Underlined passage, A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells.

(On Tolstoy.)

Yes, thank you.

Emperor Hadrian’s young lover: Antinous. 

Who exactly was this guy, how did he mysteriously die, and why do we find hundreds of portraits of him throughout the Roman Empire?

We don’t actually know a lot about Antinous as a person himself. We do know that he was a Greek from western Asia Minor, but it remains unclear as to whether he was even a slave, or free. Roman emperor Hadrian probably meet Antinous when he toured the region in 123 AD -if this is the case, then their relationship probably lasted for several years. 

With a lack of historical information to record, I now move to the death of Antinous. His death essentially remains a mystery to us, and has become shrouded in imaginative myth, but we do have a few historical leads. During the year 130, Hadrian and his entourage spent a considerable about of time in Egypt, and at one point, traveled up the Nile to Hermpolis. The Egyptians celebrated the traditional festival of the Nile on the 22nd of October, and then, a few days later, they commemorated the death (by drowning in the river), and subsequent rebirth of the Egyptian god Osiris. This is possibly the day that Antinous died.

It is mostly agreed upon that Antinous drowned. However, the nature of this drowning remains ambiguous. Roman historian Cassius Dio (155-235 AD) reports the following on the matter:

“[Antinous] had been a favourite of the emperor and had died in Egypt, either by falling into the Nile, as Hadrian writes, or, as the truth is, by being offered in sacrifice. For Hadrian, as I have stated, was always very curious and employed divinations and incantations of all kinds.” (Book LXIX, translation via uchicago)

Dio here curiously suggests that Hadrian, under some strange superstitious belief, either forced, or persuaded, Antinous to cut his life short, in order to prolong his own. We will probably never know exactly what happened to Antinous, except for the fact that it left Hadrian in all-consuming grief. 

After his death, Hadrian deified Antinous, elevating him to a god, constructed multiple temples and shrines to him, and founded the centre of the new cult, the city of Antinouspolis, next to the Nile, near where he had died. Throughout the Empire at this time, we see huge numbers of portraits of Antinous, and at least 10 marble images of him have been found at Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli. Often in these images, Antinous will be given attributes of one of the Olympian deities, in the example at the top of this post, for example, he is shown in a syncretic Dionysus-Osiris pose. This colossal statue is titled the Braschi Antinous, and is thought to be from the villa of Hadrian at Praeneste. This sculpture dates to the years immediately after the death of Antinous. On his head we can see a crown of ivy berries and leaves. Although the diadem on top of his head has been restored to (what appears to be) a pine cone of sorts, it would originally have displayed either a lotus flower or a cobra (uraeus). 

Shown sculpture courtesy of & can be viewed at the Vatican Museums: Museo Pio-Clementino, inv. 256. Photos taken by Jastrow via the Wiki Commons. When writing up this post, James Morwood’s publication Hadrian (Bloomsbury 2013) was of use.

it’s friday! hug stuff

Some days you feel like you can’t write another word. You feel as flat and useless as road kill. Your writing is as dull as toothache and just as painful to endure. No amount of coffee and staring out the window is helping to summon the muse. You consider becoming a religious recluse or marrying for money. This is not a good state of mind, especially if you have a looming deadline.

Now I’m not going to go all self-help/Dr Phil in this blog, because you’d probably want to bludgeon me to death. I’m just going to say what has worked for me in the past. Sometimes, it is a cure to those mean writing blues. Sometimes, the muse will show up, even if she is wearing her tracksuit and hasn’t combed her hair.

Writing is not adding up numbers or hanging curtains or programming your PVR. There is a certain mystery to the creative process. We can sometimes find a way to short hand the process or trick ourselves into writing—but we must also not be too hard on ourselves if it doesn’t work. Just trust that it will come back to you.

 by Anthony Ehlers for Writers Write

The Rumblr’s in-house astrologer, Madame Clairevoyant, presents her latest dispatch from the stars:

Aries: This week, your days will be clear and bright and your heart will feel so new and alive in your chest. Take walks all through your town, or drive out to the country, or take a bus somewhere far away, somewhere the trees are different, somewhere the landscape can surprise you. It’s a week for movement in your body and movement in your head. It’s a week for dreams that you wake up from feeling rested, feeling new. Take care of your plants, take care of your friends. Think about what you need to nurture your own life.

