SCHOLAR MARY BEARD RIDICULES REPORT THAT ANTINOUS IS HAUNTING A TV CELEB

SCHOLAR Mary Beard has dismissed the fears of British multi-millionaire TV celebrity Simon Cowell that his mansion in Wimbledon England is haunted by the "ghost" of a statue of Antinous.

She tweeted: "So Simon Cowell believes his house is haunted by emperor Hadrian's 'gay lover', Antinous. Dream on, sunshine! But let's hope for a huge spike of interest in 2nd Century Roman history."

Cowell bought the house in October 2018, apparently unaware that it was "haunted" by the "ghost" of a statue of Antinous ... despite the fact that the statue was relocated to a museum in the south of France years ago ... after the house's previous owner freaked out over weird sounds in the night.

Scholar, author and blogger Mary Beard lists Antinous among the TEN BEST ANCIENT ROMANS in the 500-year history of the Roman Empire.

The eerie ANTINOUS GHOST STORY first made headlines SIX YEARS AGO when an art collector said a marble statue of Antinous "haunted" his mansion in England, forcing him to relocate it to a museum.

"I'm convinced it's haunted," the headlines screamed, quoting financial genius Christian Levett who is worth nearly half a billion dollars.

Levett, who founded the hedge fund Clive Capital, collects antiquities which he houses in his private museum in the South of France, MOUGINS MUSEUM.

But Levett claimed that he got more than he bargained for when he bought an ancient statue of Antinous for his house in Wimbledon.

"It was delivered in a crate," Levett recalled.

"When I was locking up, I heard the sound of heavy objects being knocked over from the drawing room where Antinous was still lying in his box. But there was nobody there.

"The same thing happened the next night and the night after that. In the end, I couldn't stand it any longer. Antinous was going to be in my study ... but I've sent him to the museum."

That was six years ago and all was quiet ... until Levett sold the house for $20 million to British TV talent show host Simon Cowell in October 2018.

A source told a Sunday tabloid: "Simon believes in spirits so he's been freaked out by this story.

"I don't think he was aware when he moved in. He might have to call a ghostbuster."

A neighbour added: "I know when Christian lived there the family heard unexplained noises. There'd be a bump from a bedroom then the next night a noise from downstairs."

As always, details are scant and confused ... just as they were six years ago.

JEAN GENET ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SAINT HE IS A SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON April 15th the Religion of Antinous remembers Jean Genet as a Saint of Antinous.

Saint Jean Genet was one of the first and most modern gay poets, whose elegance and sordid love for the street life was unprecedented, and has never been matched.

Among his most fervent desires, expressed from the very beginning was that he should one day be elevated to Sainthood.

We of the Religion of Antinous, fully and faithfully, take faith in the spirit of Saint Jean Genet, through whom the eternal voice of Antinous spoke with the most voluptuousness and vain-glory.

Saint Jean Genet died on this day in Paris in 1986.

THE 'GHOST' OF AN ANTINOUS STATUE RETURNS TO A 'HAUNT' A MANSION

ANTINOUS is in the British tabloid headlines today ... or rather the "ghost" of a purported statue of Antinous has returned to a multi-millionaire TV celebrity's mansion in Wimbledon England ... to go bump in the night.

The eerie story first made headlines SIX YEARS AGO when an art collector said a marble statue of Antinous "haunted" his mansion in England, forcing him to relocate it to a museum.

"I'm convinced it's haunted," the headlines screamed, quoting financial genius Christian Levett who is worth nearly half a billion dollars.

Levett, who founded the hedge fund Clive Capital, collects antiquities which he houses in his private museum in the South of France, MOUGINS MUSEUM.

But Levett claimed that he got more than he bargained for when he bought an ancient statue of Antinous for his house in Wimbledon.

"It was delivered in a crate," Levett recalled.

"When I was locking up, I heard the sound of heavy objects being knocked over from the drawing room where Antinous was still lying in his box. But there was nobody there.

"The same thing happened the next night and the night after that. In the end, I couldn't stand it any longer. Antinous was going to be in my study ... but I've sent him to the museum."

That was six years ago and all was quiet ... until Levett sold the house for $20 million to British TV talent show host Simon Cowell.

A source told a Sunday tabloid: "Simon believes in spirits so he's been freaked out by this story.

"I don't think he was aware when he moved in. He might have to call a ghostbuster."

A neighbour added: "I know when Christian lived there the family heard unexplained noises. There'd be a bump from a bedroom then the next night a noise from downstairs."

As always, details are scant and confused ... just as they were six years ago.

KENNETH WEISHUHN SAINT OF ANTINOUS

WE honor Kenneth Weishuhn as a blessed Saint of Antinous because he killed himself at age 14 after bullies taunted him relentlessly for being gay.

