Triads of Antinous #1: Three Aspects of Antinous

This is the first post in a series of around 50 or so Triads of Antinous. The idea for a compiled list of Triads of Antinous emerged formally in about March of this year, but triadic concepts have been present in modern Antinoan devotion since the summer of 2002. While modern pagans tend to associate triadic arrangements and collections with Celtic cultures, and such collections do exist amongst the Irish and Welsh medieval cultures, triadic structures have also long been present in platonic and neoplatonic thought and philosophy, gnosticism, and–some would argue–is deeply embedded in our Indo-European consciousness. However, other cultures that are non-Indo-European have a fair number of triads as well, like Egyptian culture and the Memphite Triad, for starters.

The purpose of the Triads of Antinous is to easily remember theological concepts; in other words, it is a mnemonic device to convey often complex theologies and mythological ideas in a single short statement, consisting of an abstract category and then three examples (often the three examples) of the category in question. These concepts then influence how ritual is done, artwork and iconography, and also can be referenced in prayer, drama, spells, and other ritual performative utterances and writings, as well as doing things like shaping ritual time and cosmology. The potential usages of the Triads of Antinous are almost limitless–or, if there is a limit, it is only the limits of one’s own imagination and the possibilities of one’s own spiritual experience.

So, off we go!

#1. Three Aspects of Antinous: Antinous the Lover, Antinous the Liberator, Antinous the Navigator.

This has been a part of my own practice since about July of 2002, and deeply influences a lot of my work, and the subsequent work of others who have been in contact with me. While these three aspects have roots in the ancient cultus of Antinous and its associated mythologies and their understandings, the actual concept of thinking of Antinous in these three ways or under these three epithets is entirely modern.

Rather than attempting to think of Antinous as the “god of ___,” as has happened so often in both academic and popular mythological scholarship, I find it more accurate and appealing to think of him (and any/every deity, really) as being involved with particular types of action. This puts the emphasis on the “verbal,” as it were, aspects of the deity rather than on nouns or utterly abstract concepts. Think of Dionysos, for example: too many people think of him as just the “god of wine,” when really he’s the “god who causes ecstasy,” whether that is through wine, madness, devotion, dance, or other media. It would be less useful to reduce Antinous to being a “god of youth” or “fertility” or any such concept, in my view, than it would be to understand the types of activities in which he is involved.

Antinous the Lover
Antinous as Lover is an aspect that is most obvious, perhaps, in terms of knowing his history and his origins and his relationship with the Emperor Hadrian, which of course was a necessity for anything else (including his eventual cultus arising at all) which then occurred for him. While ancient Greek culture in relation to homoeroticism recognized the roles of erastes (“lover”) and eromenos (“beloved”), with the older/active partner and the younger/passive partner corresponding to each respectively, and Antinous therefore being the eromenos in his relationship with Hadrian would be implied, that particular setup for homoerotic relationships is no longer entirely appropriate to the modern age (though some people still do things based somewhat upon a similar model). Thus, thinking of Antinous as Hadrian’s “youthful male lover” is more appealing, in addition to making his choice to reciprocate Hadrian’s feelings more apparent.

I associate the Antinous Farnese, now in Naples, which may depict either Hermes or Adonis, with this particular aspect of Antinous. He is earthy, beautiful, erotic, and alluring. This is the most “material” and physical of his three aspects. This aspect of Antinous reigns during the year from the date of April 21 (the Megala Antinoeia and the Venatio Ursae) to the 28th of October with the Death of Antinous during the Sacred Nights. This time period encompasses more than half of the year, and also encompasses all of the festivals of hunting that Antinous was involved with (the Venatio Apri on May 1 and the Lion Hunt on August 21 in particular). His color is black–the rich, deep color of fertile soil and the material building-blocks of our bodies and all of the physical world, but also the color of deepest mystery, as love is a mystery often even harder to grasp than the “higher” mysteries of the cosmos. The symbol I connect most to Antinous the Lover is the red Nile lotus. The gesture I connect to this aspect is to have the two hands cupped together, inclined upwards to receive love, and inclined downwards to give love. The most important action of the Lover aspect is that he “Gives.”

In terms of deities and syncretisms, Adonis has already been mentioned–one of the most archetypal lovers in all of Greek mythology, connected to death and rebirth but most importantly connected to Aphrodite. However, with the three aspects of Antinous, connections most often also occur to the three “biggest” syncretisms of Antinous: Hermes, Apollon, and Dionysos (the first of which has already been mentioned). Hermes is known for having favored, amongst other heroes and mortals, Polydeukes of the Dioskouroi, and thus the role of patronage and gift-giving in a love relationship is an important one–even if not thought of as “patronage,” the idea of support (perhaps materially, but more important emotionally) is rather essential, in my view. Apollon also had many youthful mortal lovers, and because he, for example, enjoyed throwing the discus with Hyakinthos, I think physical activity is implied by this relationship in connection to Antinous the Lover; but, as Hyakinthos was killed by the discus due to Zephyros’ jealousy, but Apollon himself was not jealous over the other god’s love for his beloved, it implies that jealousy is inappropriate to love, and that it even can kill it for all involved. Dionysos happily submitted to being the “passive” lover for Prosymnos, and so I think that this encompasses the idea that active as well as passive roles in love, sex, and in all relationships are desirable to cultivate, rather than just the strict sex-role stereotyping that occurs far too often in the modern world, particularly amongst those who are homoerotically inclined.

