Antinous - References in The Early Christian Church Fathers

References in The Early Christian Church Fathers

Justin Martyr (c.100-c.165):

Apologia (c.150) I:XXIX - "Antinous, who was alive but lately, and whom all were prompt, through fear, to worship as a god, though they knew both who he was and what was his origin."

Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.211):

Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Greeks) (c.190) IV - "Another new deity was added to the number with great religious pomp in Egypt, and was near being so in Greece by the king of the Romans, who deified Antinous, whom he loved as Zeus loved Ganymede, and whose beauty was of a very rare order: for lust is not easily restrained, destitute as it is of fear; and men now observe the sacred nights of Antinous, the shameful character of which the lover who spent them with him knew well. Why reckon him among the gods, who is honoured on account of uncleanness? And why do you command him to be lamented as a son? And why should you enlarge on his beauty? Beauty blighted by vice is loathsome. Do not play the tyrant, O man, over beauty, nor offer foul insult to youth in its bloom. Keep beauty pure, that it may be truly fair. Be king over beauty, not its tyrant. Remain free, and then I shall acknowledge thy beauty, because thou hast kept its image pure: then will I worship that true beauty which is the archetype of all who are beautiful. There is a tomb of the beloved boy (eromenos). A temple of this Antinous and a city . For just as temples are held in reverence, so also are sepulchres, and pyramids, and mausoleums, and labyrinths, which are temples of the dead, as the others are sepulchres of the gods. As teacher on this point, I shall produce to you the Sibyl prophetess:- 'Not the oracular lie of Phoebus, Whom silly men called God, and falsely termed Prophet; But the oracles of the great God, who was not made by men's hands, Like dumb idols of Sculptured stone.' "

Tertullian of Carthage (c.160-c.240): Attacks Antinous in four different books written between 197 & 207.

Ad Marc.Bk I, ch. 18 - (trl. Holmes) "As for the rest, if man shall be thus able to devise a god,--as Romulus did Consus, and Tatius Cloacina, and Hostilius Fear, and Metellus Alburnus, and a certain authority some time since Antinous,--the same accomplishment may be allowed to others."

Apologeticus (c.197) ch. 13 - (trl. Thelwall) "When you make an infamous court page (de paedagogiis aulicis) a god of the sacred synod."

De Corona Militis ch. 13 - "Will there be any dispute as to the cause of crown-wearing, which contests in the games in their turn supply, and which, both as sacred to the gods and in honour of the dead, their own reason at once condemns? It only remains, that the Olympian Jupiter, and the Nemean Hercules, and the wretched little Archemorus, and the hapless (infelix) Antinous, should be crowned in a Christian, that he himself may become a spectacle disgusting to behold."

Ad Nationes (c.217) Bk II, ch. 10 - "After so many examples and eminent names among you, who might not have been declared divine? Who, in fact, ever raised a question as to his divinity against Antinous? Was even Ganymede more grateful and dear than he to (the supreme god) who loved him? According to you, heaven is open to the dead. You prepare a way from Hades to the stars. Prostitutes mount it in all directions, so that you must not suppose that you are conferring a great distinction upon your kings."

Origen (c.184-c.254): Five attacks on Antinous in Contra Celsum (c.249) III.36-8; V.63; VIII.9.

Bk III, ch. 36-38.