April 14th, 2012, Kenneth James Weishuhn, of Primghar, Iowa, succumbed to the bullying he'd been receiving since coming out as a gay teen only a few short months earlier.

He was a very happy young man.  Handsome and full of life.  He was loving to others.  More than that, he was loved by his friends and families.

Unfortunately, coming out of the closet cost him his young life. The bullying was relentless and severe to the point where he couldn't take it any longer.

Two of Kenneth's friends, Kristi and Brandi, made a YOUTUBE VIDEO TRIBUTE to their gone-too-soon friend.

Antinous is the God of teens who suffer for being gay. Kenneth Weishuhn is in the embrace of Antinous the Gay God. 

DID ANTINOUS PLAY WITH THIS DOG AT VINDOLANDA FORT IN BRITANNIA?

THE 2,000-year-old remains of a dog with its fur still intact have been up on display at a Roman fort in northern Britain.

The rare find was made at Vindolanda Roman Fort near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, and has been sent for analysis to determine the dog's breed.

It was part of a haul made by a team of 400 volunteers who pay for a place to excavate at the site each year.

Other finds included an 1,800-year-old skull of a beheaded native Briton that was stuck on a spike.

A spokeswoman said the fact the dog's fur was so well-preserved was "incredible".

The top part of the human skull also found showed evidence of numerous wounds including sword injuries.

Dr Andrew Birtley, chief executive officer at the Vindolanda Trust, said: 

"This individual came from the north-west of Britain, as determined by isotope analysis of his teeth.

"The damage patterns to this skull show clearly that his head was decapitated and then placed on a stake after death, which came about through a series of violent wounds to both sides of his head."

He said "trophy head-taking" was common among Roman auxiliary soldiers.

Another artefact found during this year's dig was a solid silver brooch in the shape of a duck dating back more than 1,800 years.

A spokeswoman for the Vindolanda museum said: 

"The native British design of the brooch can be traced back hundreds of years prior to Roman occupation.

"The duck was a symbol of honesty, simplicity and resourcefulness ... we probably all need to channel our inner duck."

She said that there had been so much interest in the brooch that the museum was making replicas to sell.

HADRIAN'S WALL POSTS WALL WATCHERS TO COPE WITH 'GAME OF THRONES' TOURISTS

THE inspiration for The Wall in the best-selling books and TV series "Game of Thrones" was Hadrian's Wall, and now authentic-looking "Wall Watchers" have been posted along the wall in northern England to cope with the onslaught ... not of White Walkers ... but rather tourists who want to see the real wall that inspired author George RR Martin.

English Heritage has appointed costumed "Watchers on the Wall" at its Roman forts along Hadrian's Wall for the final season of the epic TV series. 

From Birdoswald Roman Fort in Cumbria to Corbridge Roman Town in Northumberland, the Watchers on the Wall, identifiable by their black cloaks and shields, will be on hand to explain how Hadrian's Wall inspired Martin's very own ice wall in the series.

English Heritage's Watchers on the Wall are at the charity's main four Roman sites along Hadrian's Wall from now until the series finale later in the year.

The author says that seeing Hadrian's Wall planted the seeds of inspiration back in the 1980s for his popular fantasy tale.

In an interview with American magazine Rolling Stone, George RR Martin said it was the landmark in northern England which first got him thinking about the plot and inspired The Wall, an integral part of the series.

"The Wall predates anything else. I can trace back the inspiration for that to 1981," he remembers. 

"I was in England visiting a friend, and as we approached the border of England and Scotland, we stopped to see Hadrian's Wall," Martin says. 

"I stood up there and I tried to imagine what it was like to be a Roman legionary, standing on this wall, looking at these distant hills."

He adds, "It was a very profound feeling. For the Romans at that time, this was the end of civilization; it was the end of the world. We know that there were Scots beyond the hills, but they didn't know that," he says.

"It could have been any kind of monster. It was the sense of this barrier against dark forces – it planted something in me," the author recalls. 

"But when you write fantasy, everything is bigger and more colorful, so I took the Wall and made it three times as long and 700 feet high, and made it out of ice."

In the TV show, The Wall is a massive fortification which stretches for 300 miles along the northern border of the Seven Kingdoms, defending the realm from the wildlings who live beyond.

APOLLONIUS AND PHILEMON SAINTS AND MARTYRS OF ANTINOUS

AS the fires of intolerance under the guise of "freedom of religion" rage all around us, we remember St. Apollonius and St. Philemon of Antinoopolis, two loving friends who died together as martyrs to religious persecution.
 
Antinoopolis was built upon the bank where Antinous had fallen into the Nile. From its birth the city was enshrouded with the specter of death.

