WHAT COLOR HAIR DID ANTINOUS HAVE? By Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia

Amidst all the reconstruction faces of Antinous showing him with sandy or blond hair, Antonius Subia has written this explanation for why Antinous must have had dark hair:

Antonius Subia: The Curium Hymnus inscription from Cyprus describes Antinous as “purple-haired” which seems to imply that his hair was dark...it is the only description of his appearance that has been discovered.

One day people will stop portraying him with blonde hair...but it’s gonna take a while I guess...it just doesn’t look or feel anything like him to me...but again...Antinous can manifest in any color he chooses now that he is a god.

The inscription is Greek, I checked the text again and it literally says “Dark Haired”

This is the line:

αδω ιοβοστρυχε καλλικομη μακαρ βειθυνιε πορφυρεωπα

αδο - lovely or lilting

Ιοβοστρυχε - dark-haired

Καλλικομη- beautiful locks

μακαρ - blessed

βειθυνιε - Bithynian

πορφυρεωπα -purple-seeming

Porphyriopa = Purple-like

Iobostruche =Dark Haired

Those are the only two descriptions of his appearance anywhere in the ancient texts...this is why I am quite sure he was dark haired with reddish brown highlights in the sun...the Purplish description I think is a poetic way of explaining the glimmer and texture of his beautiful hair...the poet may have actually seen him in life and was struck by his amazing hair.

There are those keep saying hopefully one day there will be proof of what he looked like...well here it is and it says he was Dark Haired.

Antinous did not use hair dye, good grief, and the word “red” is completely misleading...the “red” traces of pigment discovered on his statue were not “red” ... they were brown, a natural earth pigment like burn sienna. 

I don’t know why they called it red, its not red and it was faded from its original color which was mostly likely darker brown, I’ve seen it, it looks like someone spilled coffee on the statue and couldn’t get it out of the cracks. 

Antinous did not have Red or Auburn hair, or brown hair with auburn highlights, if he did the poet would have said that, but he didn’t he said “Dark Haired” which is exactly what it sounds like Dark Hair, no one has ever described red, brown or auburn hair as Dark Hair.

The word Porpyriopa is a poetic description and it may not even refer to his hair it may be a poetic description of Antinous himself ... that he was Purple-to-the-eye, or Imperial ... the same word is used to describe Hadrian’s chest where Antinous rests his head.

The word porphyry in ancient Greek refers to a whole range of purple colors including blue-purple violet like the spectrum color.

I am sure the poet does not mean that his hair was the color of Porphyry stone and definitely not the Tyrian Purple from the murex snail. 

If it is a description of his hair, I think it means that his hair was so DARK that it was purple, the way that we call the darkest shades of black hair, so dark that they are blue. 

When the poet says porphyry he (or she) may have meant blue-purple dark hair, but definitely a natural dark color or actual hair. The word Porphyry may not even be describing a color because it also implies Imperial Granduer which Antinous may have displayed.

The line reads:

“Lovely Dark-haired beautiful-locks, blessed Bithinia, purple to the eye”

The “purple-to-the-eye” may refer to his aura and bearing and not mean his hair at all.

Bottom line...the one thing it clearly says it that Antinous was Dark Haired.

By contrast, earlier in the poem it described Apollo as “Radiant Haired”.

That is an important contrast, Apollo, who we know is blonde is described as “radiant hair” while the same poet described Antinous as “dark-haired” “purplish”.

That is a very clear difference. Red or auburn hair is always described by ancients as fire or flame or something that implies heat or warmth not that different from Apollo’s radiant blonde hair...but Antinous is Dark and Purple but not burgundy or maroon these are not natural human hair colors.

His hair was so dark it was purple ... I think this is so wonderful and beautiful.

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

OSCAR WILDE SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON October 16th, the Religion of Antinous honors SAINT OSCAR WILDE who was born on this day in 1854. He died in ignominy and poverty on November 30th, 1900.

Ostensibly, Saint Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel.

Known for his biting wit, he became the most successful playwright of the late Victorian era in London, and the greatest "celebrity" of his day.

His plays are still widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.

As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde experienced  a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years' hard labour after being convicted of homosexual relationships, described as "gross indecency" with other men.

After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry and he never returned to Ireland or Britain.

That is the truth, pure and simple, of his life. But as Saint Oscar himself once famously said: "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

For that reason (and for many others) we remember him not only because he was notorious (something for which he might claim to be quite proud) but because he remembered Antinous.

