This thesis attempts to understand the distribution of Antinous worship in the Roman Empire and why he was worshipped. By examining the written sources and material culture available on Antinous, primary sources both pagan and Christian, and material culture such as the sculptures of Antinous, Antinoopolis and temples dedicated to Antinous, I came to the conclusion that Antinous was worshipped primary in the Eastern part of the Roman Empire. The Eastern part of the Roman Empire consisted of people who were of Greek descent. By examining Roman writings against Greek people and culture, I came to the conclusion that there were reasons that people worshipped Antinous. The first was to connect to the imperial center because a Roman emperor established the cult of Antinous. The second was that Antinous was Greek, and because Greeks were seen as inferior by the Roman west, his worship appealed to such people.

This study, "Diverse Measures, Diversely Trod: Reading Sir John Davies' Orchestra in the Renaissance and Beyond," attempts to show that each edition of Orchestra has a set of meanings that coexist in the same poetic space and that are contingent upon the context in which they were produced and that each new edition of Orchestra generates its own unique set of meanings. Furthermore, the authorial process-a process that includes not only the historical author, but also his or her audience, publishers, and editors, at least in part creates these sets of meaning. Finally, posthumous editions of Orchestra need to be understood as continuations of the authorial process, even as they diverge from the sets of meanings generated by the historical author and his era. The chapter, "Antinous Disguised and All Unknown," addresses the Elizabethan version of Orchestra beginning with an analysis of its enigmatic hero, Antinous. Examining the limitations of the hero/villain dichotomy imposed upon the character by other critics it shows how he eludes both roles. Instead, this chapter argues that Antinous is an emblem of the aggression and self-promotion inherent in all courtly behavior. The chapter "Leame Then To Daunce You Who Are Princes Borne," examines the authorial and textual changes made to Orchestra in 1622 and also explores Davies' tenure in Ireland as inspiration for these changes. Just as Antinous serves as an emblem of court politics in the Elizabethan edition, he becomes an emblem of Irish politics in the Jacobean poem. In this new version, Antinous can be read as either the native Irish Barons and native Irish culture and or as the English servitors and their colonial project. The final chapter "Between Great States Arose Well Order' d War" examines Tillyard as part of a conservative critical trend in the English war and post-war years. Tillyard and his contemporaries sought to mine the past to find "Elizabethan" solutions to the very modern problems facing Britain in the 1940's. Using a mythic past, Tillyard and others sought to comfort the war-ravaged British and to present a blue print for Britain's reconstruction. / text

The statues of Antinous, Hadrian’s favourite, are often believed to be primarily products of Hadrian’s philhellenism. The easiest explanation for Antinous’ unusual historical profile is that Hadrian loved Greek culture, Antinous was Greek, and the statues, mimicking Greek art, are an extravagant commemorative effort. Closer examination reveals that this is too simplistic an explanation. By quantifying extant statues of Antinous based on provenance and iconography, summarizing Hadrian’s ideology, examining Hadrian’s own image, and considering the cult of Antinous, we can see that Antinous played an important role in Hadrian’s ideology. His cult was a social and religious unifier and helped bridge the gaps between communities and foster shared pride and community amongst adherents; the statues, often cultic objects, visually conveyed this purpose through various iconographic connections to other cults. All this complemented Hadrian’s agenda of imperial unity and consolidation. Philhellenism cannot be denied entirely, but the primary purpose of Antinous’ statues was ideological.

This thesis explores the reception history of Antinous, favourite to the roman emperor Hadrian. Using Michel Foucault's genealogical method, the aim of the thesis is to examine and conclude that Antinous is still, albeit at times hidden, the archetype of the young beautifulman in Western visual culture by examining the expressions of the representation and reception of Antinous as a male ideal of beauty and its change over time. The thesis also poses the question whether it is possible, with the employment of Foucault’s concept of genealogy, to approach the development over time of Antinous’s discourse, and to establish that its core is a male ideal of beauty that can at any time be linked, explicitly or implicitly, to Antinous. Furthermore, in order to answer the research questions and thus, be able to trace Antinous's reception, this essay uses material that lies outside a purely art historical discipline. In addition to artistic and visual images of Antinous från antiquity to the late nineteen-eighties, widespread fiction from authors such as Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann and Herman Bang alongwith the feature films The Wings and Death in Venice have been thoroughly investigated in search of an Antinous type, along with the art historical writings of Johan Joachim Winckelmann and Viktor Rydberg. Lastly, the study succeeds in conveying that Antinous's distinctive traits, which arose from an apotheosis nearly two thousand years ago and which began when the historical figure Antinous ended his days in the Nile, have survived both a disappearance from the public consciousness and a coding as a homosexual icon and, for that specific reason, a concealment during different succeeding historical periods. Nevertheless, as this thesis establishes, the image and myth of Antinous has still operated whilst remaining in a hidden existence, and in spite of all the above, these traits have re-emerged as universal male traits in a typology of beauty whose overall significance for the male ideal is conspicuously provable.

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Little did Hadrian know in 130 A.D. that when he deified his beloved departed Antinous, in order to provide a unifying symbol of worship for his diverse empire, that he was instead creating a lasting symbol of the antique world. This thesis examines the power of nostalgia and its successful use by two formidable men from different eras in Rome: The Emperor Hadrian and the extravagantly wealthy Renaissance merchant Agostino Chigi. Though separated by centuries, each man used the nostalgic allure of the beautiful youthful male figure of Antinous to gain power and influence in his own time and to leave a lasting impact on generations to come. Using the statue known as the Farnese Antinous I will show that these very different men were not so different after all: each understood the human tendency to romanticize the past, and each attempted to evoke a feeling of nostalgia for the past from those they sought to “conquer.” Hadrian used portraits of Antinous to unite an empire and cement his place in history; Agostino used one of those very same portraits in commissioned artworks by Raphael to earn his place among the nobility of his day, and to leave a lasting legacy for his descendants.