Tuesday, October 31, 2017

TRIUMPH OF THE LIBERATOR


ANTINOUS the mortal is dead. Antinous the God is born! 

On this day, October 31st, we surrender ourselves, body and soul, to the joy of Lord Liber, and join in the festival of Halloween, spreading the Love and Liberation of Antinous to the world of the living and the dead. This is the second day of the Ecclesiastic Year.

The festival of Antinous Liberator, the New Dionysus, is the place from which life comes and all love-joy with the ever-present specter of Our Lady death by its side.

The New God Antinous Liberator, sets us free with a wave of his hand. 
He destroys the bondage that holds our immortal spirit prisoner to the cycles of life and death, as the chains of time and matter fall of their own accord.

In benediction, Antinous Liberator confers the flame of Homotheosis upon the hearts of his chosen lovers so that we may indulge and burn in the ecstasy of being One with HIM.

We are free from the masquerade of the spirit in this world of illusion, we are unclothed before him. 


From his lips we drink the winged intoxication of the flesh and abandoned all reason and logic at his feet.

Antinous stands upon the crescent of the Moon. He passes through the Arches of the spheres, the 7 Archons bow down before HIM.

The god-power of Antinous shines over the face of darkness. The Spirits of the Dead awaken to dance as the wine of freedom flows down into the spider-heart of Tartarus.


As Dark as events in the world may become ... a powerful light is shining stronger for Gay, Bi, Lesbian and Transgender people everywhere in the world!

Every day, more and more of us come together,

Every day, the fire of Antinous spreads

His name becomes less a strange, unheard of and difficult to pronounce name from Ancient times ... and more a realization that once there was a time when being gay was a sacred state of being, and that there was a god who represented us, and spoke on our behalf to the immortal powers.

Antinous is with us again ... his power is growing stronger in our hearts.

Antinous is within all of US!

The Blessing of Antinous is with us all!

The Arisen Antinous has Come Again! 

Ave Antinous!
~ANTONIUS SUBIA

WE HAVE A NEW PRIEST OF ANTINOUS
AND NEW SAINTS FOR 2017



WE have a new priest of Antinous! MICHAEL ISOM of Roanoke Virginia was consecrated in joyous ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous tonight.

Michael, whose priestly name is Michaelus Lucian Marius Aquila Isom, now brings our priesthood to six, spanning three continents, North America, Europe and South America. He is the first priest on the East Coast of the United States.


Michael not only is an active worshiper of Antinous, he has literally taken the Antinous brand ... and Antinous is immortalized in iconic skin art on his body!

The priests of Antinous unanimously approved the consecration of Michael, who has been a member of our community since 2004 and who has conducted workshops and rallies on behalf of Antinous.


Earlier this year, Michael marched in Washington DC and held our banner high in front of the White House.

His consecration by our Flamen Antonius Subia was conducted before a worldwide link-up via Skype during Foundation Day ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous on 30th October.

Worshipers from North America, South America and Europe witnessed the consecration.

The other highlight of the evening was announcement of saints of Antinous for 2017. The names of the new Gay Saints of Antinous for 2017 (Anno Antinoo 1906) were added to our LIST OF SAINTS.

They are:

GEORGE MICHAEL (25 June 1963 - 25 December 2016) now is with Antinous among  the glittering stars. He has found his Freedom and his Faith. It was his Last Christmas, and we shall miss him.

ZELIMKHAN BAKAEV (23 April 1992 - October 2017) - This Russian singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was arrested, tortured, and murdered by by Chechen authorities due to "suspicion of homosexuality."

MARY RENAULT 4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983) was a British lesbian writer best known for her wonderful historical novels that recreated in Ancient Greece in magnificent detail (The King Must Die and The Persian Boy). Renault met her life partner Julie Mullard in 1933 while they were training as nurses and they were together for 50 years, until Renault's death in 1983.

SAL MINEO - was an acclaimed Hollywood movie actor who was an inspiration to millions of LGBTI people. Born 10 January 1939, he was murdered in Hollywood 12 February 1976. 

ITABERLLY LOZANO - this 17-year-old boy was murdered by his mother in Brazil ... because he was gay! His charred body was found in a trash heap in January 2017.

JOHN HURT - (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017). He portrayed Quentin Crisp (a saint of Antinous) on television and on film ... John Hurt was the best Caligula in film/TV history in the BBC series "I, Claudius." He is now in the arms of Antinous!

WILLEM ARONDEUS - (22 August 1894 – 1 July 1943) a Dutch gay non-Jewish artist and writer who led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office in order to hinder the Nazi round-up of Jews, was executed with 12 others by firing squad. "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards," were his final words. 

