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115-553: Antinous , also called Antinoös , ( / æ n ˈ t ɪ n oʊ ʌ s / ; Ancient Greek : Ἀντίνοος ; c.  111 – c.  130 ) was a Greek youth from Bithynia and a favourite and lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian . Following his premature death before his 20th birthday, Antinous was deified on Hadrian's orders, being worshipped in both the Greek East and Latin West , sometimes as

230-537: A pitch accent . In Modern Greek, all vowels and consonants are short. Many vowels and diphthongs once pronounced distinctly are pronounced as /i/ ( iotacism ). Some of the stops and glides in diphthongs have become fricatives , and the pitch accent has changed to a stress accent . Many of the changes took place in the Koine Greek period. The writing system of Modern Greek, however, does not reflect all pronunciation changes. The examples below represent Attic Greek in

345-597: A basic model of Antinous's likeness for other sculptors to follow. These sculptures were produced in large quantities between 130 and 138, with estimates being in the region of around 2,000, of which at least 115 survive. Forty-four have been found in Italy, half of which were at Hadrian's Villa Adriana, while 12 have been found in Greece and Asia Minor, and 6 in Egypt. Over 31 cities in the Empire,

460-513: A deity and announced that a city should be built on the site of his death in commemoration of him, to be called Antinoöpolis . The deification of human beings was not uncommon in the Classical world. However, the public and formal divinisation of humans was reserved for the Emperor and members of the imperial family. Thus, Hadrian's decision to declare Antinous a god and create a formal cult devoted to him

575-714: A fire in AD 27. Jerome alleges that Marcus Aurelius was born on the Caelian Hill in AD 121. In the 4th century rich domus , surrounded by vast parks, stood on the hill, such as the ones belonging to the Symmachi (near which rose the Basilica hilariana ) and Tetrici families, as well as the domus Faustae , perhaps belonging to the wife of Constantine I . The property of the Annii , of Domitia Lucilla Minor (the mother of Marcus Aurelius) and of

690-549: A flotilla along the River Nile . The retinue included officials, the Prefect, army and naval commanders, as well as literary and scholarly figures. Possibly also joining them was Lucius Ceionius Commodus , a young aristocrat whom Antinous might have deemed a rival to Hadrian's affections. On their journey up the Nile, they stopped at Hermopolis Magna , the primary shrine to the god Thoth . It

805-673: A former slave in Roman society. There is no surviving reliable evidence attesting to Antinous's family background, although Lambert believed it most likely that his family would have been peasant farmers or small business owners, thereby being socially undistinguished yet not from the poorest sectors of society. Lambert also considered it likely that Antinous would have had a basic education as a child, having been taught how to read and write. The Emperor Hadrian spent much time during his reign touring his empire, and arrived in Claudiopolis in June 123, which

920-467: A god ( θεός , theós ) and sometimes merely as a hero ( ἥρως , hḗrōs ). Little is known of Antinous's life, although it is known that he was born in Claudiopolis (present day Bolu , Turkey), in the Roman province of Bithynia et Pontus . He was probably introduced to Hadrian in 123, before being taken to Italy for a higher education. He had become the favourite of Hadrian by 128, when he

1035-420: A lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period. They have the same general outline but differ in some of the detail. The only attested dialect from this period is Mycenaean Greek , but its relationship to the historical dialects and

1150-419: A lesser degree. Pamphylian Greek , spoken in a small area on the southwestern coast of Anatolia and little preserved in inscriptions, may be either a fifth major dialect group, or it is Mycenaean Greek overlaid by Doric, with a non-Greek native influence. Regarding the speech of the ancient Macedonians diverse theories have been put forward, but the epigraphic activity and the archaeological discoveries in

1265-570: A mystical-religious need for his companionship. Lambert described Antinous as "the one person who seems to have connected most profoundly with Hadrian" throughout the latter's life. Hadrian's marriage to Sabina was unhappy, and there is no reliable evidence that he ever expressed a sexual attraction for women, in contrast to much reliable early evidence that he was sexually attracted to boys and young men. For centuries, pederasty existed among Greece's leisured and citizen classes, with an older erastes (the "lover," aged between 20 and 40) undertaking

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1380-543: A prefix /e-/, called the augment . This was probably originally a separate word, meaning something like "then", added because tenses in PIE had primarily aspectual meaning. The augment is added to the indicative of the aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect, but not to any of the other forms of the aorist (no other forms of the imperfect and pluperfect exist). The two kinds of augment in Greek are syllabic and quantitative. The syllabic augment

1495-407: A remarkable fact considering that his cult was the target of intense hostility by Christian apologists, many of whom vandalized and destroyed artefacts and temples built in honour of the youth. By 2005, classicist Caroline Vout could note that more images have been identified of Antinous than of any other figure in classical antiquity with the exceptions of Augustus and Hadrian. She also asserted that

1610-671: A separate historical stage, though its earliest form closely resembles Attic Greek , and its latest form approaches Medieval Greek , and Koine may be classified as Ancient Greek in a wider sense. There were several regional dialects of Ancient Greek; Attic Greek developed into Koine. Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language , divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic , Aeolic , Arcadocypriot , and Doric , many of them with several subdivisions. Some dialects are found in standardized literary forms in literature , while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms. Homeric Greek