• Ch. 36 - "But as he next introduces the case of the boy-favourite (paidika) of Hadrian (I refer to the accounts regarding the youth (meirakion) Antinous, and the honours paid him by the inhabitants of the city of Antinous in Egypt), and imagines that the honour paid to him falls little short of that which we render to Jesus, let us show in what a spirit of hostility this statement is made. For what is there in common between a life lived among the favourites of Hadrian, by one who did not abstain even from unnatural lusts, and that of the venerable Jesus, against whom even they who brought countless other charges, and who told so many falsehoods, were not able to allege that He manifested, even in the slightest degree, any tendency to what was licentious? Nay, further, if one were to investigate, in a spirit of truth and impartiality, the stories relating to Antinous, he would find that it was due to the magical arts and rites of the Egyptians that there was even the appearance of his performing anything (marvellous) in the city which bears his name, and that too only after his decease,--an effect which is said to have been produced in other temples by the Egyptians, and those who are skilled in the arts which they practise. For they set up in certain places demons claiming prophetic or healing power, and which frequently torture those who seem to have committed any mistake about ordinary kinds of food, or about touching the dead body of a man, that they may have the appearance of alarming the uneducated multitude. Of this nature is the being that is considered to be a god in Antinoöpolis in Egypt, whose (reputed) virtues are the lying inventions of some who live by the gain derived therefrom; while others, deceived by the demon placed there, and others again convicted by a weak conscience, actually think that they are paying a divine penalty inflicted by Antinous. Of such a nature also are the mysteries which they perform, and the seeming predictions which they utter."
• Ch. 37 - "The Egyptians, then, having been taught to worship Antinous, will, if you compare him with Apollo or Zeus, endure such a comparison, Antinous being magnified in their estimation through being classed with these deities; for Celsus is clearly convicted of falsehood when he says, 'that they will not endure his being compared with Apollo or Zeus.' Whereas Christians (who have learned that their eternal life consists in knowing the only true God, who is over all, and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent; and who have learned also that all the gods of the heathen are greedy demons, which flit around sacrifices and blood, and other sacrificial accompaniments, in order to deceive those who have not taken refuge with the God who is over all, but that the divine and holy angels of God are of a different nature and will from all the demons on earth, and that they are known to those exceedingly few persons who have carefully and intelligently investigated these matters) will not endure a comparison to be made between them and Apollo or Zeus, or any being worshipped with odour and blood and sacrifices; some of them, so acting from their extreme simplicity, not being able to give a reason for their conduct, but sincerely observing the precepts which they have received; others, again, for reasons not to be lightly regarded, nay, even of a profound description, and (as a Greek would say) drawn from the inner nature of things; and amongst the latter of these God is a frequent subject of conversation, and those who are honoured by God, through His only-begotten Word, with participation in His divinity, and therefore also in His name. They speak much, too, both regarding the angels of God and those who are opposed to the truth, but have been deceived; and who, in consequence of being deceived, call them gods or angels of God, or good demons, or heroes who have become such by the transference into them of a good human soul. And such Christians will also show, that as in philosophy there are many who appear to be in possession of the truth, who have yet either deceived themselves by plausible arguments, or by rashly assenting to what was brought forward and discovered by others; so also, among those souls which exist apart from bodies, both angels and demons, there are some which have been induced by plausible reasons to declare themselves gods. And because it was impossible that the reasons of such things could be discovered by men with perfect exactness, it was deemed safe that no mortal should entrust himself to any being as to God, with the exception of Jesus Christ, who is, as it were, the Ruler over all things, and who both beheld these weighty secrets, and made them known to a few."

• Ch. 38 - "The belief, then, in Antinous, or any other such person, whether among the Egyptians or the Greeks, is, so to speak, unfortunate; while the belief in Jesus would seem to be either a fortunate one, or the result of thorough investigation, having the appearance of the former to the multitude, and of the latter to exceedingly few. And when I speak of a certain belief being, as the multitude would call it, unfortunate, I in such a case refer the cause to God, who knows the reasons of the various fates allotted to each one who enters human life. The Greeks, moreover, will admit that even amongst those who are considered to be most largely endowed with wisdom, good fortune has had much to do, as in the choice of teachers of one kind rather than another, and in meeting with a better class of instructors (there being teachers who taught the most opposite doctrines), and in being brought up in better circumstances; for the bringing up of many has been amid surroundings of such a kind, that they were prevented from ever receiving any idea of better things, but constantly passed their life, from their earliest youth, either as the favourites of licentious men or of tyrants, or in some other wretched condition which forbade the soul to look upwards. And the causes of these varied fortunes, according to all probability, are to be found in the reasons of providence, though it is not easy for men to ascertain these; but I have said what I have done by way of digression from the main body of my subject, on account of the proverb, that 'such is the power of faith, because it seizes that which first presents itself.' For it was necessary, owing to the different methods of education, to speak of the differences of belief among men, some of whom are more, others less fortunate in their belief; and from this to proceed to show that what is termed good or bad fortune would appear to contribute even in the case of the most talented, to their appearing to be more fully endowed with reason and to give their assent on grounds of reason to the majority of human opinions. But enough on these points."

