Hadrian's Villa (Finis)

Figure 1 - The Canopus at Hadrian's Villa

     As a god, Antinous had aspects of both Osiris and Thoth as well as Dionysis. The cult of the young man was established at Antinuopolis, Hermopolis, Alexandria, Bithynion and Mantinea. Over thirty cities in Greece and Asia Minor issued coins to Antinous and numerous statues of him have survived to modern times (including the statue in Munich illustrated in a previous post, as well as a similar statue of while marble that is now in the Vatican).

Figure 2 - Roman Representations of Isis and Serapis

     One portion of Hadrian’s Villa was called the Canopus (see figure 1), and was a replica of the sanctuary of the god Serapis (figure 2) in Alexandria. Hadrian had the Canopus built as a memorial to Antinous.

     The young man’s final resting place may have been found by archeologists at Hadrian’s Villa in 2002, and in 2005 new finds at the Palestra (gym) of the villa may indicate that this portion of the complex was actually a shrine to Isis or some other Egyptian god(dess).