EGYPTOLOGISTS FIND TEMPLE THAT ANTINOUS AND HADRIAN VISITED

Egyptian archaeologists unearthed the ruins of a temple for the ancient Greek god Zeus Kasios in the Sinai Peninsula which Antinous and Hadrian visited.

The Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said in a statement the temple ruins were found in the Tell el-Farma archaeological site in northwestern Sinai. 

Tell el-Farma, also known by its ancient name PELUSIUM, dates back to the late Pharaonic period and was also used during Greco-Roman and Byzantine times. There are also remains dating to the Christian and early Islamic periods.

So they found the Temple of Zeus Kasios in Egypt which Antinous and Hadrian had visited.

There were actually two temples of Zeus Kasios, the original one atop Mount Kasios in Syria near Antioch.  Hadrian and Antinous climbed this mountain and a lightning bolt struck the altar!

The second temple is at Pelusium in Egypt, a port city at the mouth of the Eastern-most branch of tye Nile Delta…this temple was founded by merchants from the city of Ugarit and later settled by Phoenician traders who brought their god from Mount Kasios, the Egyptian version became Egyptianized and bears a striking resemblance to Antinous.  

Three of his images are at the Vatican Museum in the room adjacent to where the Antinous Osiris statues are.  Antinous and Hadrian are also recorded as visiting Pelusium, although only Hadrian is mentioned, we can be sure that Antinous was with him because the Pelusium visit is mentioned immediately before Antinous enters the picture.  There is only one document that records these events. 

Aelius Spartianus wrote all that is known about the events and the mysterious connection between Antinous and Zeus Kasios in the Historia Augusta.

"As he was sacrificing on Mount Casius, which he had ascended by night in order to see the sunrise, a storm arose, and a flash of lightning descended and struck both the victim and the attendant. He then travelled through Arabia and finally came to Pelusium, where he rebuilt Pompey's tomb on a more magnificent scale.  During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others -- what both his beauty and Hadrian's sensuality suggest. But however this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian's request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself."

The text says that Hadrian renovated the tomb of Pompey (who was murdered at Pelusium) while the article attached says there are inscriptions that say Hadrian renovated the Temple of Zeus Kasios, so this is new information!

Antinous walked among these ruins, he saw the granite columns and inscriptions he prayed in this temple to the mysterious international god whose other temple he unforgettably visited the previous year, and whose image strangely resembled himself and would bear a powerful resemblance to his own future divine images.

The image of Zeus Kasios in Syria is described as a youth holding a lightning bolt, and in the Egyptian version he is shown as a beautiful young god wearing the nemes headdress and the hemhem crown which are both worn by Antinous in his divine images.  It was as though Antinous were looking into the future at his divine self.

AVE ANTINOUS!

ANTONIUS SUBIA