Editing Antinous (section)

== Cultural references ==
[[File:Antinous Black Olga Tobreluts.jpg|thumb|Antinous II, 2005, [[Olga Tobreluts]]]]
Antinous remained a figure of cultural significance for centuries to come; as Vout noted, he was "arguably the most notorious pretty boy from the annals of classical history."{{sfn|Vout|2007|p=52}} Sculptures of Antinous began to be reproduced from the 16th century; it remains likely that some of these modern examples have subsequently been sold as Classical artefacts and are still viewed as such.{{sfn|Vout|2005|pp=83&ndash;84}}

Antinous has attracted attention from the homosexual subculture since the 18th century, the most illustrious examples for this being [[Prince Eugene of Savoy]] and [[Frederick the Great]] of Prussia.{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=198}} Vout noted that Antinous came to be identified as "a gay icon."{{sfn|Vout|2007|p=53}} Novelist and independent scholar [[Sarah Waters]] identified Antinous as being "at the forefront of the homosexual imagination" in late 19th-century Europe.{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=194}} In this, Antinous replaced the figure of [[Ganymede (mythology)|Ganymede]], who had been the primary homoerotic representation in the visual arts during the [[Renaissance]].{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=195}} Gay author [[Karl Heinrich Ulrichs]] celebrated Antinous in an 1865 pamphlet that he wrote under the pseudonym of "Numa Numantius."{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=195}} In 1893, homophile newspaper ''The Artist'', began offering cast statues of Antinous for £3 10s.{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=195}} At the time, Antinous's fame was increased by the work of fiction and writers and scholars, many of whom were not homosexuals.{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=196}}

The author [[Oscar Wilde]] referenced Antinous in both "[[The Young King]]" (1891) and "[[The Sphinx (poem)|The Sphinx]]" (1894).{{sfn|Waters|1995|p=195}} In "The Young King", a reference is made to the king kissing a statue of 'the Bithynian slave of Hadrian' in a passage describing the young king's aesthetic sensibilities and his "...strange passion for beauty...". Images of other classical paragons of male beauty, [[Adonis]] and [[Endymion (mythology)|Endymion]], are also mentioned in the same context. Additionally, in Wilde's ''[[The Picture of Dorian Gray]]'', the artist Basil Hallward describes the appearance of Dorian Gray as an event as important to his art as "the face of Antinous was to late Greek sculpture." Furthermore, in a novel attributed to Oscar Wilde, ''[[Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal]]'', Des Grieux makes a passing reference to Antinous as he describes how he felt during a musical performance: "I now began to understand things hitherto so strange, the love the mighty monarch felt for his fair Grecian slave, Antinous, who – like unto Christ – died for his master's sake."<ref>''Teleny, or the Reverse of the Medals'', vol. 1 [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Teleny,_or_The_Reverse_of_the_Medal,_t._I.djvu/22 p.14]</ref>

In ''[[Les Misérables]]'', the character [[Enjolras]] is likened to Antinous. "A charming young man who was capable of being a terror. He was angelically good-looking, an untamed Antinous." Hugo also remarks that Enjolras was "seeming not to be aware of the existence on earth of a creature called woman."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Les Misérables|last=Hugo|first=Victor|author-link=Victor Hugo|publisher=Penguin Classics|year=1976|isbn=978-0-14-044430-8|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lesmiserables00hugo_1/page/556 556–557]|url=https://archive.org/details/lesmiserables00hugo_1/page/556}}</ref>

In "Klage um Antinous", ''Der neuen Gedichte anderer Teil'' (1908) by [[Rainer Maria Rilke]],<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33864/33864-h/33864-h.htm |title=Der Neuen Gedichte|author=Rainer Maria Rilke|author-link=Rainer Maria Rilke|publisher=Gutenberg.org|access-date=29 June 2014}}</ref> Hadrian scolds the gods for Antinous's deification. "Lament for Antinoüs", translation by Stephen Cohn.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wRCJwgmfhzYC&q=lament+for+antinous+rilke&pg=PA149 |title=Neue Gedichte – Rainer Maria Rilke|isbn=9780810116498|access-date=29 June 2014|last1=Rilke|first1=Rainer Maria|year=1998|publisher=Northwestern University Press }}</ref>

In 1915 [[Fernando Pessoa]] wrote a long poem entitled ''Antinous'', but he only published it in 1918, close to the end of World War I, in a slim volume of English verse.<ref>{{citation | url = https://purl.pt/13961 | title = Antinous | publisher = at the Portuguese National Library}}.</ref>

In [[Marguerite Yourcenar]]'s ''[[Memoirs of Hadrian|Mémoires d'Hadrien]]'' (1951), the romantic relationship between Antinous and Hadrian is one of the main themes of the book.<ref>Yourcenar, Marguerite. ''Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian in Memoirs of Hadrian''. English Edition. 2005. p. 326, 329.</ref>

In [[Aldous Huxley]]'s utopian novel "[[Island (Huxley novel)|Island]]" (1963), the youthful character Murugan is likened to Antinous because of his relationship with dictatorial leader, Colonel Dipa. While on a trip to Rendang to pick up his mother, Murugan also secretly saw Dipa but did not want the island people of Pala to know because "they think he's awful." After Murugan called Dipa a "remarkable man," Huxley wrote that "Murugan's sulky face lit up with enthusiasm and there, suddenly, was Antinous in all the fascinating beauty of ambiguous adolescence," and later, "Will felt quite sure, he hadn't been mistaken when he thought of [[Hadrian]] and Antinous" while speaking to Murugan.

The story of Antinous' death was dramatized in the radio play "The Glass Ball Game", Episode Two of the second series of the BBC radio drama ''[[Caesar!]]'', written by [[Mike Walker (radio dramatist)|Mike Walker]], directed by [[Jeremy Mortimer]] and starring [[Jonathan Coy]] as "[[Suetonius]]", [[Jonathan Hyde]] as "[[Hadrian]]" and [[Andrew Garfield]] as "Antinous."<ref>{{cite book |title=Caesar! |url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/440675/caesar-by-mike-walker/9781787537811 |website=Penguin Random House |date=20 February 2020 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited}}</ref> In this story, Suetonius is a witness to the events before and after Antinous's death by suicide, but learns that he himself was used as an instrument to trick Antinous into killing himself willingly to fulfil a pact made by Hadrian with Egyptian priests to give Hadrian more time to live so that [[Marcus Aurelius]] may grow up to become the next Emperor.

On 13 October 2018, in Toronto, the [[Canadian Opera Company]] premiered ''[[Hadrian (opera)|Hadrian]]'', the second opera by [[Rufus Wainwright]], which tells the tale of the Emperor's grief and his all-consuming need to discover the details surrounding Antinous's death.<ref name="MacIvor2018">{{cite web | last=MacIvor | first=Daniel | title=HADRIAN Synopsis and Librettist's Notes | website=Canadian Opera Company | date=20 September 2018 | url=https://www.coc.ca/COC-news1?EntryID=18375}}</ref>

In June 2023, Hadrian and Antinous were the subject of the podcast ''[[The Rest is History (podcast)|The Rest is History]]'' by [[Tom Holland (author)|Tom Holland]] and [[Dominic Sandbrook]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/340-hadrian-and-antinous/id1537788786?i=1000616554348 |title=Apple Podcasts Preview 340. Hadrian and Antinous: The Rest Is History |year=2023 |publisher=apple.com |access-date=13 June 2023}}</ref>