MARINE archaeologists report they have uncovered new secrets of an ancient Roman shipwreck famed for yielding an amazingly sophisticated astronomical calculator the "Antikythera Mechanism" for casting horoscopes.
An international survey team says the ship is twice as long as originally thought and contains many more calcified objects amid the ship's lost cargo that hint at new discoveries.
At the Archaeological Institute of America meeting in Seattle, marine archaeologist Brendan Foley of the Woods Hole (Mass.) Oceanographic Institution, will report on the first survey of Greece's famed Antikythera island shipwreck since 1976. The ancient Roman shipwreck was lost off the Greek coast around 67 BC, filled with statues and the famed astronomical clock.
"The ship was huge for ancient times," Foley says. "Divers a century ago just couldn't conduct this kind of survey but we were surprised when we realized how big it was."
Completed in October by a small team of divers, the survey traversed the island and the wreck site, perched on a steep undersea slope some 150 to 230 feet deep in the Mediterranean Sea.
The October survey shows the ship was more than 160 feet long, twice as long as expected. Salvaged by the Greek navy and skin divers in 1901, its stern perched too deep for its original skin-diver discoverers to find.
The wreck is best known for yielding a bronze astronomical calculator, the "Antikythera Mechanism" widely seen as the most complex device known from antiquity, along with dozens of marble and bronze statues.
The mechanism apparently used 37 gear wheels, a technology reinvented a millennium later, to create a lunar calendar and predict the motion of the planets, which was important knowledge for casting horoscopes and planning festivals in the ancient world.
A lead anchor recovered in a stowed position in the new survey shows that the ship likely sank unexpectedly when "a storm blew it against an underwater cliff," says marine archaeologist Theotokis Theodoulou of Greece's Ephorate (Department) of Underwater Antiquities. "It seems to have settled facing backwards with its stern (rear) at the deepest point," he says.
BIRTH OF AELIUS CAESAR
ON January 13th the Religion of Antinous celebrates the birthday of Aelius Caesar.
Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus was born on January 13th, 101, most
likely in Rome. He was from an old wealthy Etruscan family.
His
grandfather, after whom he had been named, had been a Consul and his
father a Senator.
Lucius Ceionius was beautiful and elegant, well educated, and was given over to a life of pleasure and voluptuousness.
He was a teenager when Hadrian came to power in 117, and his
flamboyant and attractive character was a compliment to his physical
beauty that soon gained the attention of the new Emperor.
It is believed that Hadrian and Lucius were lovers during the early
years of Hadrian's reign, perhaps for the period of six years prior to Antinous.
When Hadrian met Antinous
in the year 123, Lucius was 22 years old, and in keeping with the Greek
philosophy of pederastic love, it is very likely that their love affair
had transformed into what would become a life-long friendship between
the Emperor and his now matured Lucius.
Antinous entered Hadrian's heart just as Lucius was moving on to his responsibilities as a patrician citizen of Rome.
While Hadrian was courting the young Antinous, Lucius married
Domitia Lucilla and had three children by her, one of which was the
later Emperor known as Lucius Verus, who is often confused with his
father.
After the Death of Antinous, as Hadrian began to grow ill, his
attention turned again to his still beloved Lucius, and on August 10,
136, Hadrian surprised the world by adopting Lucius and declaring him to
be his successor.
Suspicions abounded, as the eccentric and delicate character of
Lucius hardly seemed appropriate to rule the Empire after such a man as
Hadrian.
But there must have been more to Lucius than history has preserved.
He assumed the name Aelius Caesar, and was sent to govern Pannonia along
the Danube, but became ill and returned to Rome in the winter of 137,
where he died on January 1st.
He is remembered and adored as a god, as the brother of Antinous, the twin and second love of Hadrian. We call him the Prince of Flowers.
ANTINOUS NAVIGATOR
ON January 12th, as the Sun moves out of alignment with the STAR OF ANTINOUS, we celebrate the festival of ANTINOUS NAVIGATOR.
Flamen Antonyus Subia explains it this way:
"Antinous the Transfigured steps away and The Boat of Millions of Years in One Moment, leaves the shore of the known cosmos, sailing out into the darkness of the abyss on its voyage to the Black Star, the way of the void, where the heaven of Antinous lies concealed beyond the veil of the cloud of unknowing, where he enters the fullness of the Place of Light, and restores the unity of the Aeons.
"This is the Via Negativa whereupon the soul-triumphant is lost in the open space of non-being, awaiting the Dark Bird of Night, the Thunderbird-Phoenix-Eagle that will elevate his heroic spirit to immortality. Only Antinous can guide the Boat of Millions of Years across this expanse of darkness.
"This journey, which ends as it begins, which arrives as it departs, is the eternal heaven which Antinous has accomplished for all those who are his chosen, who answer his call, and who believe in him."
ON January 11th Romans celebrated the Ancient Juturnalia Festival.
Flamen Antonius Subia says:
"Juturna, Goddess of fountains, lakes and rivers cleanses Antinous of his mortal remnants and prepares him for his journey of millions of years in one moment.
"In the ancient history of Rome, it is said that the divine twins Castor and Pollux, miraculously appeared in the Forum, watering their horses in the fountain of Juturna, announcing that the Romans were Victorious at the battle of Lake Regillus. Castor and Pollux, came to the side of Juturna and proclaimed the Freedom of the Romans from the tyranny of their Kings.
"We observe the coming of the twins as announcing of the Victory of Antinous over the 72 Archons of the high celestial sphere. His victory is our victory. We observe his ascent and departure from our reality by bathing in our own 'fountains of Juturna' in preparation for the elevation of Antinous to the eternal Black Star."