He kept the name of Antinous alive through his poetry: 
"—A moment more, the trees had stooped to kiss
Pale Daphne just awakening from the swoon
Of tremulous laurels, lonely Salmacis
Had bared his barren beauty to the moon,
And through the vale with sad voluptuous smileANTINOUS had wandered, the red lotus of the Nile.
"Down leaning from his black and clustering hair
To shade those slumberous eyelids — caverned bliss,
Or else on yonder grassy slope with bare
High-tuniced limbs unravished Artemis
Had bade her hounds give tongue, and roused the deer
From his green ambuscade with shrill hallo and pricking spear.FROM "THE BURDEN OF ITYS" BY OSCAR WILDE.


"—Lift up your large black satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks!
Fawn at my feet fantastic Sphinx! and sing me all your memories!
Sing to me of that odorous green eve when couching by the marge
You heard from Adrian's gilded barge the laughter of ANTINOUS
And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare
The ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth!

FROM "THE SPHINX" BY OSCAR WILDE.Here are some quotations from Oscar Wilde:
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.
In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.

Always forgive your enemies — nothing annoys them so much.

A true friend stabs you in the front.

I don't want to earn my living — I want to live.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

ANTINOUS IS A GOD OF HEALING By Our Novice Priest Adriaan van den Berg

Antinous heals! For centuries the ancient believers of Antinous petitioned their God for good health and for Antinous to heal them.

Antinous knows these calls, these petitions and requests, these most dire and desperate pleas, he is familiar with the circumstances and conditions of sickness, he understands the suffering and he intervenes.

His healing power, according to the Obelisk of Antinous in Rome, is expressed through dreams, but he is also a god of the miraculous... Not the cheap trick variety, but of the interventionist kind. 

Yes, Antinous can instantly and immediately cure you from what afflicts you. You just have to ask! A simple prayer to Antinous, as if you were conversing with him, is all it would take. Ask him to heal you. 

Our God is a God of Healing and he will listen to those calling upon him. If you fear the Covid virus, take all precautions, but ask Antinous' to free you of all fear and apprehension, he will give you peace.

Antinous is a friend above all, an intimate and sincere friend to all who profess friendship with him. Again, profess your friendship through prayers to him, and you will be blessed with a companion too.

Ave Antinous!
Adriaan van den Berg
Novice Priest of Antinous

LONG HIDDEN AWAY IN STORAGE THIS ANTINOUS BUST NOW ON EXHIBIT

WE have a new Antinous bust!

The Torlonia Marbles are being displayed for the first time in 50 years at the Capitoline museum in Rome and among them is a new bust of Antinous...not exactly new, its been in storage for decades, but it is new for us!

It shows Antinous as Bacchus wearing a goat skin and on his head that mysterious box-crown that we aren’t entirely sure what its function was but we suspect it may have held a feather adornment or maybe a lotus flower.

There is always another Antinous out there in hiding waiting to be revealed, his mystery never stops unfolding around us!

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR MARTYR SAINTS OF MALE-MALE LOVE

ON this day, the origin of the folk belief that "Friday the 13th" is an unlucky day, the Religion of Antinous remembers the Knights Templar.

The proud and courageous brotherhood known as the Order of Knights Templar, who were sworn to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, were accused of Heresy, Idolatry and Sodomy, and were arrested on Friday the 13th of October in the year 1310 in France.

Although they had fought valiantly during the Crusades, and even stayed behind, sacrificing themselves to guard the retreat of Christian refugees during the fall of Acre in 1291, the order was condemned by the Pope and handed over to the envious King Philip the "Fair" of France, who coveted their land and immense wealth.

The Knights had adopted the heresy of Catharism which was basically a form of Gnosticism with Manichean influence, that had perhaps been introduced to them in the Holy Land where it flourished under the Moslems.

The Cathars believed that Jesus had descended to the material plane to undo the rule of the God of Israel, and that he had liberated mankind from the law of Moses and the natural order, through salvation in his name.

The Cathars believed that the body, and life itself, was the creation of the Evil One, who claimed to be the "Creator of the Universe."

They did not recognize the authority of the Church and believed that homosexuality was sacred because it was a form of love which did not result in procreation (locking humans in a cycle of earthly incarnations).

