Hadrian in bronze and Osiris-Antinous, 2nd century CE, from the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria at the Egypt's Lost Cities exhibit in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum through April 12, 2020

Hadrian in bronze and Osiris-Antinous, 2nd century CE, from the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria at the Egypt's Lost Cities exhibit in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum through April 12, 2020.

Antinous, Hadrian's youthful companion, was deified after meeting the same fate as Osiris: death in the waters of the Nile. The new god Osiris-Antinous had a humber of manifestations, including that of the Apis bull. It is known that Antinous was born to a Greek family in the city of Claudiopolis, which was located in the Roman province of Bithynia in what is now north-west Turkey. It is possible that he was named after the character of Antinous, who is one of Penelope's suitors in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey. Another possibility is that he was given the male equivalent of Antinoë, 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, and it remains unlikely, as it would have proved deeply controversial to deify a former slave in Roman society. Hadrian arrived in Claudiopolis in June 123 CE, which was probably when he first encountered Antinous it is probable that Antinous was selected to be sent to Italy, where he was probably schooled at the imperial paedagogium on the Caelian Hill. Hadrian meanwhile had continued to tour the Empire, only returning to Italy in September 125 CE, when he settled into his villa at Tibur. It was at some point over the following three years that Antinous became his personal favorite, for by the time he left for Greece three years later, he brought Antinous with him in his personal retinue.

The Roman emperor Hadrian at the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt.

Osiris-Antinous at the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, Egypt

Images courtesy of Allan Gluck.

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