also discovered at the site were remains of tools and lamps, as well as the bases of marble columns.

The ancient street, about seven meters (25 feet) below the modern street level, follows the route of the city's modern Egnatia Avenue, indicating it was a major thoroughfare even then.

The subway project has been plagued with delays since it began in 2006 as construction workers have repeatedly stumbled onto ancient artefacts which have required study by archaeologists.

In 2008, workers on the Thessaloniki metro discovered more than 1 000 tombs, some with jewelry, coins or other artefacts.

GOLD CONCH SHELL CAMEO

BROOCH OF ANTINOUS

 SOMETIMES you find the most extraordinary things on eBay pertaining to Antinous. The latest is a 19th Century French pink conch shell ANTINOUS CAMEO BROOCH in an ornate gold setting.

We can quibble about the artistry and whether it resembles Antinous at all — but we have to remember that it was carved by hand on a very, very tiny shell 60 mm tall — a little over two inches!

The seller says it appears to be Antinous/Vertumnus, god of the bountiful gifts of nature in summertime. But it more likely is Antinous/Dionysus since clusters of grapes are just visible through the leafy wreath. Antinous/Dionysus is the god of wine and ritual frenzy, of transformation and transcendence. 

 

The face calls to mind Coleridge's warning about the visionary in Xanadu: 

 

"Beware, beware/his flashing eye, his floating hair/ Weave a circle round him thrice/And close your eyes in holy dread/For he on honey-dew hath fed/And drunk the milk of Paradise." 

 

We know that there was an Antinous fad in the 18th and 19th Century, and Victorians avidly read saucy novels about Hadrian and Antinous (these novels often show up on eBay). 

The story of "hedonistic and unnatural" sex which ends in tragedy for a beautiful boy was suitably romantic and prurient to appeal to uptight Victorians.

So cameos and jewellery pertaining to Antinous were popular — the most gorgeous Classical bod and face with a "naughty" story to go with it. What a conversation piece!

 

Many fine ladies (even some gentlemen "dandies") wore Antinous cameos as brooches or rings. They were more sought after than ordinary cameos.

And they still are. The starting bid is 395 pounds Sterling — over $600. It will be interesting to see how high the bidding goes.

 

 

 

 

ANTINOUS IN LAODICEA

BANKING CENTER OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE

LAODICEA was the financial center of the Eastern Empire, and in these 21st Century days of financial crisis it is interesting to see how Emperor Hadrian promoted his own "financial stability mechanism" with on-site bail-outs and emergency cash injections.

On July 1st the Religion of Antinous commemorates the triumphal entry of Hadrian and Antinous into Laodicea following their glowing visit to Ephesus. The welcome was stupendous, especially since the Laodiceans knew the emperor was bringing not only chests full of money but also trade and business contracts and tax incentive reforms, all aimed at boosting prosperity and banking security.

The city stood on a spur of Mount Salbacus, one mile from the left bank of the Lycus, between the Asopus and Mount Cadmus, where it had a commanding view of the region between the Lycus and the Caprus.

It was one of the principal cities of Asia Minor, both as a major production center and a commercial hub, being famous for its woollen fabrics and its sandals. It had received from Rome the title of free city, and it became the centre of a conventus juridicus, which comprised twenty-four cities besides itself.

Its wealthy citizens embellished it with beautiful monuments. The city had a school of  medicine and gave birth to the two skeptic philosophers, Antiochus and Theiodas. Its coins and inscriptions show evidence of the worship of Zeus, Æsculapius, Apollo, and the emperors.

Laodicea was one of the richest cities in the world, being the banking center of the east. So, great preparations must have been made for the visit of the Imperial entourage.

Entering the city of Laodicea during the summer of 129, Hadrian and Antinous were immediately welcomed by the wealthy population. Due to its location and to the nearby medicinal baths, the city of Laodicea was a banking capital of the region and a place where wealthy merchants went to retire and enjoy the clean mountain air.

It was therefore a place very enthusiastic about the reforms that Hadrian had made and about his policies of Hellenism, which the Laodiceans would have considered good for business.

The Laodiceans had a great Temple to Zeus, Apollo and to Hermes, and it is the Temple of Hermes that is here of great importance because in Roman theology, Mercury was the god of commerce which was all important in the rich city of Laodicea. It is therefore to the wealth of commerce, which had enriched the lives of the retirees of Laodicea, that we praise the policies of Hadrian the leader of Roman business.

FLAMEN ANTONYUS SUBIA suggests deeper spiritual insights which make this "Mercurial" city special to us:

"Antinous must have had an intense initiation into these financial mystieries, which were carried out in the courtyard of the Temple of Mercury, close to the watchful eye of the god. We pray to Mercury who ensures our livelihood and the success of the material world, which keeps our modern civilization in a constant state of progress."

LAST KNOWN GAY JEWISH

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR DIES

ANTINOUS is the God of the Men with the Pink Triangles, gay victims of the Nazis. So it is with deep sadness and profound humility that we note the passing an anti-Nazi resistance fighter and the last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust.

GAD BECK died this week in Berlin. He passed away in a senior citizens' home six days before his birthday on June 30. He would have been 89 years old today.

Beck was a pioneering gay activist and educator in a severely anti-homosexual, repressive post-World War II German society. He was famous for his witty, lively style of speaking.

