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<\/a>For myself, it\u2019s a far more important day, and it happens every year whether or not the 27th<\/sup> falls on the day of, before, or after Thanksgiving.\u00a0 It is the Natalis Antinoi<\/em>, the birthdate of Antinous, and one of a very small number of festivals which have come down to us with certainty from the late antique cultus of the god Antinous.<\/p>\nAntinous (his name has four syllables in both the Latin form and the Greek form, Antino\u00f6s) was a young ethnic Greek man of Arcadian ancestry who was born in the Roman province of Bithynia, became attached to the entourage of the Emperor Hadrian, and was the Emperor\u2019s youthful lover until his death in late October of 130 CE, when he drowned in the Nile.\u00a0 Because of the customs of the day, drowning in the Nile conferred deification on whoever it happened to automatically, and so an immediate cultus of Osiris-Antinous came about; but because the Emperor\u2019s grief at his loss was excessive, and the Emperor was the important person he was, the cultus ended up spreading all over the empire, where it persisted in some cases long past the \u201ctriumph\u201d of Christianity in the late fourth century.<\/p>\n
The Natalis Antinoi<\/em> (\u201cbirthday of Antinous\u201d) was celebrated by a collegium dedicated to Antinous and Diana at a temple in Lanuvium (near Rome) as one of their major feasts, and we also have record of it from an Egyptian cult calendar found on a papyrus fragment in Oxyrhynchus, held on the same day, November 27th<\/sup>.\u00a0 It seems likely that other locations would have observed it as well.\u00a0 The Lanuvium cultists celebrated it with a feast that was required to have four amphorae of good wine, bread, sardines, and warm water, and with oil provided by the quinquennalis<\/em> of the society at the public baths beforehand.\u00a0 The Egyptian text mentions that \u201chorse rites\u201d were a part of the festivities; in both Egypt and Greece, horse-racing courses were often located adjacent to temples of Antinous, and thus it was probably some sort of equestrian or charioteering competition celebrated in the god\u2019s honor that was involved.<\/p>\n But, this year is also highly significant for another reason:\u00a0 of the years that it is possible that Antinous was born, c. 110-112 CE, 110 is the most compelling to me for a variety of reasons.\u00a0 Thus, this year marks the 1900th<\/sup> birthday of Antinous.\u00a0 It is a rare occurrence to be able to celebrate the nineteen-century anniversary of a natal day, and particularly one which is connected to an historical cultus of which we know so many precise details of time and place of origin.<\/p>\n When Antinous died in late October of 130 CE, he would have been nearly twenty years old had he lived another month.\u00a0 So, here it is, a hundred times his age at death later, and where is his status among the gods now?\u00a0 Nowhere near what it could be, certainly, and yet I take hope in this situation all the same.\u00a0 Some groups in Asia Minor were beginning their devotions to Antinous the God by the end of the year 130, less than two months after his death, and by the end of the next decade in 140, there were a number of temples and groups celebrating him.\u00a0 If we think of this 1900th<\/sup> anniversary of his birth as a new beginning of his cultus, then I\u2019m very hopeful that by the time of the 1900th<\/sup> anniversary of his death in 2030, he will be fairly well known again amongst modern Pagans.<\/p>\n Antinous has never been forgotten over the ages; his story has been misrepresented, censored, critiqued, and even lambasted, but never entirely forgotten.\u00a0 His imagery appeared in the medieval period decorating the seal of a Christian bishop, and his distinctive and unmistakable face came to light again in the late Renaissance with Raphael and Lorenzetto\u2019s Jonah from the early sixteenth century.\u00a0 Archaeological finds and rediscoveries of his images since that time have been continuous, and his images were highly prized by collectors and art historians\u2014in fact, the father of the discipline of art history, Johann Joachim Winckelmann, was highly influenced and inspired in his work by a few sculptures of Antinous in the collection of his patron, Cardinal Alessandro Albani, in the eighteenth century.<\/p>\n Antinous was a fascinating deity from a number of perspectives in his own time, particularly because of the promiscuous syncretism which was the hallmark of his cultus in many locations.