PROSYMNUS - the shepherd who agreed to show Dionysus the entrance to the underworld in exchange for sex. Dionyus agreed but said only after he returned with his mother Semele. When he returned, he went looking for Prosymnus but the man had died. So Dionysus made a phallus out of fig wood, went to the grave of Prosymnus, set the wooden dildo on the gave and then inserted it into his rectum, thereby fulfilling his promise.

BARTOLOMEO CAVACEPPI - 18th Century sculptor and restorer if antiquities. He worked with both Cardinal Albani and Johann Joachim Winckelmann restoring and copying the Cardinal's vast collection so we can be sure that many of our Antinous images passed through his studio and were restored to their former glory.

BRAZIL STATE OFFICIALLY HONORS
OUR TEMPLE IN SAO PAULO


WE are proud to announce that the first Temple of Antinous in Brazil was officially recognized in ceremonies today by the state of São Paulo.

The honor came on the first anniversary of the consecration of the TEMPLO DE ANTÍNOO BRASIL

The temple's high priest, veteran journalist and educator DECO RIBEIRO , was honored by state officials and by Claudiney Prieto, who is the guiding light of paganism in Brazil.

Decus Lupercus, his priestly name as sacerdote, was honored for his efforts to promote paganism in general and Antinous in particular.

All of the priests around the world unite in congratulating Decus Lupercus on this great honor!





Monday, October 30, 2017

THE FOUNDING OF ANTINOOPOLIS


ON this day we commemorate the founding of the Sacred City of Antinous, the glorious city of ANTINOOPOLIS in Egypt as it originally was called and later Ansenand Antinoé.

Our Lord Hadrian Augustus, Emperor of Rome, Pontifex Maximus, the New Jupiter, Hercules reborn, consecrated the shore of the Nile where Antinous fell, and solemnly founded the Holy City of Antinoopolis in Egypt in the year 130 AD
.

Antinous had risen again from the depths of Tartarus, he had conquered death and returned to the place of the living.

By Victory and Proclamation, Antinous was elevated to godliness, and the ancient religion of Our God was set in motion. 



The Priesthood of Antinous was ordained, sacred statues and images proliferated, and Temples rose up in every corner of the world, for the glory of Antinous the God.

We exalt in the deification of Antinous, and marvel at his assumption into heaven. 


On this day we concelebrate the Foundation of Antinoopolis by re-founding the sacred city within our hearts, declaring ourselves the New Stones of Antinoopolis. 

With love for Antinous in our hearts, the New Temple of Antinous was founded in 2002, called Ecclesia Antinoi, and the New Priesthood of Antinous initiated.

We recognize the Foundation of Antinoopolis as the first day of the New and Holy Year of Religion of Antinous.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

ANTINOUS IN THE UNDERWORLD



ANTINOUS is dead. Hadrian is weeping over his limp body on the banks of the Nile where his beloved perished in late October of the year 130 AD.

While mourners wail in the world of the living, Antinous descends into the Underworld. The modern Religion of Antinous commemorates this descent into the Egyptian Duat on October 29th.

Flamen Antonius Subia says:
Antinous is embraced by Osiris beneath the water of the Holy Nile, and he is given over to Hermes-Anubis and led into the underworld.

He appears before the Lords of the scale of Maat, but his spirit is divine and the scales crumble at his touch.

Hermes-Anubis escorts Antinous into the Hall of the Queen of the Dead, Persephone, and because he is a witness of the Mysteries of Eleusis, he obtains from her the pomegranate of immortality.

The immortal spirit of Antinous does not taste death, and he is given to drink of the fountain that restores memory because he has learned from Orpheus that he is from the Earth but is a Child of the Stars.

Antinous conquers death and returns from darkness. At midnight Antinous the God arises from the Nile and steps onto the shore from which he fell. The spirits of the entourage of Dionysus attend his resurrection and he is reborn as the New Osiris-Dionysus.
In the Religion of Antinous, this is the last day of the Ecclesiastic Year, it is spent in darkness and in solemn devotion.

As Antinous journeys through the underworld, we confront the weakness of being without our god, we reflect on the passage of the year, and on the influence of Antinous upon our lives, and we pray for the triumph of his return.


At midnight, a pure candle is ignited to symbolize the deification of Antinous Our God.

HOMOPHOBIA VICTIMS REMEMBERED
ON ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF ANTINOUS



ON three continents tonight, adherents of Antinous took part via a Skype video call in a candlelight vigil in memory of worldwide victims of homophobia.

The vigil coincided with the October 28 observance of the Death of Antinous on that date in the year 130 AD.

Worshipers in North America, South America and Europe took part in the candlelight ceremonies.

At the Hollywood Temple of Antinous, the founder of the modern religion of Antinous, ANTONIUS SUBIA, related the true-life story of how Antinous drowned in the Nile at the end of October in the year 130 AD, and how Hadrian proclaimed him the last deity of the Classical Era.