1725-480: A sexual relationship with an eromenos (the "beloved," aged between 12 and 18) and taking a key role in his (the latter's) education. There is no historical evidence available to support at what age Antinous became a favourite of Hadrian. Such a societal institution of pederasty was not indigenous to Roman culture, although the practice was somewhat common among the patricians. It is known that Hadrian believed Antinous to be intelligent and wise, and that they had

1840-485: A shared love of hunting, which was seen as a particularly manly pursuit in Roman culture. Although none survive, it is known that Hadrian wrote both an autobiography and erotic poetry about his boy favourites; it is therefore likely that he wrote about Antinous. During their relationship, there is no evidence that Antinous ever used his influence over Hadrian for personal or political gain. In March 127, Hadrian – probably accompanied by Antinous – travelled through

1955-609: A standard subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance . This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical periods of the language, which are the best-attested periods and considered most typical of Ancient Greek. From the Hellenistic period ( c.  300 BC ), Ancient Greek was followed by Koine Greek , which is regarded as

2070-528: A surviving obelisk contains an inscription strongly suggesting that Antinous's body was interred at Hadrian's country estate, the Villa Adriana at Tibur in Italy. It is unclear whether Hadrian genuinely believed that Antinous had become a god. He would have also had political motives for creating the organised cult, for it enshrined political and personal loyalties specifically to him. In October 131, Hadrian proceeded to Athens , where from 131/32 he founded

2185-567: A visit to Trapezus in 131, he proclaimed the foundation of a temple devoted to Hermes, where the deity was probably venerated as Hermes-Antinous. Although Hadrian preferred to associate Antinous with Hermes, he was far more widely syncretised with the god Dionysus across the Empire. The cult also spread through Egypt, and within a few years of its foundation, altars and temples to the god had been erected in Hermopolis, Alexandria, Oxyrhynchus , Tebytnis, Lykopolis , and Luxor . The cult of Antinous

2300-510: A vowel or /n s r/ ; final stops were lost, as in γάλα "milk", compared with γάλακτος "of milk" (genitive). Ancient Greek of the classical period also differed in both the inventory and distribution of original PIE phonemes due to numerous sound changes, notably the following: The pronunciation of Ancient Greek was very different from that of Modern Greek . Ancient Greek had long and short vowels ; many diphthongs ; double and single consonants; voiced, voiceless, and aspirated stops ; and

2415-565: A year, visiting Syria , Arabia , and Judaea . From there, Hadrian became increasingly critical of Jewish culture, which he feared opposed Romanisation, and so introduced policies banning circumcision and building a Temple of Zeus-Jupiter on the former site of the Jewish Temple . From there, they headed to Egypt. Arriving in Alexandria in August 130, there they visited the sarcophagus of Alexander

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2530-556: Is a literary form of Archaic Greek (derived primarily from Ionic and Aeolic) used in the epic poems , the Iliad and the Odyssey , and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic and other Classical-era dialects. The origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of

2645-418: Is added to stems beginning with consonants, and simply prefixes e (stems beginning with r , however, add er ). The quantitative augment is added to stems beginning with vowels, and involves lengthening the vowel: Some verbs augment irregularly; the most common variation is e → ei . The irregularity can be explained diachronically by the loss of s between vowels, or that of the letter w , which affected

2760-644: Is called 'East Greek'. Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian Greek had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, as exemplified in the poems of the Boeotian poet Pindar who wrote in Doric with a small Aeolic admixture. Thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to

2875-448: Is considered by some linguists to have been closely related to Greek . Among Indo-European branches with living descendants, Greek is often argued to have the closest genetic ties with Armenian (see also Graeco-Armenian ) and Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ). Ancient Greek differs from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) and other Indo-European languages in certain ways. In phonotactics , ancient Greek words could end only in

2990-412: Is likely, however, that those which Hadrian was directly involved in, such as at Antinoöpolis, Bithynion, and Mantineia, were often grander, while in the majority of cases, shrines or altars to Antinous would have been erected in or near the pre-existing temples of the imperial cult, or Dionysus or Hermes. Worshippers would have given votive offerings to the deity at these altars; there is evidence that he

3105-407: Is that official models were sent out to provincial workshops all over the empire to be copied, with local variations permitted. It has been asserted that many of these sculptures "share distinctive features – a broad, swelling chest, a head of tousled curls, a downcast gaze – that allow them to be instantly recognized". About a hundred statues of Antinous have been preserved for modernity,

3220-458: The Odyssey . Another possibility is that he was given the male equivalent of "Antinoë", the name of a woman who was one of the founding figures of Mantineia , a city which probably had close relations with Bithynia. Although many historians from the Renaissance onward asserted that Antinous had been a slave, only one of around fifty early sources claims that. This possibility remains unlikely, as it would have proven heavily controversial to deify

3335-488: The Arch of Constantine . On this tondo it was clear that Antinous was no longer a youth, having become more muscular and hairier, perceptibly more able to resist his master; and thus, it is likely that his relationship with Hadrian was changing as a result. Throughout history there has been much controversy concerning the relationship between Hadrian and Antinous. In Royston Lambert's book Beloved and God , he writes "But as far as

3450-501: The Basilica of St. Stephen in the Round , the church of San Giovanni a Porta Latina , the church of San Gregorio al Celio , the church of San Tommaso in Formis , the church of San Sisto Vecchio Monasteries, often surrounded by estates and gardens, were also founded on the hill, as well as some towers of noble families, mainly in the 10th and 11th centuries. A new destruction was suffered with