We like to think of the Juturnalia as representing the hermaphroditic Nile Inundation Deity Hapi (who had embraced Antinous when he plunged into the Nile) now rinsing and cleansing ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD of all vestiges of his earthly mortal life so that he is free to ascend to godhood.
VICTORIA ANTINOI
THE SUN ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS
ON January 11th the Sun aligns with the STAR OF ANTINOUS for the most glorious day in our liturgical calendar ... Victoria Antinoi.
This is the day that the 72 days of mourning and mummification are finished and Antinous emerges from the perils of the Underworld to shine "younger than the newborn sun," as the Ancient Egyptian texts say.
Flamen Antonyus Subia says:
"Antinous in glory and radiance, stands between our cosmos and the abyss that is known as the Veil. He has returned as Antinous the Savior. This is the End of the sacred period of 72 days following the earthly mummification of the body of Antinous.
"The preservation of his perfect body was completed by the Egyptian priests, providing him with a carnal vessel for millions of years.
"This is the day upon which Antinous overcomes the 72 princes who rule over the cycles of life and death in the underworld and the outer limit of the cosmos, and our god becomes Antinous the Victorious.
"This is the Coming Forth By Day of Antinous so that he can sail in his Barque of Millions of Years. His triumph becomes the celestial procession, and together with the saints and blessed spirits of the immortals and divinized men, Antinous prepares to step away from the limit of the cosmos and enter the darkness of the void beyond."
THE BURNING OF THE SODOMITES
ON January 10th we solemnly remember the gays who were burned at the stake in the Middle Ages..
The Heretics of the Middle Ages were the last defenders of the Gnosis, against the authority of the Catholic Church. Like the Gnostic Fathers before them, they advocated homosexuality as a sacred form of love.
When the Order of Knights Templar was disbanded in 1310, the inquisitors discovered (under torture) that Heresy, Homosexuality and Devil Worship were interrelated. They represented a united Satanic assault on the power of the Church and the stability of Christian Civilization.
Heresy infected the soul by undermining faith, Witchcraft bred hatred in the form of hexing, but Homosexuality was the vilest of the three because it infected Love, turning a man from his natural affection for a wife, and causing him to waste his seed in lecherous desire.
The homosexual was a danger because he was a threat to the perpetuation of the family and of the human race. He fostered chaos, and weakened the already tenuous position of a society hemmed in by Islam, infected with Plague, and torn apart by War. The Bible warned that any city guilty of the crime of Sodomy would be destroyed by the fire of heaven, so the solution of the Church, in order to avert god's wrath, was to burn the Sodomites.
The Gay Burning Times lasted six hundred years, seven hundred including the Nazis Holocaust (which was based on the same principles) a period of torture, murder and all out war against our kind, lasting much longer than Heresy and Witchcraft combined, which even continues to this day.
The most intense period of burning was the 1600's through late 1700's in France and England, hundreds of thousands were burned at the stake.
The word "Faggot" which means fire-log is said to have derived from the practice of piling the Sodomites upon the pyre, at the feet of the Heretics, because a Sodomite was not worthy to burn standing up.
Flamen Antonyus Subia says:
We who believe in Antinous, and in the sanctity of Homosexuality, solemnly remember the cruel death of the Sodomites who burned for us. Antinous was with them, he burned by their side.
On this last day, Antinous the God redeems the souls of all those who were burned, tortured, strangled, beheaded, or otherwise executed and condemned to Hell by the Church.
That we may never forget the human sacrifice that was inflicted on our brothers and sisters, we consecrate the overthrow of the last Archon to the memory of the Heroic Sodomites who knowing that our form of Love was punishable by death, Loved as Homosexuals nevertheless, and almost willingly gave themselves to be Burned at the Stake. We pray that they will bless us with their fire in our own struggle for liberation.
IN A FIRST, EXPERTS CLAIM TO HAVE FOUND
AN ACTUAL TEMPLE TO PRIAPUS
IN what is being hailed as an unprecedented find, archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have found a temple to the god Priapus.
While ancient texts spoke of the existence of Priapus temples, no temple ruins had ever been found anywhere ... until now.
The head of Bulgaria's National History Museum announced that an ancient temple to Priapus has been found in the Black Sea town of Sozopol.
National History Museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov, who hails from Sozopol, said that archaeologists had found a clay phallus inscribed "to Priapus" during a dig in the Black Sea town, which in the past 24 months has boasted everything from the finding of the purported hand bones of Christian saint John the Baptist to a temple to NEPTUNE/POSEIDON.
Dimitrov reminded local media of the legend of Priapus and a donkey having disputed who was the better-endowed, with the donkey losing the dispute and its life into the bargain, ending as a sacrifice to the god.
The cult of Priapus, Dimitrov said, was believed to have originated along the coast of Asia Minor. In Hellenistic and Roman times, Priapus became associated with sensual pleasure.
However, he played a more important role in his original homeland of Asia Minor ... also the birth land of Antinous ... where he was seen as a guardian deity.
In Asia Minor was regarded as the patron god of sailors and fishermen and others in need of good luck, and his presence was believed to avert the evil eye.
Thus Priapus was depicted on countless thousands of amulets, talismans and wall murals as in this painting from Pompeii's House of the Vettii (above). Notice that he is wearing a Phrygian cap denoting his origins in Asia Minor.
Votives were made to Priapus, he said, from men who had genital diseases or otherwise had problems with erectile dysfunction or potency.
Priapus and his place in popular legend has been enhanced by mentions in the Satyricon by Petronius, in the works of Ovid, and in Chaucer.
Priapus, interestingly, also had a less obviously sexually prominent place in the figurines used as penile directional pointers in artefacts used in ancient Greece and Rome as navigational aids, befitting his role as patron deity of sailors ... a role later attributed to the Christian saint Nicholas, a legendary folk saint (never canonized by the church) whose cult also started in Asia Minor.
