Antinous

Odyssey IV, 628, 660, 773; XVII, 409; XXII, 8.

Antinous, a beautiful youth of Claudiopolis in Bithynia, was the favourite and probably catamite[?] of the emperor Hadrian, whom he accompanied on his journeys. He drowned in the Nile in 130 at about the age of twenty, and some historians suggest that he committed suicide either in a fit of melancholy as Hadrian's paederastic[?] affection for him began to fade or in order to prolong his patron's life by his voluntary sacrifice.

After his death, Hadrian caused the most extravagant respect to be paid to his memory. Not only were cities called after him, medals struck with his effigy, and statues erected to him in all parts of the empire, but he was even raised to the rank of the gods. Temples were built for his worship in Bithynia, Mantineia[?] in Arcadia, and Athens, festivals celebrated in his honour and oracles delivered in his name.

The city of Antinoopolis[?] was a founded on the ruins of Besa[?] where he died. A number of statues, busts, gems and coins represented Antinous as the ideal type of youthful beauty, often with the attributes of some special god. We still possess a colossal bust in the Vatican, a bust in the Louvre, a bas-relief from the Villa Albani, a statue in the Capitoline museum, another in Berlin, another in the Lateran[?], and many more.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.