Following the Platonic ideal of Venus Urania, the Cathars believed that Brotherly Love was more in keeping Christ's teaching than the love between husband and wife.

The Knights Templar, whose seal depicted two knights riding on one horse, quite openly advocated this philosophy. But the Papal accusation claimed that they took this to the extreme of sodomy, requiring new initiates to perform the Kiss of Shame, by which they kissed the buttocks and phallus of the Grand Master of the Order.

They were also accused of abandoning Christianity and worshipping a demon called Baphomet, a hermaphroditic, goat-headed idol whose name implied secret knowledge.  

Other accusations were leveled against the Knights. But Heresy, Satanism, and Sodomy were the crimes which essentially led to their downfall. 

Of course most of this information was obtained through torture. But one can only wonder at the consistency that characterizes their confessions. 

On this night, the Grand Master Jacques de Molay and thousands of  Templars were arrested, tortured, condemned and subsequently Burned at the Stake. From then on, Heresy, Devil worship, and Homosexuality were indistinguishable in the eyes of the Inquisition, perhaps because they were indeed interconnected. 

Homosexuality, however, had not been a significant threat to Christendom until it was connected with a diabolical plot to overthrow the order of society and of the Church. This was the beginning of Our Burning Times, and over the course of the next 400 years, thousands of homosexuals were officially and publicly condemned and burned or otherwise executed as an act of faith that, through our extermination, the Church was protecting the world from the Forces of Evil which we embodied.

For their courage and sacrifice, we praise the Order of the Knights Templar as Heroic Martyr Saints of the Religion of Antinous, as the Sacred Band of the Middle Ages, and we recognize their secret god Baphomet as an incarnation of our beloved Dionysus, a manifestation of Homo Deus, and of Our Beautiful God Antinous.

NOMINATIONS FOR SAINTHOOD 2020 NOW BEING ACCEPTED BY OUR PRIESTS

THE time has come to Nominate Gay Saints of Antinous for 2020. (Anno Antinoo 1890)

Before making a nomination, please check the current LIST OF SAINTS to be sure that your suggestion is not listed already.

All nominations will be considered, but as a reminder, our traditional criteria is as follows:

I. A Nominee for Sainthood must be:

    1. A person who is no longer alive.

    2. A person who was known to be Gay or reasonably suspected to have been Gay or bisexual to a significant degree.

    3. A person who made a notable contribution to gay society or human society in general.

II. A Nominee for the category of Martyr Saint should be:

    1. Any gay person who committed suicide or was the victim of gay violence.

III. A Nominee for the category of Venerable Saint can be:

    1. Any person who was not gay, or whose homosexuality is uncertain, but who made a significant contribution to gay society or gay spirituality that we feel deserves to be recognized in an official capacity.

IV. Members of Ecclesia Antinoi, and those they love may be nominated for passage on the Barque of Millions of Years.

The deadline for nominations is October 28th, any nominations made after that date will have to be added to the nomination list for 2021.  Discussion is open to all considering the qualifications of any nomination.  The Priesthood of Antinous will make the final decision...an announcement will be made on October 30th, and a ceremony of consecration will proceed that evening.

May the Saints of Antinous be with us,

Watch over us,

And guide us to Antinous Consciousness.

Antonivs N. Svbia

Flamen Antinoalis

MATTHEW SHEPARD SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON this sad day we honor a young gay man who was brutally murdered: Matthew Shepard, who died at 12:53 am on Monday, October 12th, 1998.

He was brutally assaulted because he was gay, on the night of October 7, by two men who had lured him to a secluded place outside of Laramie Wyoming. 

His attackers tied him to a fence, beat him and left him for dead in the freezing cold. 

He was found the following evening by a cyclist. 

By the time help arrived, he had slipped into unconsciousness.

The death of Matthew Shepard awakened the world to the persecution that homosexuals have endured for centuries. His beauty, youth and innocence affected everyone, and spoke for the hundreds of others who in recent years have died similar deaths without being noticed.

Matthew Shepard is a Sacred and Holy Martyr of Homosexuality, he died an innocent because he was gay. He died a death that so many others have suffered, but his death changed the world.

He was 22 years old, very near the age of Antinous and, like Antinous, his beautiful face, humble origin, and tragic death have had a great impact on the future of homosexuality in our society.

We consecrate his memory and pray for him, that he will guide and protect us in our hour of danger, and bring an end to the violence and hatred that he suffered.