The Religion of Antinous under the Curia of Antinoopolis was a death cult. The city's two major temples, that of the Egyptian faction and the larger Antineion which is the second possible site of the Lost Tomb of Antinous, were places for the perpetual lamentation of the death of Antinous, and for the passing of all beauty and youth in the world.

Antinoopolis was the flower of Greek civilization deep in the desert of the Thebaid, and it was a haven for dispossessed and exiled thinkers and theological revolutionaries of all sorts. But there came a time when even liberal-minded Antinoopolis fell under the sway of the fear and violence that had swept across the world.

The Christian faith was suffering one of the bloodiest persecutions in its history. In the 4th Century CE, as Antinoopolis was in full flower, Emperor Diocletian had sought to curb the rising tide of Christianity with brutal violence. He issued decrees that all citizens should be compelled to demonstrate their piety to the Roman Gods by offering sacrifice. It was a direct challenge.

Any person who refused was not only insulting the Gods of Rome, but also showing disloyalty to the Emperor and to Rome herself. Such treason was punishable by death. This was a legal way to persecute Christians. It was not an attack on the Christian doctrine, or its practices, but demonstrated an unavoidable line that no Christian would cross.

It is interesting to note that, although many of the Christians were executed by beheading or by being shot through with arrows, some were executed by being drowned in the Nile. This similarity between their deaths and the death of Antinous must have been very moving to the Ancient Priests of Antinous.

And it is also curious that the authorities apparently were not sensitive to the nature of this form of execution in the sacred city of a boy who had become a god simply by drowning in the Nile.

Of these Martyrs, the most profoundly moving are Apollonius and Philemon. Apollonius was a Deacon of the Church, also called a reader. The story goes that he was ordered to make a pagan sacrifice at Antinoopolis in order to prove that he was not a practicing Christian. He couldn't bring himself to do that, so he asked his "dearest friend" Philemon to make the sacrifice for him, since Philemon was a pagan.

Philemon is said to have been a flute player, an occupation notoriously held by homosexuals. While one was a young Christian priest and the other a pagan, it is indeed noteworthy that Apollonius the priest would have the confidence and trust to ask Philemon to take his place, and that Philemon would risk his life to aid the young priest. The two must have had a very close friendship, the nature of which has escaped the attention of the Christian martyrologists.


In the end, of course, the ruse was found out and they both died together by being drowned after the manner of Antinous, in the Nile.

One key element of the story is the irrefutable fact that Philemon, though not a Christian himself, refused under torture to renounce his friendship. In other words, he would rather die with his friend than renounce him and live on without him.

The details of the story of their martyrdom are shrouded in legend. In one version, they were tortured separately and were to be executed by archers.

But the story goes that the arrows bounced off their bodies. And in one version, an arrow point ricocheted back at Arian himself, blinding him in one eye.

Saint Philemon predicted that, after his martyrdom, Arian would be healed at Philemon's tomb on condition that he became a Christian. Arian did so, was cured miraculously -- and subsequently was put to death himself for being a Christian.

After arrows failed to kill them, Apollonius and Philemon, bloody but alive, were chained together and placed in a sack and thrown into the river. In one version, they were thrown into the sea at Alexandria.

Their deaths occurred on April 10th in the year 305.

What would cause a man to link his fate with that of another man, the two of them residents of a city founded in honor of a man who linked his fate with that of another man?

As for Apollonius, he must have been regarded as a rebellious hothead and self-destructive with his talk about this martyred Hebrew carpenter boy being an alternative to Antinous -- right there in the Sacred City of Antinoopolis!

What thoughts went through Philemon's mind as he was being bound up in chains together with his beloved friend and they were shoved into the river?

They probably weren't very nice men. Remember that actor/musicians were considered scum in ancient Rome. One was an actor and the other was a rabble-rousing religious fanatic. Not nice men.

Theirs was not a very pretty story. But then, few of the saints of any religious canon were very "sweet and nice" people to actually be around. "Nice" people obey the rules. "Nice" people obey the rules.

These people did not. They stood up against authority and convention. And their life stories generally are not very pretty.

But most of us are not very "sweet and nice" people, once you get past the smiling exteriors that most of us present to neighbors and co-workers. Most of our life stories are not particularly very pretty.

But "nice" people with pretty life stories don't become saints. Most saints are usually just ordinary people who were placed in an extraordinary situation and who did something extraordinary as a result. We read the lives of the saints because they shock us into facing the reality of our own not very nice selves and our own not very pretty little lives.

It is very fitting and appropriate that we remember Philemon and Apollonius, two friends from the Sacred City of Antinoopolis whose lives were linked by bonds of love and whose deaths were linked by bonds of chains.