Priest DECO RIBEIRO, participating via Skype from São Paulo (photo below left), solemnly read out the nearly 400 names of Brazilian LGBTIU victims of homophobic murders over the past 12 months ... and linked them to the tragic death of Antinous.

With a quavering voice, Deco paused from time to time to remark on individuals whose names were on the list. 

He also honoured hundreds of victims of homophobic attacks around the world.

Most of the victims are unidentified, but one individual's horrific disappearance and death made headlines worldwide:

Zelimkhan Bakaev (23 April 1992 - October 2017)

This Russian singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was arrested, tortured, and murdered by by Chechen authorities due to "suspicion of homosexuality." 

Sadly, many of the other people were listed as "Unidentified" either because their families had withheld their names out of shame ... or because they were street people whose identities were never determined by authorities.

Antonius noted that the list of names represents only the tip of the iceberg ... and only one 12-month period. Countless thousands more suffer and are murdered on a daily basis around the world.


"We are in a state of war," Antonius said. "In the name of 'religious freedom,' our enemies seek to destroy us. But as the Religion of Antinous, we can fight back."

On October 28th we commemorate the death of Antinous and his descent into the Underworld.

"Antinous passes out of the world of the living tonight and enters the Underworld, where he hears the names of all these people and gathers them to him and embraces them and saves them from oblivion," Antonius told worshipers.

"I pray to Antinous to watch over them, now as his divine spirit sinks down into the place of the dead ... and when he returns, that he will bring for hope again, that these deaths will stop," Antonius said. "This is what I wish for."

On October 30th, another international Skype-relayed ceremony will be held celebrating the return of Antinous from the Underworld and the establishment of the city of ANTINOOPOLIS by Emperor Hadrian on that date in 130 AD.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

THE DEATH OF ANTINOUS


ON October 28 the Religion of Antinous commemorates The Death of Antinous.

Near the village of Hir-wer, Antinous fell into the Nile and drowned.

There are those who believe that he was murdered, or that he willingly gave himself over to human sacrifice to prolong the life of his beloved Hadrian, or that his death was the suicidal effect of teenage melodrama, or that is was merely an accident, but there is no way to know, no way to be certain.

Grief-stricken Hadrian only said he "plunged into the Nile" but never elaborated on the circumstances of the death of his beloved.


Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia says:
We priests of Antinous do not take a definite position and leave the matter as an unknowable mystery. The manner in which Antinous died is not important, only the effect that his death had upon the world has significance.

On this day, we solemnly and silently mourn the Death of Antinous whom Hadrian loved and for whom he wept, and we sorrow for the loss of such great beauty at so young an age.

We pray for the Bithynian boy who died so far from home.

With his death, our religion was set in motion.

We lament and exalt in the grief of Hadrian that was so strong and so powerful that it spread to the whole face of the world, and affects us still today.

We pray also for all those homosexuals who have died in youth as a consequence of repression, we mourn the suicides, and commit them to the soothing arms of Antinous, who was assumed into the Nile for all of us.

It is one of the great ironies of history that, by dying dramatically, a young person who was unremarkable except for his beauty became irrevocably bound with the most powerful man in the world. 

Emperor Hadrian proclaimed Antinous a God. He established a city on the bend of the Nile where the young man died — Antinoopolis. 

He named a constellation in the heavens after Antinous.

And without gentle Antinous at his side, Hadrian became an embittered and broken man. He became capricious and at times cruel. A reign which had been marked by Hellenistic principles of tolerance descended into bloodshed.

It is indeed remarkable how one young man, a commoner with no wealth or political influence, changed the course of history simply by dying. And the thousands of statues sculpted on orders of grieving Hadrian became the iconic image of Classical beauty — the last deity of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Antinous fell into the Nile, beneath the swirling waves, but when his body was pulled from the water ... a God emerged. Antinous is our God, he has accomplished the salvation of all lovers of his beauty. His is our salvation. He is Antinous the Gay God. He is the last pagan God of Classical Rome.

For centuries, he was worshiped in secret by gay men who were afraid to worship him publicly. Men such as Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman sang his praises. When the Nazis marched into the offices of gay-rights advocate Magnus Hirschfeld in Berlin, they smashed a ceramic wall relief of Antinous which Dr. Hirschfeld had set in a place of reverence over the doorway.

And now, in the 21st Century, the "Most Great and Good God" (as he was known among his followers) is being discovered by a whole new generation of people seeking gay spirituality.


We dedicate our lives and our souls to fulfilling the Divine Hadrian's command to establish the Religion of Antinous for all who seek gay spirituality. We dedicate our lives and our souls to serving Antinous the Gay God.