\u00a0 He was linked to deities and local heroes particular to every location in which his worship was found, from Hermes to Dionysos to Apollon to Silvanus, Vertumnus to Herakles and Osiris to Apis, Endymion to Eunostos to Androklos, and many more.\u00a0 This process did not end with the \u201cofficial\u201d cessation of his cultus due to Christianity, though.\u00a0 It continued in later centuries when his face was put into a statuary ensemble that became one of the most famous and frequently copied depictions of the Dioskouroi\/Gemini twins, Kastor and Polydeukes\/Castor and Pollux, now known as the \u201cIldefonso Group,\u201d the original of which is in Madrid.\u00a0 And it has still not ended\u2026<\/p>\n Indeed, syncretism is a sign of a healthy polytheistic environment. \u00a0We live in a society now which is unparalleled in its access to information, to varying cultural streams, languages, and religious traditions.\u00a0 This is similar to the late antique period in which Antinous\u2019 cultus first came into being and thrived, only on a much grander scale.\u00a0 Though dominant religions have changed, the ability of those of us in minority religions to localize our practices and customize them to our own needs and interests provides a very fertile ground in which Antinous can syncretize to a variety of contexts, and in which the forms he might take in the future can only be guessed at.\u00a0 Just as localization in one\u2019s own ecological environment and obtaining of food and other resources is becoming of paramount concern to many Pagans and polytheists who honor the earth and the elements, so too should deities honored be adapted to and draw from local traditions and environments, rather than proliferating from a central source and requiring a cohesive, institutional theological mandate or prescribed forms of worship.\u00a0 Antinous as a hero or god can provide a link to the past, as well as a connection to the present and to one\u2019s own environment.<\/p>\n It is at the threshold of such possibilities that I believe we are standing at present.\u00a0 So, the best gift that I can give Antinous for his 1900th<\/sup> birthday this year is to leave it to him, the eternal nineteen-year-old, to determine what he wants to do with his (after)life as a hero and deity, in this new world and new age of syncretism and polytheism that is modern Paganism.<\/p>\n I hope that those of you who read this, if you have a moment, might do something today in honor of this occasion, even if you\u2019ve never heard of Antinous before, or do not plan to have any sort of ongoing devotional relationship with him. \u00a0Ride a horse, go watch a horse race, or even ride on a carousel (no matter how old you are!).\u00a0 Have a nice relaxing bath, or invite your friends over to your hot tub (if you have one) for a relaxing soak.\u00a0 Eat a wonderful meal and raise a glass of your favorite wine to Antinous on this day, and sing the song\u2014you know the tune, even if you don\u2019t recognize the words\u2014:<\/p>\n Felix natalis tibi<\/em><\/p>\n Felix natalis tibi<\/em><\/p>\n Felix natalis Antinoo<\/em><\/p>\n Felix natalis tibi!<\/em><\/p>\n Et multique\u2026!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Sing for a polytheism and a world of possibilities reborn, not only for Antinous, but for all of the gods around the world; sing for traditions never forgotten, and traditions newly remembered and rediscovered; sing for new ways of approaching divine realities that are coming to being uniquely in our own times; and, most of all, sing for the truth that every one of us has the potential of becoming divine and the work of realizing our own divinity ourselves (drowning in the Nile entirely optional!).\u00a0 As Antinous turns 1900, may we all remember in this season of the overculture\u2019s religions\u2019 holy-days of commercialism and excess that there are hundreds of reasons to be thankful and to have a holy season ourselves, within our own religion\u2019s holy traditions.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today, Saturday November 27, is for most people in the U.S. the \u201cday after Black Friday,\u201d a non-descript day at one side of the \u201cbiggest shopping day of the year\u201d in the lead-up to Christmas.\u00a0 That happens to be the case this year, 2010; depending on when November 27 falls, it can be Thanksgiving itself, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":309,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[158],"class_list":["post-2128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-paganism","tag-antinous"],"yoast_head":"\n