Antinous the Liberator
In certain respects, Antinous the Liberator is the least implied in the ancient cultus, and yet, in many ways, he is perhaps the most needed aspect in the modern world. This is the Antinous who will stand and fight for justice and liberation, in no matter what form oppression of his people and those he loves happens to take. It is not an actively war-like and aggressive Antinous, but instead an assertive one who defends those he loves and favors, and fights against domination and tyranny because it is good and right to do so. Many ancient historical homoerotic relationships had a major role to play in Greece against the forces of tyranny, from Harmodius and Aristogeiton to the Sacred Band of Thebes. In the modern world, the oppressive forces of homophobia and dominant religious interpretations and their active persecution of LGBTQI people demands a response, and Antinous the Liberator is one such response.

The ancient image most closely matching this aspect of Antinous, for me, is the image from Hadrian’s Villa now in the Louvre that depicts him in the character of Herakles. I had a visionary experience of this aspect of the god in the summer of 2002, in which he was leaping in the air, nude, with his right leg bent at the knee and his right thigh transfixed with an arrow; his right arm is extended over his head, holding aloft a spear that has a crescent-shaped blade on its end (points facing upward), and a long isosceles triangular spear-point in between the crescent; his left hand holds a severed head–his own severed head, but the face on it is totally passive and expressionless; while his own head on his own shoulders is fierce-looking, angry even, screaming and crying out for the liberation of his people. It is an Antinous that is totally opposite to the Stoic ideal of apatheia, to say the least! While there is the real-world aspect of such liberation, there is also the spiritual side of the question, the liberation of our own ideas and preconceived notions of what is holy and unholy, what society says is good and bad versus what we know ourselves to be good and bad, what the limits of our own difficulties impose upon us and how to overcome them, and even the limitations of the idea of gods and of Antinous altogether are concerned–the latter is particularly important, since one’s own religion can end up being a block to having any further religious experience, even within the religion devoted to Antinous. Antinous the Lover is the aspect which is the compassionate but also active heart of Antinous, the seat of the emotions, and the most passionate form of the god. His color is red, of fire and of blood and of the energy of life. His dates are from today, November 1 and the festival of Antinous the Liberator at the end of the Sacred Nights, through to January 29, the date of the first appearance of the Star of Antinous. The symbol associated with Antinous the Liberator is the spider, the many-eyed arachnid whose poison is our antidote, and in whose web we become entangled, which paradoxically frees us even more. The gesture associated with this aspect is to hold out the right hand, and extend the thumb, index and middle fingers, spreading them wide and making a kind of “three” gesture with them, to represent the three points of his spear (with the thumb and middle finger creating the crescent and the index finger the triangular spear-point/spearhead). The most important action of the Liberator is that he “Guards.”

Herakles, as already mentioned, is a good divine prototype for this aspect, not only in his acclamation as a soter or “savior”–someone who makes life in this world better for people–but also as an initiate of Eleusis. The three main syncretisms of Antinous also come into the picture. Dionysos as eleutheros, he who frees, is very closely tied to this aspect. Hermes Propylaios, the gate guardian, is a further example, as the one who defends the boundaries (and in this manner, Silvanus can also be a good divine image to consider). Apollon as the slayer of Python is a further appropriate image to contemplate for Antinous the Liberator.

Antinous the Navigator
Finally, we come to Antinous the Navigator, the guiding force that lights the way for us as a spiritual exemplar, and who protects us in the afterlife as well as appears to us and inspires us in dreams and visions. This aspect is certainly implied in a number of the ancient cultic expressions, including that in Mantineia in which a father entrusts the care of his deceased son in the afterlife to Antinous.

The ancient image I most associate with Antinous the Navigator is the Braschi Antinous, the most famous, majestic and supernal Dionysian image of Antinous now in the Sala Rotunda of the Vatican. Imagine that the thyrsos that Antinous holds here is the great oar of a ship, or its tiller, and that the pinecones on the end of it and on his head are lights that shine the way through darkness. Antinous the Navigator is the god in his most mysterious aspect, hidden and somewhat removed, and yet present and actively inspiring us to draw closer to him, to close that distance, to keep moving further in pursuit of him. This aspect of Antinous rules the year from the time of January 29, the first appearance of his star in 131 CE, through to April 20. His symbols are the star and the moon, the guiding lights through darkness. His color is white, the white of illumination and of bright and blinding mystery. His gesture is to take the left hand, and put the index finger and the thumb curving together in an almost “a-okay” gesture, with the other three fingers tightly held together, as if holding this gesture is to direct a person and gently nudge them in the right direction. (This has some connection to the Buddhist mudra associated with teaching the tradition and conveying its principles, and indeed the teaching function in a spiritual context would fall within the purview of Antinous the Navigator, the one who knows the path and helps us to travel it.) The most important activity of Antinous the Navigator is to “Guide.”

In many ways, the Dioskouroi, the saviors at sea and friends of sailors, are an appropriate divine image to link with Antinous the Navigator. The three main syncretisms of Antinous also have a connection here. Hermes as psychopompos, the “guide of souls,” fulfills a Navigator function in the afterlife. Dionysos Choreios, the “god of the dance,” gives us the steps and the blocking which we must then perform, and as Epiphanes he appears to us when we least expect it to inspire us further. Apollon as Musegetikos, “leader of the Muses” and lord of inspiration, as well as in his oracular aspect as Apollon Pythios, giving divine aid and advice to mortals, are also appropriate connections to consider in this aspect.

The Three Aspects of Antinous also connect in with The Serpent Path in various ways, and are a basic structuring element in many of its workings and organization, which I shall elaborate further in the future.

All of the above (and more) can, hopefully, be conveyed and understood in simply referring to the Three Aspects of Antinous–the Lover, the Liberator, and the Navigator.