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Freie Universität Berlin New Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond 26 & 27 June 2014 Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous The twentieth-century saw the proliferation of a wide array of contemporary Pagan movements, reimagining and reviving the cults of ancient deities for modern-day needs. Among these revived movements was the cult of Antinous, the deified male lover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who at the Emperor’s implementation had been venerated in the Roman Empire during the second century CE. While research has gone into exploring Antinous the historical figure and the deification process that followed in the wake of his death, little work has been done in researching the revival of his worship in a twentieth and twenty-first century setting. This paper seeks to go some way to rectifying this omission, examining the development of this particular new religious movement, outlining its history, and situating it within the context of the broader Pagan movement and Pagan explorations of Queer Spirituality. Discussing the motivations of those involved and the establishment of an online community of Antinous worshippers, it will focus in particular on how these contemporary Pagans have pieced together the broken fragments of the historic Antinous cult and thus how these ancient materials have been transformed and transmuted in a modern context. Keywords: Neo-Paganism, New Media, Queer Culture 1

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Page 1: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Ethan Doyle White:The Revived Cult of Antinous

The twentieth-century saw the proliferation of a wide array of contemporary Paganmovements, reimagining and reviving the cults of ancient deities for modern-dayneeds. Among these revived movements was the cult of Antinous, the deified malelover of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who at the Emperor’s implementation had beenvenerated in the Roman Empire during the second century CE. While research hasgone into exploring Antinous the historical figure and the deification process thatfollowed in the wake of his death, little work has been done in researching the revivalof his worship in a twentieth and twenty-first century setting. This paper seeks to gosome way to rectifying this omission, examining the development of this particularnew religious movement, outlining its history, and situating it within the context of thebroader Pagan movement and Pagan explorations of Queer Spirituality. Discussingthe motivations of those involved and the establishment of an online community ofAntinous worshippers, it will focus in particular on how these contemporary Paganshave pieced together the broken fragments of the historic Antinous cult and thus howthese ancient materials have been transformed and transmuted in a modern context.

Keywords:Neo-Paganism, New Media, Queer Culture

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Page 2: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Archaeology:

• Caroline Tully (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoicaas Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism”

• Helga Vogel (FU Berlin): “‘The Goddess is alive!’ – Goddess Feminismand Archaeology: the Case of Çatal Höyük”

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Page 3: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Balkans:

• Nemanja Radulovic (U. Belgrade): “The Role of Gnosticism in Neo-Bogomilism”

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Page 4: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Christianity:

• Anne Kreps (Yale-NUS College, Singapore): “The Essenes in SouthernOregon”

• Nemanja Radulovic (U. Belgrade): “The Role of Gnosticism in Neo-Bogomilism”

• Franz Winter (U. Vienna): “The Use of Ancient Gnostic Texts in ModernEsoteric Movements: the Case of Samael Aun Weor”

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Page 5: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Essenes:

• Anne Kreps (Yale-NUS College, Singapore): “The Essenes in SouthernOregon”

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5

Page 6: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Feminism:

• Lily A. Bonga (Crete): “Mother-Goddess Misconceptions”

• Meret Fehlmann (U. Zürich): “Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times orNew Goddesses from Ancient Times?”

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

• Caroline Tully (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoicaas Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism”

• Helga Vogel (FU Berlin): “‘The Goddess is alive!’ – Goddess Feminismand Archaeology: the Case of Çatal Höyük”

back to top

6

Page 7: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Germany:

• Helga Vogel (FU Berlin): “‘The Goddess is alive!’ – Goddess Feminismand Archaeology: the Case of Çatal Höyük”

back to top

7

Page 8: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Goddess-worship:

• Lily A. Bonga (Crete): “Mother-Goddess Misconceptions”

• Meret Fehlmann (U. Zürich): “Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times orNew Goddesses from Ancient Times?”

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

• Caroline Tully (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoicaas Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism”

• Helga Vogel (FU Berlin): “‘The Goddess is alive!’ – Goddess Feminismand Archaeology: the Case of Çatal Höyük”

back to top

8

Page 9: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Greece:

• Meret Fehlmann (U. Zürich): “Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times orNew Goddesses from Ancient Times?”

