30/07/2020
On Thursday evening, there is another chance to see “Treasures of Ancient Rome” on BBC Four with art critic Alaister Sooke, on BBC Four Television. The programme is the second in a two part series which sees Sooke look at Roman art and what it leaves to us in the modern world. The second programme includes a look at the Warren Cup, an artefact of the first century which is beautifully rendered in silver and depicting gay sex scenes and whilst considering homoeroticism in the Empire, Sooke analyses the cult of Antinous, proclaimed by the Emporer Hadrian after the death of his favourite male lover, an athletic youth from what is now Romania. Antinous drowned in the River Nile in AD 130. At this stage, the religion and civilization of Egypt was already very old, much older than Roman society. Hadrian learned that the Egyptians believed that those who died in their sacred river would be eternally reincarnated and the grieving Emporer proclaimed a religious cult of Antinous. In 2003, a group of gay and bisexual male neo-pagans revived the cult and in the programme Sooke meets with gay priest Hernestus to discuss what Antinous worship means today as well as to find the best representation of the youth from sculpture.
https://www.planetromeo.com/en/blog/gay-history-hadrian-antinous/