Bk V, ch. 63 - "In the next place, that he may have the appearance of knowing still more than he has yet mentioned, he says, agreeably to his usual custom, that 'there are others who have wickedly invented some being as their teacher and demon, and who wallow about in a great darkness, more unholy and accursed than that of the companions of the Egyptian Antinous.' And he seems to me, indeed, in touching on these matters, to say with a certain degree of truth, that there are certain others who have wickedly invented another demon, and who have found him to be their lord, as they wallow about in the great darkness of their ignorance. With respect, however, to Antinous, who is compared with our Jesus, we shall not repeat what we have already said in the preceding pages. 'Moreover,' he continues, 'these persons utter against one another dreadful blasphemies, saying all manner of things shameful to be spoken; nor will they yield in the slightest point for the sake of harmony, hating each other with a perfect hatred.' Now, in answer to this, we have already said that in philosophy and medicine sects are to be found warring against sects. We, however, who are followers of the word of Jesus, and have exercised ourselves in thinking, and saying, and doing what is in harmony with His words, 'when reviled, bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat;' and we would not utter 'all manner of things shameful to be spoken' against those who have adopted different opinions from ours, but, if possible, use every exertion to raise them to a better condition through adherence to the Creator alone, and lead them to perform every act as those who will (one day) be judged. And if those who hold different opinions will not be convinced, we observe the injunction laid down for the treatment of such: 'A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.' Moreover, we who know the maxim, 'Blessed are the peacemakers,' and this also, 'Blessed are the meek,' would not regard with hatred the corrupters of Christianity, nor term those who had fallen into error Circes and flattering deceivers."

¶ alternative translation of V.63: ". . . go astray in evil ways and wander around in greater darkness, more iniquitous and impure than that of the revellers of Antinous in Egypt."

Bk VIII, ch. 9 - "You said a little ago, O Celsus, that Antinous, the favourite of Hadrian, is honoured; but surely you will not say that the right to be worshipped as a god was given to him by the God of the universe?"

Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria (c.295-c.373):

Contra Gentes (c.350) Part I, ch. 9 - ". . . and in our own time Antinous, favourite of Hadrian, Emperor of the Romans, whom, although men know he was a mere man, and not a respectable man, but on the contrary, full of licentiousness, yet they worship for fear of him that enjoined it. For Hadrian having come to sojourn in the land of Egypt, when Antinous the minister of his pleasure died, ordered him to be worshipped; being indeed himself in love with the youth even after his death, but for all that offering a convincing exposure of himself, and a proof against all idolatry, that it was discovered among men for no other reason than by reason of the lust of them that imagined it."

Apologia Contra Arianos Part III, ch. 5, §230 - (trl. Parker, 1713; quoted in Lambert p. 7 ¶) "And such a one is the new God Antinous, that was the Emperor Hadrian's minion and the slave of his unlawful pleasures; a wretch, whom those that worshipped in obedience to the Emperor's command, and for fear of his vengeance, knew and confessed to be a man, and not a good or deserving man neither, but a sordid and loathsome instrument of his master's lust. This shameless and scandalous boy died in Egypt when the court was there; and forthwith his Imperial Majesty issued out an order or edict strictly requiring and commanding his loving subjects to acknowledge his departed page a deity and to pay him his quota of divine reverences and honours as such: a resolution and act which did more effectually publish and testify to the world how entirely the Emperor's unnatural passion survived the foul object of it; and how much his master was devoted to his memory, than it recorded his own crime and condemnation, immortalised his infamy and shame, and bequeathed to mankind a lasting and notorious specimen of the true origin and extraction of all idolatry."