Friday, October 27, 2017

ANTINOUS AND THE SCROLL OF THOTH
BY WHICH ISIS RAISED OSIRIS
FROM THE DEAD



ANTINOUS would see only one more sunset and sunrise on this date in the year 130 AD. And after that final sunrise, he would never see another sunset ...

On October 27th Antinous and the Imperial entourage were in the ancient city of Hermopolis, the Sacred City of Thoth/Hermes during the celebration of the Death and Resurrection of Osiris.

We believe that the spiritual forces of this occasion, and the Mysteries divulged to him by the Hermetic priests of the god Thoth, were the inspiration for this ascension into godliness.

The Passion of Isis and Osiris was played out annually in Ancient Egypt and formed the cornerstone of the Egyptian belief system, a belief system which taught that you could die horribly and tragically and yet you could be revived and restored and in fact you could become a god.

Sacred players acted out the roles of Osiris, his murderous brother Set and his faithful consort Isis. It was through the magical spells contained in the fabled "Scroll of Thoth" that Isis brought Osiris back from the dead.




At Oxyrhynchus Antinous had seen just how potent the magical spells of Isis were.

The festival of Osiris celebrated at Hermopolis and observed by Hadrian and Antinous commemorated the rending of the body of Osiris and the searching of Isis for each of the parts.

We believe that something of a cathartic nature happened within the soul of Antinous at Hermopolis just before he plunged into the Nile on the opposite bank across from Hermopolis.

We will never know precisely what happened. Did Antinous get a glimpse at the fabled Scroll of Thoth? Did some Egyptian magician-priest teach him a bit about spellcasting? Did Antinous perhaps believe that he could use a spell to prolong Hadrian's life?

The Egyptians believed anyone who drowned in the Nile would become "a deified Osiris". Some Egyptian magical spells call for the magician to "deify a scarab beetle" -- which means to drown it in Nile water and thus make it sacred and magical.

We will never know for sure what happened as a result of the ceremonies on October 27th, the last day and the last sunset of the brief mortal life of Antinous. The sun would rise on October 28th and, although the mortal Antinous would die, there would never be another setting of the sun for Antinous the Gay God!

FLAMEN ANTONYUS SUBIA tells us:

Like Osiris, Antinous descended into the Nile, and arose to bring the blessing of eternal life to the world. The Religion of Antinous, like the body of Osiris was scattered over the face of the world, and we who worship him, are like Isis, gathering the fragments together again.

Hermopolis was the last city that Antinous ever saw, and the Passion of Osiris was the last religious ceremony in which he took part. Certainly it was here and at this time that an Awakening occurred, dark in its implications, causing Antinous to relinquish his life.

But it was of splendid power in that, from the death of the boy, a god emerged. We observe that in Hermopolis, the scattering of the body of Osiris was the moment when the sperm of the blessed one was planted in the immortal spirit of Antinous, Our God.

The Sacred Nights of Antinous begin tomorrow ....

Thursday, October 26, 2017

OPEN YOUR EYES TO WEIGHTLESSNESS
DURING THE SACRED NIGHTS OF ANTINOUS



THE Sacred Nights of Antinous are fast approaching: The dark nights between the death of Antinous (28 October) and his Triumph over Death (31 October). 

This is a magical Space/Time event when the veil between the worlds is lifted. (Painting by RYAN MARTIN.)

This magical event is known by many names: Halloween ... Samhain ... Día de los Muertos ... All Saints/Souls Day ... it is also when we change the clocks (in most countries) ... an hour forward in some places ... or an hour backwards in other places ... the time displayed on the clock is unimportant ... your location in the Time/Space continuum is unimportant.

This Shoegazer video by Washed Out, which is a favourite of Antonius Subia, best illustrates what happens to each of us during the Sacred Nights of Antinous.

We become "Weightless" ... as the Time/Space boundaries between Dreaming and Waking evaporate ... we see waking life as a dream ... we "dreamscape" our dreams to make them real ... we see the world through the eyes of Antinous ... we see Antinous in the eyes of all around us ... the Ancient Priests in Rome see through our eyes ... we see through the eyes of the Future Priests on distant planets ... we see through the eyes of Antinous ... for whom all dimensions are HERE and NOW.

You open your eyes and see through the eyes of all your incarnations ... past incarnations ... your present incarnation ... future incarnations ... all simultaneously ... bundling and harnessing all the spiritual power from all your incarnations (and all the difficult lessons) in an illuminating flash of insight ... A moment which is eternity.

You become weightless. You take the leap of faith ... HOMOTHEOSIS ... Gay-Man-Godliness-Becoming-the-Same ... the same leap of faith that Antinous took when he plunged into the Nile on 28 October 130 AD.