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

• Caroline Tully (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoicaas Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism”

back to top

9

Page 10: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Italy:

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

back to top

10

Page 11: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Latin America:

• Franz Winter (U. Vienna): “The Use of Ancient Gnostic Texts in ModernEsoteric Movements: the Case of Samael Aun Weor”

back to top

11

Page 12: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Literature:

• Meret Fehlmann (U. Zürich): “Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times orNew Goddesses from Ancient Times?”

back to top

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Page 13: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Music:

• Linda Simonis (Ruhr-U., Bochum): “Neo-Gnosticism in ContemporaryPopular Music: Current 93 and Nox Aurea”

back to top

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Page 14: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Neo-Gnosticism:

• Matthew Dillon (Rice U., Houston): “Unearthed Rituals, Recollected The-ologies, Mnemohistory and the Role of Scholarship in Contemporary‘Gnosticism(s)’”

• Nemanja Radulovic (U. Belgrade): “The Role of Gnosticism in Neo-Bogomilism”

• Linda Simonis (Ruhr-U., Bochum): “Neo-Gnosticism in ContemporaryPopular Music: Current 93 and Nox Aurea”

• Franz Winter (U. Vienna): “The Use of Ancient Gnostic Texts in ModernEsoteric Movements: the Case of Samael Aun Weor”

back to top

14

Page 15: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Neo-Paganism:

• Ethan Doyle White (U. College London): “The Revived Cult of Antinous”

• Hubert Mohr (U. Basel): “Online Temples – a New Cultic Form of Neo-Ancient Cyberpaganism”

• Nemanja Radulovic (U. Belgrade): “The Role of Gnosticism in Neo-Bogomilism”

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

• Caroline Tully (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoicaas Religious Focus in Contemporary Paganism”

back to top

15

Page 16: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

New Age Religion:

• Anne Kreps (Yale-NUS College, Singapore): “The Essenes in SouthernOregon”

back to top

16

Page 17: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

New Media:

• Matthew Dillon (Rice U., Houston): “Unearthed Rituals, Recollected The-ologies, Mnemohistory and the Role of Scholarship in Contemporary‘Gnosticism(s)’”

• Ethan Doyle White (U. College London): “The Revived Cult of Antinous”

• Hubert Mohr (U. Basel): “Online Temples – a New Cultic Form of Neo-Ancient Cyberpaganism”

back to top

17

Page 18: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

North America:

• Anne Kreps (Yale-NUS College, Singapore): “The Essenes in SouthernOregon”

• Kathryn Rountree (U. Tasmania): “Transforming Goddesses: Neo-PaganProjects of Revival and Reinvention”

back to top

18

Page 19: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Occultism:

• Nicholas Marshall (Århus U.): “Robes and Gowns: the Relationship be-tween Scholarship and the Occult in the 20th Century”

• Pavel Nosachev (NRU./St. Tikhon’s, Moscow): “The Dazzling Darkness ofPaganism: the Theme of Antiquity in the works of Evgeniy Golovin”

• Franz Winter (U. Vienna): “The Use of Ancient Gnostic Texts in ModernEsoteric Movements: the Case of Samael Aun Weor”

back to top

19

Page 20: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Popular Culture:

• Meret Fehlmann (U. Zürich): “Ancient Goddesses for Modern Times orNew Goddesses from Ancient Times?”

• Linda Simonis (Ruhr-U., Bochum): “Neo-Gnosticism in ContemporaryPopular Music: Current 93 and Nox Aurea”

back to top

20

Page 21: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Queer Culture:

• Ethan Doyle White (U. College London): “The Revived Cult of Antinous”

back to top

21

Page 22: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Reception of Scholarship:

• Matthew Dillon (Rice U., Houston): “Unearthed Rituals, Recollected The-ologies, Mnemohistory and the Role of Scholarship in Contemporary‘Gnosticism(s)’”

• Nicholas Marshall (Århus U.): “Robes and Gowns: the Relationship be-tween Scholarship and the Occult in the 20th Century”

back to top

22

Page 23: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Russia:

• Pavel Nosachev (NRU./St. Tikhon’s, Moscow): “The Dazzling Darkness ofPaganism: the Theme of Antiquity in the works of Evgeniy Golovin”

back to top

23

Page 24: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Traditionalism:

• Pavel Nosachev (NRU./St. Tikhon’s, Moscow): “The Dazzling Darkness ofPaganism: the Theme of Antiquity in the works of Evgeniy Golovin”

back to top

24

Page 25: Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous · Ethan Doyle White: The Revived Cult of Antinous ... (U. Melbourne): “The artifice of Daedalus: Modern Minoica as Religious Focus

Freie Universität BerlinNew Antiquities: Transformations of the Past in the New Age and Beyond

26 & 27 June 2014

Index:

Turkey:

• Helga Vogel (FU Berlin): “‘The Goddess is alive!’ – Goddess Feminismand Archaeology: the Case of Çatal Höyük”

back to top

25