3565-745: The Greek region of Macedonia during the last decades has brought to light documents, among which the first texts written in Macedonian , such as the Pella curse tablet , as Hatzopoulos and other scholars note. Based on the conclusions drawn by several studies and findings such as Pella curse tablet , Emilio Crespo and other scholars suggest that ancient Macedonian was a Northwest Doric dialect , which shares isoglosses with its neighboring Thessalian dialects spoken in northeastern Thessaly . Some have also suggested an Aeolic Greek classification. The Lesbian dialect

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3680-567: The Panhellenion , an attempt to nurture consciousness of Greek identity, to erode the feuding endemic to the Greek city-states, and to promote the worship of the ancient gods; being Greek himself, Antinous as a god assisted Hadrian's cause in this, presenting a symbol of pan-Hellenic unity. In Athens, Hadrian also established a festival to be held in honour of Antinous in October, the Antinoeia. Antinous

3795-637: The Quintilii became part of the Domus Vectiliana of Commodus . In the interurban area of the hill several barracks were built for the troops stationed in the capital: in the site of the Basilica of Saint Stephen in the Round there were the Castra Peregrina (built under Trajan and restored several times in the following centuries), close to a large house of the Valerii ( domus Valerii ). Opposite, stood

3910-730: The Republican age (as well in Imperial Rome ) the Caelian Hill was a fashionable residential district and the site of residences of the wealthy. A section of Pliny the Elder 's Natural History , "Who Was the First to Encrust the Walls of Houses at Rome with Marble", attests to this. Mamurra , a soldier who served under Julius Caesar in Gaul and profited tremendously from corruption, achieved this expensive feat on

4025-660: The Sabine area of Italy, Picenum , and Campania . From 127 to 129, the Emperor was then afflicted with an illness that doctors were unable to explain. In April 128, he laid the foundation stone for a temple of Venus and Rome in the city of Rome, during a ritual where he may well have been accompanied by Antinous. From there, Hadrian went on a tour of North Africa, during which he was accompanied by Antinous. In late 128, Hadrian and Antinous landed in Corinth , proceeding to Athens , where they remained until May 129, accompanied by Empress Sabina ;

4140-501: The present , future , and imperfect are imperfective in aspect; the aorist , present perfect , pluperfect and future perfect are perfective in aspect. Most tenses display all four moods and three voices, although there is no future subjunctive or imperative. Also, there is no imperfect subjunctive, optative or imperative. The infinitives and participles correspond to the finite combinations of tense, aspect, and voice. The indicative of past tenses adds (conceptually, at least)

4255-695: The sack of 1084 . From the 12th century, it was part of the Regio Montium , which even extended to the Quirinal Hill . Today the Caelian Hill is included in the Rione of the same name and, continuing its vocation for assistance, hosts the Policlinico Militare del Celio , built on a project by Salvatore Bianchi and Filippo Laccetti. George Santayana lived in a room at the Convent of English Blue Sisters on

4370-567: The sack of Alaric in 410; starting from this period, the hill was subject to increasing abandonment and ruralization. In the 6th century it was part of the II Roman ecclesiastical region due to its proximity to the Lateran basilica, so much so that the toponym of "Laterano" was often used for the entire hill. The erection of the Patriarchium , which probably dates back to the 6th Century, gave rise to

4485-470: The 1st city quarter ( Suburana ) in the division made by Servius Tullius. In the later Augustan division , it became the Regio II Caelimontium . A trace of the archaic period remains in the memory of cults of woods and sources, such as that of the nymph Egeria in the wood of Camenae , just outside Porta Capena . Numa Pompilius is said to have been particularly devoted to his sanctuary. In

4600-469: The 4th century, Antinous was championed by members of the latter. As a result of this, the Christian poet Prudentius denounced his worship in 384, while a set of seven contorniates depicting Antinous were issued, based upon the designs of those issued in the 130s. Many sculptures of Antinous were destroyed by Christians, as well as by invading barbarian tribes, although in some instances were then re-erected;

4715-1031: The 5th century BC. Ancient pronunciation cannot be reconstructed with certainty, but Greek from the period is well documented, and there is little disagreement among linguists as to the general nature of the sounds that the letters represent. /oː/ raised to [uː] , probably by the 4th century BC. Greek, like all of the older Indo-European languages , is highly inflected. It is highly archaic in its preservation of Proto-Indo-European forms. In ancient Greek, nouns (including proper nouns) have five cases ( nominative , genitive , dative , accusative , and vocative ), three genders ( masculine , feminine , and neuter ), and three numbers (singular, dual , and plural ). Verbs have four moods ( indicative , imperative , subjunctive , and optative ) and three voices (active, middle, and passive ), as well as three persons (first, second, and third) and various other forms. Verbs are conjugated through seven combinations of tenses and aspect (generally simply called "tenses"):

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4830-534: The Antinoeia, they would be held annually for several centuries, being noted as the most important in Egypt. Events included athletic competitions, chariot and equestrian races, and artistic and musical festivals, with prizes including citizenship, money, tokens, and free lifetime maintenance. Antinoöpolis continued to grow into the Byzantine era, being Christianised with the conversion of the Empire. However, it retained an association with magic for centuries to come. Over

