I have always had an interest in archaeology and in Classical Greece and Rome. Thus this news story is of interest for several reasons:
A number of theories are under debate in archaeological circles surrounding a "very unusual" discovery in an ancient Roman suburb. But none of these theories--at least as far as the media are concerned--consider that this may have been the first official and largest and most lavish gay bathhouse ever conceived.
Archaeologists have uncovered a private 5-acre villa about which we know three facts. The first is that it was the spectacular home of an ancient Roman equivalent of a billionaire, Quintus Servilius Pudens. Secondly we know that Quintus Servilius Pudens was a close personal friend of the openly queer Emperor Hadrian. Thirdly, this is the largest private bathhouse ever discovered.
While many Roman Emperors have been the subject of endless Hollywood movies, PBS documentaries and various miniseries. I live for the day when someone has the courage and honesty to finally portray the spectacular love affair between the Roman Empire's most famous gay Emperor and the officially acknowledged love of his life, the young Greek boy, Antinous. Not only did Antinous enjoy near Empress status at the side of his Imperial lover, but when Antinous drowned during the sixth year of this relationship, the Emperor embarked on a radical departure from Roman tradition and declared the foreigner and commoner, Antinous to be a God--the official deification of homosexual love and same sex unions.
Cities were founded in the name of Antinous, medals struck with his effigy, and statues erected to him in all parts of the empire. Following the example of Alexander The Great (who sought divine honors for his lover, Hephaistion, when he died), Hadrian had Antinous proclaimed a god. Temples were built for his worship in Bithynia (the birthplace of Antinous) and in Athens itself. Festivals were celebrated in his honor and oracles delivered in his name. The city of Antinopolis or Antinoe was founded on the ruins of Besa, Egypt where he died.
The elevation of Antinous to the pantheon of Roman Gods, the impact of his legendary beauty and the enduring love of Hadrian for this Greek boy had an extraordinary impact on the development of art. His image even carried over into Italian classical Christian art.
In fact, Antinous is one of the best-preserved faces from the ancient world. Many busts, gems and coins represent Antinous as the ideal type of youthful beauty, often with the attributes of some special god. They include a colossal bust in the Vatican (here), a bust in the Louvre (the Antinous Mondragone), a bas-relief from the Villa Albani (here), a statue in the Capitoline museum (the Capitoline Antinous), another in Berlin, another in the Lateran and one in the Fitzwilliam Museum; and many more may be seen in museums across Europe. There are also statues in many archaeological museums in Greece including the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the archaeological museums of Patras, Chalkis and Delphi.
Hadrian and Antinous were at the center of a large circle of artists, musicians, poets, actors, playwrights and writers of which the "billionaire" Quintus Servilius Pudens was a part. And it was during this period that Pudens built what may have been the the world's largest private bathhouse--even larger than the one at Hadrian's own villa.
I wonder when the media will be brave enough to acknowledge and truthfully cover the role of gays in history. Sadly, the recent movie on Alexander the Great ducked most of the gay issues.
4 comments:
How much do I love the fact that a gay man's image is on display in the Vatican as a representation of male beauty.
Even with all the evidence (art, poetry, archaeology, etc.) we still like to gloss over it, huh?
And even more recently, right here in North America, indigenous cultures accepted homosexuality until Europeans destroyed their culture.
Louis Crompton's Homosexuality & Civilization (Harvard) and Gregory Woods' A History of Gay Literature may open your eyes to matters not being all that straight-forwardly "gay." While homosexuality was widely practiced in antiquity, its predominant form was pederasty.
While some societies rejected adult homosexuality, it was not until Saint Paul's Jewish and Jude's homophobia came into Christianity that the practice took on its stigma. While the first of all sins for Saint Paul, Jesus says nothing about it; in fact, he has a "beloved disciple" who his apostles believe Jesus will immortalize without death (v. John 20).
And despite Jewish homophobia, David's love for Jonathan is purported as "brotherly love," rather than romantic love, but the language is clearly of the latter, not the former (2 Sam 1:26).
It's been suggested that the obsessive purity laws of the Levitical Code of Holiness contributed to the mistaken belief of "contamination" and "disgust" of homosexuality in Western culture. Even women on their menses is an obsession.
Marking men with circumcision, while barbaric, has been repeatedly "justified" for hygienic reasons (which are patently false). Only Jews, Arabs, and American Christians practice male genital mutilation. Horribly, to justify this barbaric practice the U.N. and N.E.J.M. advocated it as HIV prophylaxis, when it was just recently discovered to have little to do with circumcision, but with genetics (see, Aidsmap).
Even Asian homophobia was "imported" from Christian missionaries.
Whether one considers the "homophilia" or "pederasty" makes an enormous difference. The former is relatively minor feature over history, accounting about 3-5% of the population, and significantly higher among males and females. The latter was far more widely practiced in antiquity worldwide. Perhaps birth control, male mentoring in patriarchical societies, men's fondness for youth and beauty, and other factors explain pederasty's commonplace in antiquity, but, the adult homophile has always been relatively small proportion of the human population.
It is, however, biologically quite "normal," to quote Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson. It's just not the statistical mean, for very good reasons; the species would become extinct. But Wilson believes homophiles have been "selected for" during evolution, despite being non-reproductive, to be the genetic carriers of altruism. Primatologists note its function in "play" and "social structuring." And 450+ homophiliac species cannot possibly be perverted into "unnatural." We need to listen to biologists and other scientists, not Cults and their divinations.
Thanks for all the comments. I agree that genetically, we gays are part of nature/God's plan. Thus, those who direct hate and lies towards gays in effect direct hate and lies at the God they proclaim to worship.
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