¶ Lambert p. 7 n.10 (quoting Apol. Contra Arianos but attributing it to Contra Gentes I.9)

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea (263-339):

History of the Church (c.310) Bk 4, ch.8 - §2 quoting Hegesippus (Memoirs c.180 - lost): "Among whom is also Antinoüs, a slave (doulos) of the Emperor Hadrian, in whose honor are celebrated also the Antinoian games, which were instituted in our day. For he also founded a city named after Antinoüs, and appointed prophets." §3: "At the same time also Justin, a genuine lover of the true philosophy, was still continuing to busy himself with Greek literature. He indicates this time in the Apology which he addressed to Antonine, where he writes as follows: 'We do not think it out of place to mention here Antinoüs also, who lived in our day, and whom all were driven by fear to worship as a god, although they knew who he was and whence he came'."

Socrates Scholasticus, Church Historian (born c. 380):

Church History (c. 439) Bk 3, ch. 23: "The inhabitants of Cyzicus declared Hadrian to be the thirteenth god; and Adrian himself deified his own catamite Antinoüs."

(St) Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia (Salamis) (c.315-403) attacks Antinous in three separate books.

(St) Jerome (c.347-419/420) attacks Antinous in four separate books, usually referring to him in Latin as in deliciis (= Gk paidika) (darling, favourite; alluring or delightful boy).

Interpr. Chronicon Eusebius (c.380/1) (based on ed. Roger Pearse):

• CCXXIV Olympias Romanorum XII, Hadrianus, regnavit annis XXI - in 224th Olympiad "Hadrian was most erudite in both languages, but also he was not self-controlled enough in his desire for boys" (Hadrianus eruditissimus fuit in utraque lingua, sed in puerorum amore parum continens fuit.);
• CCXXVII Olympias - in 227th Olympiad "Antinous, a boy of surpassingly exceptional beauty, dies in Egypt. After Hadrian attentively carries out his funeral rites (diligenter sepeliens) - for the boy had been a favourite of his -, he declares him to be among the gods; a city was also named after him." (Antinous puer egregius eximiae pulchritudinis, in Aegypto moritur, quem Hadrianus diligenter sepeliens, --nam in deliciis habuerat-- in deos refert, ex cujus nomine etiam urbs appellata est.)

Adversus Jovinianum (393) Bk II, ch. 7 - "And to make us understand what sort of gods Egypt always welcomed, one of their cities was recently called Antinous after the love of Hadrian's heart."

De Viris Illustribus ch. 22 - "Hegesippus who lived at a period not far from the Apostolic age, writing a History of all ecclesiastical events, from the passion of our Lord down to his own period. arguing against idols, he wrote showing from what error they had first arisen, and this work indicates in what age he flourished. He says, 'They built monuments and temples to their dead as we see up to the present day, such as the one to Antinous, servant to the Emperor Hadrian, in whose honour also games were celebrated, and a city founded bearing his name, and a temple with priests established.' It is written moreover that the Emperor Hadrian was enamoured of Antinous." (Tumulos mortuis templaque fecerunt, sicut usque hodie videmus: e quibus est et Antinous servus Hadriani Caesaris, cui et gymnicus agon exercetur apud Antinoum civitatem, quam ex ejus nomine condidit, et statuit prophetas in templo. Antinoum autem in deliciis habuisse Caesar Hadrianus scribitur.)

Comm. Isaiah 2 - equates Antinous with a public concubine (Lambert p. 193).

Prudentius (348-post 405):Contra Symmachum (c.384) I.267-277: Lambert on p. 7 n.8 writes: "Who would not be struck by Prudentius' scathing image of Antinous nestling in Hadrian's 'purple clad bosom' and 'being robbed of his manhood' (illum purporeo in gremio spoliatum sorte virili) or lolling on a couch 'listening to the prayers in the temples with his husband'?" (I.273-7) Lambert comments ( p. 67 n.33): that the above passage is "more a euphemism for seduction than castration" .

Suidas Lexicon (c.1000) (ed. Bernhardy 1853) gives Antinous as example of paidika, defined as "an agreeable boy but usually one of lascivious and foul affections".