On a German talk show, he said with a wink to his small physical size, "The Americans in New York called me a big hero. I said no... I’m really a little hero."

Perhaps the single most important experience that shaped his life was the war-time effort to rescue his boyfriend. Beck donned a Hitler Youth uniform and entered a deportation center to free his Jewish lover Manfred Lewin.


After bluffing his way out of the deportation center, as the two youths were hurrying down the road to freedom, Manfred stopped and said he couldn't go on. 

He tearfully said he would never forgive himself if he abandoned his family. So, with a parting kiss, he turned back and Gad never saw him again.

The Nazis would later deport the entire Lewin family to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

Gad's only memento of Manfred was a little notebook with poems, sketches and essays which Manfred had written, plus a photograph. Gad treasured them all his life.

Speaking about his life as a gay Jew, Beck invoked a line frequently cited about homosexuality: "God doesn't punish for a life of love."

He was featured in the film THE LIFE OF GAD BECK (Die Freiheit des Erzählens: Das Leben des Gad Beck) as well as in the German documentary film PARAGRAPH 175. (The notorious Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code outlawed homosexuality before Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, and the Nazi party radically intensified the enforcement of the anti-gay law, including deportations to extermination camps.)

Aside from the two documentaries, however, he said with typical humor that he was still waiting for the blockbuster, feature-length movie about his life, and he knew just the man to bring it to the big screen.

"Only Steven Spielberg could film my life – forgive me, forgive me," Beck quipped.

He had immigrated to Israel in 1947. After his return to Germany in 1979, the first post-Holocaust head of Berlin's Jewish community, Heinz Galinski, appointed Beck director of the Jewish Adult Education Center in Berlin.

In a telephone interview with Judith Kessler, editor of the Berlin Jewish community's monthly magazine, Juedisches Berlin, she told THE JERUSALEM POST that Beck would organize gay singles meeting in the center.

"He was open, sweet and would speak with everybody," she said. Kessler, who knew Beck since 1989, added that he would attend the annual Christopher Street Day Parade for gay pride in Berlin and wave an Israeli flag.

Beck's father was an Austrian Jew and his mother converted to Judaism.

The Nazi racial laws defined Beck as mischling (mixed-breed), and he and his father were carted off to a holding compound in the Rosenstrasse in central Berlin. After the non-Jewish wives of the prisoners launched a massive street protest in 1943, Beck was released. There were "thousands of women who stood for days... my aunts demanded 'give us our children and men'," he said.

The Rosenstrasse demonstration helped debunk the widespread myth in post-Holocaust German society that resistance against Nazism was futile.

"The Rosenstrasse event made one thing absolutely clear to me: I won't wait until we get deported," said Beck.

Following his release, Beck joined Chug Chaluzi, an underground Zionist resistance youth group, and played a key role in securing the survival of Jews in Berlin.

According to the entry about him at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, he noted that "as a homosexual, I was able to turn to my trusted non-Jewish, homosexual acquaintances to help supply food and hiding places."

Shortly before the end of the war in 1945, a Jewish spy working for the Gestapo betrayed Beck and some of his fellow resistance fighters.

He was held captive at a Jewish transit camp in Berlin. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Beck continued his Zionist work and helped Jewish survivors emigrate to Palestine. He remained in Israel between 1947 and 1979.

Beck is survived by his partner of 35 years, Julius Laufer.

EDWARD CARPENTER
SAINT OF ANTINOUS

URANIAN Patriarch Edward Carpenter, who died on this day in 1929, was a firebrand pioneer of gay rights in the 19th Century, giving up his career to turn to rights activism.

He was born in Brighton England on the 29th of August, 1844, to a very large middle-class family. 

While his brothers went into the military, Edward became a scholar, with great success and eventually even taught at Cambridge where he was required to become ordained as a curate of the Anglican Church.

It was at this time, when he was 24, that he first read Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and was completely changed. He resigned his position at Cambridge and devoted his life to the working class, becoming a Socialist philosopher, lecturing, organizing and speaking for working men.

When his parents died, he received an inheritance that he used to purchase a rural estate at Millthrope, which he turned into a veritable Socialist Commune. He repressed his homosexuality for much of his life, channeling his desire into politically inspired friendships.

But the Millthrope house gave him the freedom to express his feelings more openly, and he began to write books on the subject of Uranian Love.

He was deeply influenced by Hindu spirituality, and visited India, all of which emerged in his spiritual view of the Socialist movement, which was not so much about political revolution, but directed towards a change in human consciousness, of which homosexuality rapidly became his greatest cause.

While returning from India he met George Merrill on the train. It would be the love of his life. The younger man soon moved into the house at Millthrope, the two became inseparable lovers whose relationship lasted over forty years.

In 1908, he published The Intermediate Sex, the first widely available book on the subject of homosexuality. After the death of John Addington Symonds, with whom he had been closely allied, Edward Carpenter assumed the role as torch bearer, and subsequently published dozens of books and essays for the cause of gay liberation.

He died on the 28th of June, 1929, in Guildford England, and though not widely known at the time, was to later become a spiritual patriarch for the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and '70s.

He is regarded as a Saint and Patriarch of the Religion of Antinous, and remembered as one of the first fathers whose work changed the world with subtle power.