4945-558: The Antinous cults come from figures like Tertullian , Origen , Jerome , and Epiphanios . Viewing the religion as a blasphemous rival to Christianity, they insisted that Antinous had simply been a mortal human and condemned his sexual activities with Hadrian as immoral. Associating his cult with malevolent magic, they argued that Hadrian had imposed his worship through fear. During the struggles between Christians and pagan worshippers in Rome during

5060-454: The Antinous statue at Delphi had been toppled and had its forearms broken off, before being re-erected in a chapel elsewhere. Many of the images of Antinous remained in public places until the official prohibition of pagan religions under the reign of Emperor Theodosius in 391. Some contemporary Neo-Pagan groups have re-sacralized Antinous. Because of his same-sex relationship with Hadrian, Antinous's modern cult mainly appeals to members of

5175-490: The Archaic period of ancient Greek (see Homeric Greek for more details): Μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεά, Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προΐαψεν ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι· Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή· ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε Ἀτρεΐδης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος Ἀχιλλεύς. The beginning of Apology by Plato exemplifies Attic Greek from

5290-674: The Caelian Hill was one of the 14 divisions of the town , called Caelimontium . The area between the Lateran and Porta Maggiore was included in the v Regio ( Esquiliae ), though physically it is part of the hill. On the higher point of the side facing the Colosseum, the Temple of Claudius was erected on a huge supporting platform. It was dedicated to the Emperor Claudius and begun by his widow Agrippina after his death and deification in 54 AD; it

5405-664: The Caelian Hill; Horace and Catullus mocked him accordingly. Most of the hill was outside the boundaries of the pomerium , therefore temples to foreign divinities were allowed to be built, such as the Temple of Minerva Capta or the old Sacellum of Diana, outside the Servian Wall . Some sepulchres, such as the burial chamber in Via Celimontana, just before Piazza di San Giovanni in Laterano , date back to this period. Under Augustus

5520-877: The Caesernii brothers, frequent companions of the Emperor; and Pedanius Fuscus the Younger (a great-nephew of Hadrian). It was in Athens in September 128 that they attended the annual celebrations of the Great Mysteries of Eleusis , where Hadrian was initiated into the position of epoptes in the Telesterion . It is generally agreed, although not proven, that Antinous was also initiated at that time. From there they headed to Asia Minor , settling in Antioch in June 129, where they were based for

5635-604: The Classical period of ancient Greek. (The second line is the IPA , the third is transliterated into the Latin alphabet using a modern version of the Erasmian scheme .) Ὅτι [hóti Hóti μὲν men mèn ὑμεῖς, hyːmêːs hūmeîs,   Caelian Hill The Caelian Hill is a sort of long promontory about 2 km (1.2 mi) long, 400 m (0.25 mi) to 500 m (0.31 mi) wide, and 50 m (160 ft) tall in

5750-470: The Classical study of these Antinous images was particularly important because of his "rare mix" of "biographical mystery and overwhelming physical presence". Lambert believed that the sculptures of Antinous "remain without doubt one of the most elevated and ideal monuments to pederastic love of the whole ancient world", also describing them as "the final great creation of classical art". There are also statues in many archaeological museums in Greece including

5865-483: The Egyptian city founded in his honour. The common image of Antinous is of an ephebic teenager which would be of the age of 18 or 19 years old. R. R. R. Smith suggests that the statues of Antinous are concerned with depicting the real age of Antinous at the age of his death, and that this is more likely to be "around thirteen to fourteen". An ephebe of eighteen or nineteen would be depicted with full pubic hair, whereas

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5980-504: The Empire that at Antinous's cultic centre in Antinoöpolis, there were "sacred nights" characterised by drunken revelries, perhaps including sexual orgies. The cult of Antinous endured far beyond Hadrian's reign. Local coins depicting his effigy were still being struck during Caracalla 's reign, and he was invoked in a poem to celebrate the accession of Diocletian , who reigned more than a century after Antinous' death. The cult of Antinous

6095-434: The Empire. Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis close to Antinous's place of death, which became a cultic centre for the worship of Osiris-Antinous . Hadrian also founded games in commemoration of Antinous to take place in both Antinoöpolis and Athens, with Antinous becoming a symbol of Hadrian's dreams of pan-Hellenism. The worship of Antinous proved to be one of the most enduring and popular of cults of deified humans in

6210-533: The Great of Prussia. Vout noted that Antinous came to be identified as "a gay icon." Novelist and independent scholar Sarah Waters identified Antinous as being "at the forefront of the homosexual imagination" in late 19th-century Europe. In this, Antinous replaced the figure of Ganymede , who had been the primary homoerotic representation in the visual arts during the Renaissance . Gay author Karl Heinrich Ulrichs celebrated Antinous in an 1865 pamphlet that he wrote under

6325-413: The Great . Although welcomed with public praise and ceremony, some of Hadrian's appointments and actions angered the city's Hellenic social elite, who began to gossip about his sexual activities, including those with Antinous. Soon after, and probably in September 130, Hadrian and Antinous travelled west to Libya , where they had heard of a Marousian lion causing problems for local people. They hunted down

6440-455: The Greco-Roman pantheon like Apollo , Dionysus, and Silvanus as well as mortal youths beloved by gods in classical mythology like Ganymede , Hylas , Hyacinth , and Narcissus , and that images of the sensuous youth invited imaginary erotic bonding between him and his worshippers. These characteristics were common also to the cults of Attis , Endymion , and Adonis . Like the latter, Antinous

