Antin'ous

Antin'ous, a youth of extraordinary beauty, a native of Claudiopolis, in Bithynia, the favourite of the Emperor Hadrian, and his companion in all his journeys. He was drowned in the river Nile, near Besa, in 122 A.D., perhaps through suicide, either from weariness of the life he led, or from a superstitious belief that his voluntary death would avert disaster from the emperor. The emperor's grief knew no bounds—he enrolled him among the gods; built in his honour Antino'polis on the ruins of Besa, as well as numerous temples in Bithynia, Arcadia, and elsewhere. Antinous became, on Hadrian's account, a favourite subject for art, and many statues, busts, gems, and medals exist, representing him as the ideal of youthful manly beauty, often also with the added attributes of deity. Some of these rank among the masterpieces of Roman art, especially the colossal statue in the Vatican representing the youth as Dionysus, with ivy crown and hanging locks; the statue in the Capitoline Museum; and the marble bust in relief in the Villa Albani. Antinous's relations with Hadrian form the subject of the well-known romances, Antinous, by George Taylor, and Der Kaiser, by Ebers. See Dietrichson's Antinous (Christiania, 1886).