He did not take that leap of faith in order to die ... he took that leap of faith in order to fill his lungs with the Semen of the First God ... in order to transcend Time and Space ... so that all moments in Time are NOW ... all points in Space are HERE ... so that he can LIVE CONSCIOUSLY.

It is his gift to each of us. All he asks is that we open our eyes to ...


Wednesday, October 25, 2017

NOMINEES FOR SAINTHOOD 2017



HERE are the nominations for Gay Saints of Antinous for 2017 (Anno Antinoo 1906)

The priests of Antinous are deliberating on these nominations and will announce their decision at Foundation Day ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous on 30th October.

Then the names of the new saints will be added to our LIST OF SAINTS.

The nominees are:

GEORGE MICHAEL (25 June 1963 - 25 December 2016) now is with Antinous among  the glittering stars. He has found his Freedom and his Faith. It was his Last Christmas, and we shall miss him.

ZELIMKHAN BAKAEV (23 April 1992 - October 2017) - This Russian singer Zelimkhan Bakaev was arrested, tortured, and murdered by by Chechen authorities due to "suspicion of homosexuality."

MARY RENAULT 4 September 1905 – 13 December 1983) was a British lesbian writer best known for her wonderful historical novels that recreated in Ancient Greece in magnificent detail (The King Must Die and The Persian Boy). Renault met her life partner Julie Mullard in 1933 while they were training as nurses and they were together for 50 years, until Renault's death in 1983.

SAL MINEO - was an acclaimed Hollywood movie actor who was an inspiration to millions of LGBTI people. Born 10 January 1939, he was murdered in Hollywood 12 February 1976. 

ITABERLLY LOZANO - this 17-year-old boy was murdered by his mother in Brazil ... because he was gay! His charred body was found in a trash heap in January 2017.

JOHN HURT - (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017). He portrayed Quentin Crisp (a saint of Antinous) on television and on film ... John Hurt was the best Caligula in film/TV history in the BBC series "I, Claudius." He is now in the arms of Antinous!

WILLEM ARONDEUS - (22 August 1894 – 1 July 1943) a Dutch gay non-Jewish artist and writer who led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office in order to hinder the Nazi round-up of Jews, was executed with 12 others by firing squad. "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards," were his final words. 

PROSYMNUS - the shepherd who agreed to show Dionysus the entrance to the underworld in exchange for sex. Dionyus agreed but said only after he returned with his mother Semele. When he returned, he went looking for Prosymnus but the man had died. So Dionysus made a phallus out of fig wood, went to the grave of Prosymnus, set the wooden dildo on the gave and then inserted it into his rectum, thereby fulfilling his promise.

BARTOLOMEO CAVACEPPI - 18th Century sculptor and restorer if antiquities. He worked with both Cardinal Albani and Johann Joachim Winckelmann restoring and copying the Cardinal's vast collection so we can be sure that many of our Antinous images passed through his studio and were restored to their former glory.

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

TWO MORTAL BROTHERS TRIED TO LOOT
TWO DIVINE BROTHERS CASTOR/POLLUX



TWO mortal brothers from Cordoba are facing prison sentences and a fine of ten million euros for trying to loot the two immortal brothers Castor and Pollux.

Police in Spain accuse the two men of hiding two Roman bronze statues of the first century in a farm in Pedro Abad, a small town located in the Spanish province of Córdoba.

The case was uncovered by the Judicial Police of Jaén in January 2012. Agents of this specialized unit located and recovered the two looted Roman bronze statues two months after they were hidden in the Pedro Abad property.

The statues, possibly a sculptural group of Castor and Polux, were evidently looted from the Cordovan site of Alcurrucén, an area once occupied by Roman villas and cemeteries.

According to the authorities in charge of the operation, the two brothers intended to sell the sculptures on the black market by taking them out of Spain to Italy where the statues could be 'certified' and released to an auction house.

The Environmental Prosecutor's Office of Cordoba has charged the two brothers with the crime of misappropriation and the attempted smuggling of historical heritage and is seeking penalties of two years and two months imprisonment for each of them, as well as a fine of 10 million euros with an additional one year's imprisonment in the event of non-payment.

Read more HERE.

Monday, October 23, 2017

THE SCORPION GODDESS SELKET
GUARDS THE TOMB OF ANTINOUS



23 October is the feast day of the Egyptian scorpion goddess Selket/Serqet ... on this day the Sun enters Scorpio. When Isis went off in search of the body of slain Osiris, she left her baby Horus in the protection of Selket ... because everyone knows scorpions are good mothers ... scorpions carry their babies on their backs. Selket is the guardian of Horus and ... by extension ... she is the guardian of Antinous.