6555-529: The LGBT community, especially gay men . The surviving statues show a well-proportioned body, with downcast eyes and thick, curly hair nestling at the nape of the neck. It is a very classical and, unsurprisingly, a very Greek image. And it is one which remains very familiar as the archetype of perfect beauty. Antinous was not just the last pagan god; he was the inspiration of the last glorious fluorescence of classical art. Hadrian "turned to Greek sculptors to perpetuate

6670-641: The Messiah, which later became the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, partially occupied the area of the Severian camp. The decisive battle in the 271 revolt of mint workers, led by Felicissimus , took place on the Caelian Hill. It is possible that this uprising was somehow connected with the senatorial and equestrian classes, as Aurelian executed several senators. The buildings of the Caelian hill were badly damaged during

6785-412: The National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the archaeological museums of Patras, Chalkis and Delphi . Although these may well be idealised images, they demonstrate what all contemporary writers described as Antinous's extraordinary beauty. Although many of the sculptures are instantly recognizable, some offer significant variation in terms of the suppleness and sensuality of the pose and features versus

6900-414: The Roman empire, and events continued to be founded in his honour long after Hadrian's death. Antinous became a symbol of male homosexuality in Western culture, appearing in the work of Oscar Wilde , Fernando Pessoa and Marguerite Yourcenar . Antinous was born to a Greek family near the city of Claudiopolis , which was located in the Roman province of Bithynia , in what is now north-west Turkey. He

7015-550: The aorist. Following Homer 's practice, the augment is sometimes not made in poetry , especially epic poetry. The augment sometimes substitutes for reduplication; see below. Almost all forms of the perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect reduplicate the initial syllable of the verb stem. (A few irregular forms of perfect do not reduplicate, whereas a handful of irregular aorists reduplicate.) The three types of reduplication are: Irregular duplication can be understood diachronically. For example, lambanō (root lab ) has

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7130-419: The augment when it was word-initial. In verbs with a preposition as a prefix, the augment is placed not at the start of the word, but between the preposition and the original verb. For example, προσ(-)βάλλω (I attack) goes to προσ έ βαλoν in the aorist. However compound verbs consisting of a prefix that is not a preposition retain the augment at the start of the word: αὐτο(-)μολῶ goes to ηὐ τομόλησα in

7245-423: The beardless figure is a representation of Antinous-Osiris, the only pictorial representation that has survived of a statue of the deified young man. Hadrian was keen to disseminate the cult of Antinous throughout the Roman Empire. He focused on its spread within the Greek lands, and in Summer 131 travelled these areas promoting it by presenting Antinous in a syncretised form with the more familiar deity Hermes . On

7360-438: The center of Greek scholarship, this division of people and language is quite similar to the results of modern archaeological-linguistic investigation. One standard formulation for the dialects is: West vs. non-West Greek is the strongest-marked and earliest division, with non-West in subsets of Ionic-Attic (or Attic-Ionic) and Aeolic vs. Arcadocypriot, or Aeolic and Arcado-Cypriot vs. Ionic-Attic. Often non-West

7475-406: The central issues go – the history of Antinous, his relationship with Hadrian and the death – we have precious little more information than the earliest writers." Many of these early writers were biased towards Hadrian especially in regard to his relationship with Antinous. The controversy surrounding the relationship between Hadrian and Antinous is due to a lack of extant evidence for where Antinous

7590-425: The centuries, stone from the Hadrianic city was removed for the construction of homes and mosques. By the 18th century, the ruins of Antinoöpolis were still visible, being recorded by such European travellers as Jesuit missionary Claude Sicard in 1715 and Edme-François Jomard the surveyor c.  1800 . However, in the 19th century, Antinoöpolis was almost completely destroyed by local industrial production, as

7705-401: The chalk and limestone were burned for powder while stone was used in the construction of a nearby dam and sugar factory. An excavation of the city in the early twentieth century revealed a relatively realistic funeral tondo painted on wood. Although the men in the portrait are traditionally identified as brothers, there is speculation that they were lovers, the reason for this being that behind

7820-591: The character Enjolras is likened to Antinous. "A charming young man who was capable of being a terror. He was angelically good-looking, an untamed Antinous." Hugo also remarks that Enjolras was "seeming not to be aware of the existence on earth of a creature called woman." In "Klage um Antinous", Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil (1908) by Rainer Maria Rilke , Hadrian scolds the gods for Antinous's deification. "Lament for Antinoüs", translation by Stephen Cohn. Ancient Greek language Ancient Greek ( Ἑλληνῐκή , Hellēnikḗ ; [hellɛːnikɛ́ː] ) includes

7935-422: The creation of various tituli (the oldest places of Christian worship, often within private houses) and xenodochia (centers for the assistance and reception of pilgrims and sick). New churches continued to be built, initially to supersede the former tituli , later independently, such as the Basilica of Saints John and Paul , the Basilica of the Four Crowned Martyrs , the Basilica of St. Mary in Domnica ,

8050-495: The cult's followers for several centuries. Later survivals of his cult largely rested in the Eastern Roman Empire, where his acceptance into the pantheon of gods was better received. Games held in honour of Antinous were held in at least 9 cities and included both athletic and artistic components. The games at Bythynion, Antinoöpolis, and Mantineia were still active by the early 3rd century, while those at Athens and Eleusis were still operating in 266–67. Rumours spread throughout