Taurus: This is a week for moving through your world like you know where you’re going, like you know where you’ve been, like you know yourself so truly and so well. It’s a week for being as honest as you can about the bright glowing things that you want, honest about the love that you need, honest about what you can give the world. Call someone you haven’t talked to for so long, call someone you miss, call someone you can trust with your honesty. Talk to strangers on the bus. Eat the ripest fruit you can find.

Gemini: Think about water, this week. Think about rain, think about lakes, think about floating on your back, lazy and slow and looking up at the sky. It’s a week for feeling your own softness, a week feeling your own best quietness, a week for dreaminess so sweet you could live inside it forever. Get as much sunlight as you can. Get as much kindness as you can and hold on to it in your pockets, in your skin. Sleep until you’re rested and ready to move. Dream about new worlds. Dream about summertime.

Cancer: This is a week for letting yourself feel fragile, for letting yourself feel scared, for letting the world feel very big all around you. Spend your days in places that’ll respect your fragility; spend your days with people who will respect your wobbly heart. Let this week make you gentle, when you can be. Listen to the songs that make you feel most alive; listen to the songs that make your tenderness feel like a gift. Wear clothes that feel soft on your skin, clothes that make you feel safe, clothes that make you feel like yourself.

Leo: This is a week for loving your own self, it’s a week for spending whole afternoons just looking at the shadows on your own face, the way you move, the way you smile. It’s a week for finding for all the different selves you could be, if you wanted to, if you tried. Think of all the different ways you could live in the world. Think of all the things you could do. Think of all the ways your world could open up, all the possibilities you haven’t yet even seen. Listen to songs that make you feel free.

Virgo: Even when it’s hazy outside, even when your dreams seem loopy and strange, you’re going to be able to see so clearly this week. You’re going to be able to move through the world with your eyes open, able to see your world as it really is, able to see with a clarity and a sharpness that can surprise even you. It can thrill you, it can move you, it can change it can make you question everything you know. Read wild stories about magic. Read quiet stories about learning how to live.

Libra: This is a week for small bright moments of recklessness, for being careless in the best ways you can, for throwing your hands up and seeing where the world can carry you. This is a week for trusting that the world knows things that you do not. This is a week for believing in joys that you won’t even be able to imagine until they happen, gifts too wild to dream of until they appear. Drive all over town without a plan and without a map. Listen to songs about leaving and songs about staying.

Scorpio: This week is for sorting through the moments of your life, through all of your history, through all the clothes and dishes and papers in your house. This week is for clearing out your garden, for cleaning your room, for trimming away everything that makes it hard for your dreams to grow, everything that could keep you from living. Nurture the green at your core, this week; nurture whatever is most alive inside of you. Work on getting the things you need this week, food or kindness or sunlight or sleep.

Sagittarius: This is a week for doing things that make you a little scared, for doing things that will make you a little embarrassed, for doing things that will make your life full and strange and good. This is a week for holding on to the desires that make you wake up in the morning, holding on to the desires that make you shake. It’s a week for traveling, for flying, for standing so close to the sun that it makes you lightheaded. Read books about journeys, books about quests, books where everything works out in the end.

Capricorn: This week is going to feel full of good luck, full of weird coincidences, full of shining love echoing all through your heart, through your guts, through your dreams. The streets and the stars will bright and alive all around you, this week, and the world can feel full of patterns too big to understand, and it will feel good, it will feel like magic. Carry whatever you can in your pockets for good luck. Let your favorite songs get stuck in your head, and carry them with you through your days.

Aquarius: This is going to be a week for doing the work, for doing the hard stuff, for moving until you sweat, until your legs are sore and your sleep is sweet. This week is going to show you surprises, it’s going to show you miracles, but only if you do the work, only if you get out of bed, only if you believe in your own ability to work magic. Eat breakfast, do your laundry, return your old library books. Listen to loud songs, listen to wild songs, listen to songs that make you dance.

Pisces: Days will move fast and strange around you this week, and it might feel too wild, it might feel like it’s too much. Think of every moment as a sign, as a gift, as a story. Think about the smells, colors, all the different ways the world can talk to you. You’ll find moments you can hold on to and moments you can leave behind and none of them will be wasted, all of them will matter, all of them can help you live. Spend your days outside. Spend your nights watching the moon.

Today’s image was made specially for Madame Clairevoyant by Jen May.

COMIQUES: Arrows by Anne Emond

Faience inlay in the form of an owl, from Egypt, 525-305 BC (via).