23 de outubro é o dia da festa do escorpião deusa egípcia Selket / Serqet ... neste dia o Sol entra em Escorpião. Quando Isis saiu em busca do corpo de Osíris morto, ela deixou o bebê Horus na proteção de Selket ... porque todo mundo sabe escorpiões são boas mães ... escorpiões carregam seus bebês em suas costas. Selket é o guardião de Horus e ... por extensão ... ela é a guardiã dos Antinous.

23 de octubre es el día de fiesta de la diosa egipcia escorpión Selket / Serqet ... en este día el Sol entra en Escorpio. Cuando Isis fue en busca del cuerpo de Osiris muerto, ella dejó a su bebé Horus en la protección de Selket ... porque todo el mundo sabe que los escorpiones son buenas madres ... escorpiones llevan a sus bebés en sus espaldas. Selket es el guardián de Horus y por extensión ... ... ella es el guardián de Antinoo.

Sunday, October 22, 2017

SOME MODERN ANTINOUS WORSHIPERS
PURCHASE NEWSPAPER DEATH NOTICES



LATE October is the time of the Sacred Nights of Antinous ... culminating with the death and deification of Antinous.

In the modern religion of Antinous, we commemorate the Death of Antinous on 28 October ... but many scholars and Antinous adherents believe 22 October may have been the date.

Some faithful worshipers purchase obituary death notices in newspapers on the anniversary, such as the one above.


The death notice at the left was published in the Camden New Journal on 17 October 2013.

The exact date is uncertain. 

All we know for certain is that his death occurred in the final week of October during a visit to Egypt with Emperor Hadrian in the year 130 AD. 

Near the Egyptian village of Hir-wer, Antinous fell into the Nile and drowned. Antonius Subia says: 

"Antinous fell into the Nile, beneath the swirling waves, but when his body was pulled from the water ... a God emerged. Antinous is our God, he has accomplished the salvation of all lovers of his beauty. His is our salvation. He is Antinous the Gay God. He is the last pagan God of Classical Rome."

SUNRAYS ILLUMINATE INNER SANCTUARY
OF ABU SIMBEL AT DAWN TODAY



FOR most of the year, the inner sanctum of the main temple at Abu Simbel is shrouded in darkness.

On two days, traditionally the anniversary of the birthday and coronation of pharaoh Ramses II, a shaft of sunlight pierces the gloom, illuminating statues of gods and the king in the temple's inner sanctum.

On February 22, a day celebrating the king's birthday and again on October 22, a day celebrating his coronation, sunlight illuminates seated statues of the sun gods Re-Horakhte and Amon-Re, as well as a statue of king Ramses II. The statues sit in the company of the Theban god of darkness, Ptah (who remains in the shadows all year).

The spectacle—which has endured more than 3,200 years of Egyptian history—draws thousands of tourists to Abu Simbel to watch this ancient tribute to a pharaoh whose name is still known up and down the Nile Valley for his military exploits and monumental building projects.

Ramses, who ruled Egypt for 66 years from 1270 to 1213 BC (about 50 years after the death of Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut) made a name for himself by battling the Hittites and the Syrians, Egypt's enemies to the north.

To celebrate his victories, Ramses erected monuments up and down the Nile with records of his achievements. He completed the hypostyle hall at Karnak (Thebes), and completed the funerary temple of his father, Seti I, at Luxor on the West Bank of the Nile.

The main temple at Abu Simbel, which Ramses ordered built near the border of Nubia and Upper Egypt, was dedicated to two sun gods, Amen-Re and Re-Horakhte. 

Standing 100 feet (33 meters) tall, the temple was carved into an already-standing sandstone mountain on the banks of the Nile.

Four colossal statues of Ramses, each 66 feet (22 meters) high, guard the entrance to the temple.

Rising to the pharaoh's knees are smaller statues of family members: his mother; favorite wife, Nefertari; and son, Prince Amonherkhepshef.

Inside the temple, three connected halls extend 185 feet (56 meters) into the mountain. 

Images of the king's life and many achievements adorn the walls. 

A second temple at Abu Simbel is dedicated to Nefartari, who appears to have been Ramses' favorite wife.

"Abu Simbel was one of, if not the largest, rock-cut temples in Egypt," says Bruce Williams of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, "The rock was sacred because the Egyptians believed the deity was living inside the mountain."

Rock-cut temples may have been especially significant in ancient Egypt because the bulge in the otherwise flat land may have signified the location where the gods emerged from the Earth, says Williams.

Saturday, October 21, 2017

ARCHAEOLOGISTS AT ANTINOOPOLIS
SET TO DIG OUT MYSTERY STRUCTURE



After a spectacular 2016-17 dig season, archaeologists have returned to ANTINOOPOLIS in Egypt for the 2017-18 season, during which they will dig for an "intentionally buried stone structure" in the heart of the city founded by Hadrian at the spot where Antinous died in the Nile.

Arriving at the site this past week, the experts said they will use the first two weeks of the new dig season to survey the foundations of what they believe to be a Temple of Antinous-Osiris.