8165-563: The dialect of Sparta ), and Northern Peloponnesus Doric (including Corinthian ). All the groups were represented by colonies beyond Greece proper as well, and these colonies generally developed local characteristics, often under the influence of settlers or neighbors speaking different Greek dialects. After the conquests of Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC, a new international dialect known as Koine or Common Greek developed, largely based on Attic Greek , but with influence from other dialects. This dialect slowly replaced most of

8280-480: The different societal classes in the Empire. Archaeological finds point that Antinous was worshipped in both public and private settings. In Egypt, Athens, Macedonia, and Italy, children would be named after the deity. Part of the appeal was that Antinous had once been an ordinary person himself, and thus was more relatable than many other deities. It is also possible, however, that his cult borrowed power from parallels between Antinous and beautiful young male immortals in

8395-502: The entire population of Alba Longa was forcibly resettled on the Caelian Hill. According to a tradition recounted by Varro , the hill received its name from the Etruscan folk hero Caelius Vibenna , because he either settled there or was honored posthumously by his friend Servius Tullius . Other authors have linked the name to the Latin caelum , " heaven ". Nevertheless, the former name of

8510-474: The exact date is not known, Royston Lambert , one of Antinous's biographers, asserted that it was probably on 27 November. Given the location of his birth and his physical appearance, it is likely that part of his ancestry was not Greek. There are various potential origins for the name "Antinous"; it is possible that he was named after the character of Antinous, who is one of Penelope 's suitors in Homer 's epic poem,

8625-527: The exception of the Temple of Ramses II . Hadrian also had political motives for the creation of Antinoöpolis, which was to be the first Hellenic city in the Middle Nile region, thus serving as a bastion of Greek culture within the Egyptian area. To encourage Egyptians to integrate with this imported Greek culture, he permitted Greeks and Egyptians in the city to marry and allowed the main deity of Hir-we, Bes , to continue to be worshipped in Antinoöpolis alongside

8740-663: The forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek ( c.  1400–1200 BC ), Dark Ages ( c.  1200–800 BC ), the Archaic or Epic period ( c.  800–500 BC ), and the Classical period ( c.  500–300 BC ). Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers . It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been

8855-528: The headquarters of the V Cohort of the Vigiles ( stazio cohortis V vigilum ). In a land possession of the Laterani family Septimius Severus built between 193 and 197 the castra nova equitum singularium , a new barrack for the knights corps of the imperial guard, opposite the former barrack built under Trajan ( castra priora equitum singularium ). When Constantine I dissolved the corps, the new basilica dedicated to

8970-409: The hill probably was Querquetulanus mons due to the abundance of oaks (Latin: Quercus ). Scholarship suggests that there existed the ethnic name Querquetulani as a designation of the previous inhabitants of Caelius, in pre-Etruscan times. Mons Caelius would have been included in the city perimeter under the reign of Ancus Marcius . The list of Septimontium mentions it, and it was part of

9085-556: The historical Dorians . The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, who regarded themselves as descendants of the population displaced by or contending with the Dorians. The Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people – Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians (including Athenians), each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Allowing for their oversight of Arcadian, an obscure mountain dialect, and Cypriot, far from

9200-472: The historical circumstances of the times imply that the overall groups already existed in some form. Scholars assume that major Ancient Greek period dialect groups developed not later than 1120 BC, at the time of the Dorian invasions —and that their first appearances as precise alphabetic writing began in the 8th century BC. The invasion would not be "Dorian" unless the invaders had some cultural relationship to

9315-570: The king kissing a statue of 'the Bithynian slave of Hadrian' in a passage describing the young king's aesthetic sensibilities and his "...strange passion for beauty...". Images of other classical paragons of male beauty, Adonis and Endymion , are also mentioned in the same context. Additionally, in Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray , the artist Basil Hallward describes the appearance of Dorian Gray as an event as important to his art as "the face of Antinous

9430-404: The lion, and although the exact events are unclear, it is apparent that Hadrian saved Antinous's life during their confrontation with it, before the beast itself was killed. Hadrian widely publicised the event, casting bronze medallions of it, getting historians to write about it, commissioning Pancrates to write a poem about it, and having a tondo depicting it created which was later placed on

9545-401: The majority in Greece and Asia Minor, issued coins depicting Antinous, chiefly between the years 134–35. Many were designed to be used as medallions rather than currency, some of them deliberately made with a hole so that they could be hung from the neck and used as talismans . Most production of Antinous-based artefacts ceased following the 130s, although such items continued to be used by

9660-419: The melancholy beauty, diffident manner, and lithe and sensuous frame of his boyfriend Antinous," creating in the process what has been described as "the last independent creation of Greco-Roman art". It is traditionally assumed that they were all produced between Antinous's death in 130 and that of Hadrian in 138, on the questionable grounds that no-one else would be interested in commissioning them. The assumption

9775-481: The new primary deity, Osiris-Antinous. He encouraged Greeks from elsewhere to settle in the new city, using various incentives to do so. The city was designed on a Hippodamian grid that was typical of Hellenic cities, and embellished with columns and many statues of Antinous, as well as a temple devoted to the deity. Hadrian proclaimed that games would be held at the city in Spring 131 in commemoration of Antinous. Known as

9890-499: The older dialects, although the Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language , which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek . By about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosed into Medieval Greek . Phrygian is an extinct Indo-European language of West and Central Anatolia , which

