Antinoan Connections: Goddesses and Antinous–Sabina

The next installment in this series concerns one of the most important of our Sancti (or, as is appropriate here, Sanctae), one of the Divae, and in fact in our overall considerations, someone who effectively ranks third in our reckonings for the Ekklesía Antínoou, after Antinous and Hadrian: Diva Vibia Sabina, the wife of Hadrian.

In the Ekklesía Antínoou, there are two occasions during the year on which we celebrate Diva Sabina quite specifically. The first is the Apotheosis of Sabina, which we observe on March 21 yearly. The second is three days in November (the 19th-21st) when, in the month after Antinous’ death, Hadrian and the imperial party visited Thebes in Egypt and the nearby Colossoi of Memnon, which was a popular tourist attraction, but the Hadrianic visit galvanized tourism thereafter quite heavily. Sabina herself left an inscription on one of the colossoi, but all apart from her name is obliterated. However, Sabina’s friend (and Ekklesía Antínoou Sancta), the poet Julia Balbilla, left several poems on the colossal statue commemorating their visit and their experiences there.

We honor the empress Sabina on those days because we know of no others on which to do so. We are actually not certain about the day (nor even the exact year with any certainty) of her death, nor do we know her birthdate, because the necessary sections of surviving imperial cult calendars do not mention her. We know the month and year of her mother Salonia Matidia’s death, as well as Matidia’s birthdate and the day upon which she was acclaimed as Augusta along with her mother Marciana (the emperor Trajan’s sister), but we have no information in relation to these matters for Sabina herself. The apotheosis relief for Sabina, however, is one of very few that has survived for any emperor or imperial wife. Diva Sabina was syncretized to a variety of deities before and after death, including Ceres, Venus, and Juno/Hera.

Much has been said over the years on how Sabina’s relationship with Hadrian was strained at the best of times, and that she was a difficult woman. There was at least one occasion during Hadrian’s early principate that it seemed some sort of scandal broke out between Sabina and Hadrian’s ab epistulis, Gaius Suetonius (the famous historian), which caused the latter to fall out of favor with the emperor. Hadrian would have had the opportunity to seek a divorce at that point, but he did not. Likewise, he did not have to seek nor approve her deification, nor a variety of other things which he ended up doing for her. I think their relationship must have been very complex, and we cannot know with any certainty what was involved in it. Her childlessness could have been a potential problem for Hadrian’s future succession, as it had been with the previous two emperors, but it did not end up being so. This demonstrates, at least to me, that she was valued for some reason other than her possibility of providing an imperial heir to the forward-thinking Hadrian.

One of the reasons that, at least I feel, we must accord her very highly in the Ekklesía Antínoou is that one of the most important foundational documents for our cultus, the Obelisk of Antinous, names her (along with Hadrian) on the East side’s inscription as being the recipient of the benefits accrued from the prayer and intervention of Antinous. Again, Hadrian (who is no doubt behind the expressions recorded in the Obelisk’s inscription) did not have to include Sabina in this prayer, but he did–and that, I think, says quite a lot. Furthermore, an entire phyla in the city of Antinoöpolis was named for her, containing demoi named for Hera, amongst others.

Ave Diva Sabina Augusta! Ave Ave Antinoe!