The Hero Antinous

Antinous and hero cultus has been the subject of several previous posts, including the one on Achilleus. Herodes Attikos likewise seems to have honored Antinous as a hero in his Arcadian villa. But, this is found in many other places besides.

On a number of coins of Antinous, he is honored as a hero–for example, the Alexandrian coin which features him as Antinous-Hermes on the reverse calls him, on the obverse, “Antinous the Hero.” The coins of Aristotimos in Delphi also call him heros propylaios, with the latter being a Hermetic epithet. However, Hugo Meyer suggests that perhaps the “hero before-the-gate” here concerned is not directly Hermes, but is instead a particular Delphic hero, Autonoös, who is mentioned in Herodotus’ Histories 8.39 as being one of two Delphic heroes who fought off the Persians, and whose shrine was near the Castalian spring. Because of the similarity of their names and their shared status as heroes, Meyer suggests that the hero-cultus of Antinous eclipsed and absorbed that of Autonoös. It’s an intriguing possibility, and syncretism of Antinous with locally relevant heroes of various types–both known and unknown–is certainly a likely thing to have occurred.

One M. Lucius Flaccus/Lukkios Flakkos inscribed a bust of Antinous, but I cannot find any online photos of the object. It appears to look a bit like this bust from Paris, though, from what I can tell of the photos in Meyer’s book.

There are also lost/destroyed remains of a statue base from Epidauros that was for Antinous the Hero, possibly done by one T. Statilius Timocrates Memmianus, who patronized games for Antinous in Argos, as well as ones for Asklepios in Epidauros itself. It seems possible that the statuary there may have connected Antinous to an Asklepios-based image, but we cannot be certain of it.

Further, even Hadrian himself honored Antinous as a hero in at least one location: the temple founded in Socanica, Dalmatia (modern Croatia), which was co-founded with his first adopted heir, Aelius Caesar, probably in c. 136 CE (since soon after he was adopted and was given that name, he died).

Of the various classes of divine being that existed for the Greeks, heroes are an interesting further option. Gods are gods, and demigods are often born of a god and one mortal parent, though very few are recognized as such in cultus–Dionysos, for example, is never called a demigod, though Semele (his “final” mother) was mortal (though eventually made immortal as well). However, Herakles and Perseus are both sons of Zeus, and the latter is never considered a god and is only a hero, whereas the former hero was eventually deified and underwent apotheosis. However, many heroes seem to have started out as strictly mortal. Whatever the cultic or theological reality may be in each individual case, perhaps the main distinction is that most gods have a timeless and almost eternal quality about them, whereas heroes have a beginning and an end in death, but a very productive afterlife. Hero cultus in the second century was a fascinating thing that was rapidly changing, and everyday people were being more and more honored in death as heroes, from the looks of the evidence that exists in the form of funerary inscriptions. Christopher Jones’ New Heroes in Antiquity has a lot of excellent information on this, as well as a whole chapter on Antinous.

In the modern world, we should do all we can to cultivate the knowledge of heroes and enact cultus for them, not only amongst our attested heroes from antique history and mythology, but also from our own beloved dead and ancestors, local and national figures–from George Washington to Ivar Haglund–and slain warriors and innocent casualties of war and terrorism as well. The various Sancti of the Ekklesía Antínoou is an effort to open and continue the list of heroic people of the past. There are living heroes among us of various types, from emergency service personnel to returning veterans of past and present military service (both during wartime and not), from great teachers and influential thinkers to philanthropists and everyday virtuous people. The idea of hero cultus and hero worship should not be something suppressed, but instead should be expanded, because exemplary action in many individuals inspires others to exemplary action. If realizing one’s own divinity and virtue and heroism can occur because another heroic individual showed the way toward such a style of life, then it should be encouraged and promoted, rather than diminished by just saying these are “ordinary people” or that “they were just doing their jobs.” Heroes are different and special for not only doing extraordinary things, but for doing the ordinary things in an extraordinary way, and we all have the potential to become heroes, therefore, by doing our best at all times. Virtue requires no less.

Therefore, let us celebrate and honor and thank all of the Heroes in our lives, and let us aspire to becoming them ourselves, with the Hero Antinous as our guide and exemplar!