10005-519: The park near the Temple of Claudius . The hill overlooks a plateau from which the Esquiline , Viminal and Quirinal hills also arise. Caeliolus (also Caeliculus or Caelius Minor ) corresponds to a section of the hill, maybe the westernmost one, towards the valley that houses the Colosseum , or the one now occupied by the Basilica dei Santi Quattro Coronati . Under the reign of Tullus Hostilius ,

10120-487: The perfect stem eilēpha (not * lelēpha ) because it was originally slambanō , with perfect seslēpha , becoming eilēpha through compensatory lengthening. Reduplication is also visible in the present tense stems of certain verbs. These stems add a syllable consisting of the root's initial consonant followed by i . A nasal stop appears after the reduplication in some verbs. The earliest extant examples of ancient Greek writing ( c.  1450 BC ) are in

10235-408: The pseudonym of "Numa Numantius." In 1893, homophile newspaper The Artist , began offering cast statues of Antinous for £3 10s. At the time, Antinous's fame was increased by the work of fiction and writers and scholars, many of whom were not homosexuals. The author Oscar Wilde referenced Antinous in both " The Young King " (1891) and " The Sphinx " (1894). In "The Young King", a reference is made to

10350-428: The rigidity and typical masculinity. In 1998, monumental remains were discovered at Hadrian's Villa that archaeologists claimed were from the tomb of Antinous, or a temple to him, though this has been challenged both because of the inconclusive nature of the archaeological remains and the overlooking of patristic sources (Epiphanius, Clement of Alexandria) indicating that Antinous was buried at his temple in Antinoöpolis,

10465-511: The sky between the Eagle and the Zodiac to be Antinous, and came to associate the rosy lotus that grew on the banks of the Nile as being the flower of Antinous. It is unknown exactly where Antinous's body was buried. It has been argued that either his body or some relics associated with him would have been interred at a shrine in Antinoöpolis, although this has yet to be identified archaeologically. However,

10580-463: The southern side of the Caelian Hill in a structure called the Aqueductium . The Aqueductium distributed the water via conduits to reservoirs behind the nymphaeum and to the site of the temple. The remains found in the area of the hill allow one to reconstruct a conspicuous housing phase in the second half of the 2nd century AD, while former buildings of the 1st century BC were probably destroyed by

10695-453: The statues have no pubic hair, it is just as likely that the artist thought clumps of hair were unattractive and either left them off or painted them in lightly after the sculpting was done as almost all Roman statues were painted. Except where otherwise noted, the notes below indicate that an individual's parentage is as shown in the above family tree. Antinous remained a figure of cultural significance for centuries to come; as Vout noted, he

10810-400: The statues of Antinous depict him as prepubescent "without pubic hair and with carefully represented soft groin tissue". As for the statues of Antinous portraying his real age, one must remember the statues are artistic representations. If the statues look young, it may only be how the artist envisioned him. Most of the artists never saw Antinous and based their works on sketches and examples. If

10925-517: The syllabic script Linear B . Beginning in the 8th century BC, however, the Greek alphabet became standard, albeit with some variation among dialects. Early texts are written in boustrophedon style, but left-to-right became standard during the classic period. Modern editions of ancient Greek texts are usually written with accents and breathing marks , interword spacing , modern punctuation , and sometimes mixed case , but these were all introduced later. The beginning of Homer 's Iliad exemplifies

11040-460: Was "arguably the most notorious pretty boy from the annals of classical history." Sculptures of Antinous began to be reproduced from the 16th century; it remains likely that some of these modern examples have subsequently been sold as Classical artefacts and are still viewed as such. Antinous has attracted attention from the homosexual subculture since the 18th century, the most illustrious examples for this being Prince Eugene of Savoy and Frederick

11155-475: Was Aeolic. For example, fragments of the works of the poet Sappho from the island of Lesbos are in Aeolian. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, or to an island. Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric (including Cretan Doric ), Southern Peloponnesus Doric (including Laconian ,

11270-471: Was also seen as a conqueror of death, with his name and image often being included in coffins. In the west, Antinous was associated with the Celtic sun-god Belenos . Emperor Hadrian established quinquennial games and annual celebrations in honour of Antinous which were called Antinoea (τὰ Ἀντινόεια). The city of Antinoöpolis was erected on the site of Hir-we. All previous buildings were razed and replaced, with

11385-429: Was at some point over the following three years that Antinous became his personal favourite, for by the time he left for Greece three years later, he brought Antinous with him in his personal retinue: The way that Hadrian took the boy on his travels, kept close to him at moments of spiritual, moral or physical exaltation, and, after his death, surrounded himself with his images, shows an obsessive craving for his presence,

11500-454: Was born in the territory to the east of the city called Mantineion, a rural locality: This was important later for the cult character expressed in his statues: he was a figure of the country, a woodland boy. The year of Antinous's birth is not recorded, although it is estimated that it was probably between 110 and 112  CE . Early sources record that his birthday was in November, and although

11615-691: Was criticised by various individuals, both pagan and Christian . Critics included followers of other pagan cults, such as Pausanias , Lucian , and the Emperor Julian , who were all sceptical about the apotheosis of Antinous, as well as the Sibylline Oracles , who were critical of Hadrian more generally. The pagan philosopher Celsus also criticised it for what he perceived as the debauched nature of its Egyptian devotees, arguing that it led people into immoral behaviour, in this way comparing it to Christianity. Surviving examples of Christian condemnation of