Writing in his first 2017-18 report, James B. Heidel, president of the Antinoupolis Foundation, says: "We are very excited to be back at the site for a shortened two-week excavation this autumn." More work will follow a short break.

"In the first week of work we have focused on removing layers above what we believe to be the other half of the rectangular temple we were uncovering last season (in February)," he wrote.

"This is necessary to determine if it is a free-standing rectangular temple in the middle of the much larger court, or if it is connected in some way architecturally with the surrounding peristyle," he added. See the peristyle court illustration below.

"This is the temple we now are able to say with some certainly is part of the complex dedicated to Osiris-Antinous, the titular deity of Antinoupolis, due to an inscribed cornice block (pictured above left) we discovered in February," he pointed out.

The highlight of the 2016-17 season came when archaeologists detected a "deliberately buried" structure with ground-penetrating radar in February and suggested it could be an OSIREION ... symbolic Tomb of Osiris ... raising hopes that this could be the Lost Tomb of Antinous.

But initial excavation failed to yield results ... results which the archaeologists hope to find during the 2017-18 season.


Other spectacular discoveries include column capitals and a cornice stone with the name of Antinous inscribed in hieroglyphs.

The stones apparently come from a shrine to the Egyptian goddess Hathor ... not however the Great Temple of Antinous, as had been suggested initially.

The stones from the shrine are a mixture of Egyptian and Classical styles which enable the archaeologists to come up with an architectural rendering showing what the shrine and its adjacent peristyle colonnade might have looked like.

Work now resumes on these dig sites in October.

The great fear, however, is that local villagers might build houses on top of the site when archaeologists are away ... since law-enforcement is lax in the region.

It is within what possibly was the Great Temple of Antinous and is a rectangular chamber which is subdivided into three sub-chambers ... apparently an antechamber, a middle chamber and an inner sanctum.

Writing in his first 2017 report, James B. Heidel, president of the Antinoupolis Foundation, says: "The clearest part of the results show a large stone structure which is about 12 x 22 meters in the form of a tripartite shrine."

He adds: "This simply means three rooms of the same size lined up at the end of an axis, and it is a common feature of Egyptian temples for thousands of years."

The ground-penetrating radar shows that the structure is covered by soil which was placed on top of it all at one time, not in layers which accumulated over time.

"This indicates that the structure was intentionally buried.  This is intriguing," the report continues, "because in ancient Egypt buildings known as Osireons were sometimes constructed (the most famous of which is the Osireion constructed by Seti I as part of his temple at Abydos) and were seen as model tombs of the god Osiris.  As model tombs these structures seem to have been intentionally buried," the archaeologists add.

"Since Antinoupolis is the cult city of the new Osiris, Osir-Antinous,  an Osireion would make sense as part of the urban ensemble," the archaeologists state. The structure, whatever it may be, is still covered by two meters of intentional fill.

As a final exciting detail, the stone tripartite structure and the arrangement of the surrounding walls indicate an axis which would not only correspond to the grid of the Ramses II temple, but an axis which would enter that temple in the middle of the side of the "hypostyle hall," which is the hall of columns between the back shrines of the temple and the court at the temple's entry.

"This axis is a normal place for the main side entrance into an Egyptian temple precinct," the report goes on. 

"And it appears that this structure, if built by Hadrian, was intended by his designers to be an extension of the Ramses II temple complex."

The team also found what appears to be a grand stairway in the center of a large temple dedicated to Antinous-Osiris and a large harborside peristyle court ... waterfront structures which were found in the previous season.
Finding the exact location of the ancient waterfront is important since it may indicate the site at which Antinous died.


We know that Emperor Hadrian commanded that a sacred city be founded at the location where Antinous drowned in the Nile.

We also know from an ancient papyrus that an impressive quayside port facility was constructed at or near that site.

Using ground-penetrating radar (GPR), archaeologists found a large  square compound of paving stones bordered by columns ... which could mark the site where Antinous drowned.

Heidel, president of the Antinoupolis Foundation, says the discoveries in the past two years at the site have exceeded all expectations.

Finds include ornate capitals which once adorned colossal columns.

Heidel also says LOOTING has abated somewhat following a return to a semblance of stability in Egypt.

Since the revolution in Egypt, which resulted in runaway lawlessness, the site has been subject t"SYSTEMATIC LOOTING" for three years. 


The scope of looting diminished in recent months, although local villagers still search for "trinkets" to sell on the black market, he writes.

Heidel says his archaeologists working at Antinoopolis (also known as Antinoe) say local villagers continue to encroach on the dig site ... ostensibly to create new space for housing and graves.