11730-470: Was devastated by the death of Antinous, with contemporaries attesting that he "wept like a woman." In Egypt, the local priesthood immediately deified Antinous by identifying him with Osiris due to the manner of his death. In keeping with Egyptian custom, Antinous's body was probably embalmed and mummified by priests, a lengthy process which might explain why Hadrian remained in Egypt until spring 131. While there, in October 130, Hadrian proclaimed Antinous to be

11845-453: Was during the years from 123–130 CE. The first mention of Antinous is from Pancrates and his Lion Hunt poem from 130 CE. Hard evidence regarding Antinous's life is available in the form of the Pincian obelisk on Pincian Hill . On the west side of the relief is a mutilated phrase which states "he grew up to be a beautiful youth". This would suggest that Antinous was already an ephebe and that he

11960-577: Was established in his home in Bithynia when he met Hadrian. Many scholars believe, with the circumstantial evidence, that the relationship of Hadrian and Antinous lasted approximately three years: from 127 CE to October 130 CE, when Antinous drowned in the Nile. The conclusion is that there is little documentation for or about the actual relationship of Hadrian and Antinous. In late September or early October 130, Hadrian and his entourage, among them Antinous, assembled at Heliopolis to set sail upstream as part of

12075-403: Was given gifts of food and drink in Egypt, with libations and sacrifices probably being common in Greece. Priests devoted to Antinous would have overseen this worship, with the names of some of these individuals having survived in inscriptions. There is evidence of oracles being present at a number of Antinoan temples. Sculptures of Antinous became widespread, with Hadrian probably having approved

12190-508: Was highly unusual, and he did so without the permission of the Roman Senate . The Emperor was criticised for his immense grief at Antinous's death, especially considering that he had delayed the apotheosis of his own sister Paulina when she died. Although the cult of Antinous therefore had connections with the Roman imperial cult , it remained separate and distinct. Hadrian also identified a star in

12305-533: Was most popular in Egypt, Greece, Asia Minor, and the North African coast, but a large community of worshippers also existed in Italy, Spain, and northwestern Europe. Artefacts in honour of Antinous have been found in an area that spans from Britain to the Danube . Although the adoption of the Antinous cult was in some cases done to please Hadrian, the evidence makes it clear that the cult was also genuinely popular among

12420-417: Was never as large as those of well-established deities such as Zeus , Dionysus , Demeter , or Asclepios , or even as large as those of cults which were growing in popularity at that time, such as Isis or Serapis and was also smaller than the official imperial cult of Hadrian himself. However, it spread rapidly throughout the Empire, with traces of the cult having been found in at least 70 cities. The cult

12535-578: Was not ultimately finished until the reign of Vespasian . Nero added a grand nymphaeum (tiered water fountain) to the eastern retaining wall of this platform, with semi-circular and rectangular niches. The water to supply this fountain was supplied by a special branch of the Aqua Claudia , called the Arcus Neroniani , which extended 2 kilometres west from the Claudia at Porta Maggiore and terminated on

12650-511: Was probably when he first encountered Antinous. Given Hadrian's personality, Lambert thought it unlikely that they had become lovers at this point, instead suggesting it probable that Antinous had been selected to be sent to Italy, where he was probably schooled at the imperial paedagogium at the Caelian Hill . Hadrian meanwhile had continued to tour the empire, only returning to Italy in September 125, when he settled into his villa at Tibur . It

12765-423: Was shortly after this, in October 130 – around the time of the festival of Osiris – that Antinous fell into the river and died, probably from drowning. Hadrian publicly announced his death, with gossip soon spreading throughout the Empire that Antinous had been intentionally killed. The nature of Antinous's death remains a mystery to this day; however, various speculations have been put forward: Hadrian

12880-915: Was taken on a tour of the Roman Empire as part of Hadrian's personal retinue. Antinous accompanied Hadrian during his attendance of the annual Eleusinian Mysteries in Athens , and was with him when he killed the Marousian lion in Libya , an event highly publicised by the Emperor. In October 130, as they were part of a flotilla going along the Nile , Antinous died amid mysterious circumstances. Various suggestions have been put forward for how he died, ranging from an accidental drowning to an intentional human sacrifice or suicide. Following his death, Hadrian deified Antinous and founded an organised cult devoted to his worship that spread throughout

12995-481: Was to late Greek sculpture." Furthermore, in a novel attributed to Oscar Wilde, Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal , Des Grieux makes a passing reference to Antinous as he describes how he felt during a musical performance: "I now began to understand things hitherto so strange, the love the mighty monarch felt for his fair Grecian slave, Antinous, who – like unto Christ – died for his master's sake." In Les Misérables ,

13110-564: Was treated as a dying-and-rising god not only in Egypt, but in Rome and Greece; the Obelisk of Antinous in Rome describes the honour and, "Osirantinous" as "the Reborn" and "the Everlasting." At least 28 temples were constructed for the worship of Antinous throughout the Empire, although most were fairly modest in design; those at Tarsos, Philadelphia, and Lanuvium consisted of a four-column portico. It

13225-426: Was understood differently by his various worshippers, in part due to regional and cultural variation. In some inscriptions he is identified as a divine hero , in others as a god, and in others as both a divine hero and a god. In Egypt, he was often understood as a daemon . Inscriptions indicate that Antinous was seen primarily as a benevolent deity, who could be turned to aid his worshipers and cure them of ailments. He

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