However, it is an ages-old practice in Egypt for villagers to build houses over places where they can "accidentally" unearth ancient treasures by digging tunnels under their homes. And excavation of new graves can "accidentally" reveal more ancient treasures.

DOCUMENTARY FILM HIGHLIGHTS PALMYRA
SEEN BY ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN



Antinous visited the fabled city of Palmyra with Hadrian the ruins of which were destroyed in recent months by DAESH Islamic State barbarians.

Now a stunning French documentary film recreates the once-fabulous "Garden City of the Sands" and its destruction ... and efforts to rebuilt the ruins.

The documentary is being shown today on the Franco-German cultural television channel ARTE and can be streamed for viewing.

Only a few months ago DAESH barbarians blasted the Palmyra amphitheater and had destroyed the tetrapylon, a cubic-shaped ancient Roman monument. 

These satellite images by the Boston-based ASOR Cultural Heritage Initiative and taken by satellite imagery company DigitalGlobe displayed the destruction.

Meanwhile, DAESH goons also summarily executed civilians in the embattled city. Since sweeping to power across Iraq and Syria, Isil systematically erased signs of their pluralistic histories. Palmyra has been a particularly egregious target of their hatred.

Palmyra was called the "Garden City of the Sands" and scientists say it was TERRA-FARMED to create a lush green oasis of life and civilization in the midst of the desert.

Islamic State fighters destroyed two ancient temples at the site, described by Unesco as one of the most important cultural centres of the ancient world.

In 2015, DAESH destroyed the PALMYRA TRIUMPHAL ARCH through which Hadrian and Antinous strode.

DAESH meanwhile blew up the BAALSHAMIN Temple in Palmyra. The photo at right shows how impressive even its ruins were prior to its being blown to bits by DAESH.

The photo at left shows all that is left of the Triumphal Arch now. 

The ruins are a testament to the barbaric nature of DAESH renegades.

We know Antinous & Hadrian saw it because Hadrian decreed a vast expansion of the temple.

During the DAESH occupation of Palmyra, KHALED ASSAD, an 81-year-old antiquities scholar who devoted his life to understanding Palmyra, was beheaded by DAESH militants, his bloodied body hung on a pole. He had even named his daughter after Zenobia, the queen that ruled from the city 1,700 years ago.

DAESH claims ancient relics promote idolatry and say they are destroying them as part of their purge of paganism. However, they are also believed to sell off looted antiquities, bringing in significant sums of cash.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has been told that DAESH militants have killed 30 suspected gay men for "sodomy" in recent months.

DAESH released a video showing CHILDREN STONING two gay men to death after they had been thrown off a building in Homs Syria. It is one of a grisly series of such gay execution videos. 

A year ago, DAESH released a video showing two other men accused of being gay THROWN OFF A BUILDING and then stoned by a crowd in Palmyra.

Only a few weeks earlier, more than 25 men were EXECUTED BY CHILDREN at the famous theater in Palmyra.

Friday, October 20, 2017

WAS ANTINOUS HERE?
AT JERUSALEM'S HADRIAN THEATER



ISRAELI archaeologists on Monday announced the discovery of the first known Roman-era theater in Jerusalem's Old City, a unique structure around 1,800 years old that abuts the Western Wall and may have been built during Roman Emperor Hadrian's reign.

The edifice's elegant masonry was found during excavations carried out in the past two years below the Western Wall tunnels, a warren of ancient subterranean passageways running alongside a contested Jerusalem holy site built by King Herod in the first century B.C.

The excavations plunged over 6 meters (20 feet) below ground, exposing eight previously uncovered courses of the Temple Mount's western retaining wall.

Jews consider the Temple Mount the holiest site on earth, while Muslims refer to the walled compound as the Noble Sanctuary and consider it the third holiest after Mecca and Medina.

It was the site of two Jewish temples in antiquity ... the second renovated and expanded by Herod ... and today is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.

Joe Uziel, an Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist heading the dig, said that  the theater-like structure is believed to date to the second or third centuries ... the period after Rome razed the city in 70 and the Emperor Hadrian rebuilt it in the mid-second century as a Roman colony, Aelia Capitolina.

Ancient historical accounts mentioned the presence of theaters in Roman-era Jerusalem, but until now archaeologists had not found any of the structures.

Uziel speculates that the unfinished semi-circular theater may have been intended to serve as a small odeon, a venue for musical or theatric performances, or a bouleuterion, a place of assembly for the colony's municipal officials.

It was relatively small, and might have been designed to seat around 200 people. The excavations have exposed the first row of seats, orchestra area, and part of the stage. Wilson's Arch, part of a monumental causeway leading into the temple that soars above the theater, may have been employed for its acoustic properties.

"One of the amazing things is that because we're beneath an arch, they would have had the arch to use as their roof," Uziel said.

What remains unanswered is why the building wasn't finished.