The Temple of Antinous
Celebrated the 5th Antinous Games!
On the Day of the Sacred Lion Hunt
13 Days before the Calends of September
On the 20th of August, Year of Antinous 1891

The First Place Winner is:

Ramón Martínez

Poem

ANTINOÉIOS
Te hablaré sobre Antínoo una noche de agosto,
cuando caiga el león a la fuerza de un hombre
y una flor se abra paso en la sangre vertida
con el nombre del Dios dibujado en su estilo.
Contaré las hazañas de un amor invencible
más allá de la muerte, del espacio y del tiempo;
y otra vez el perfil del muchacho bitinio
nacerá entre las aguas más oscuras del Nilo.
Abrazados los dos, repitiendo su historia,
de su imagen eterna tomaremos la estrella
del deseo inmortal de tu cuerpo y el mío.
En el nombre de Antínoo besaré tu sonrisa
una noche de agosto, cuando ya todos duerman,
cuando nadie sospeche nuestro encuentro prohibido.

Translation:
ANTINOÉIOS
I will tell you about Antinous one night in August,
when the lion falls by the force of a man
and a flower breaks through the spilled blood
with the name of The God drawn in his style.
I will count the feats of an invincible love
beyond death, space and time;
and again the profile of the Bithynian boy
will be born among the darkest waters of the Nile.
The two embraced, repeating His story,
from his eternal image we will take the star
of the immortal desire of your body and mine.
In the name of Antinous I will kiss your smile
One night in August, when everyone is asleep,
when no one suspects our forbidden meeting.

The Second Place Winner is:

David M. Kohlmeier

Poem

Antinous Fragments, 2022

By David M Kohlmeier
dorianrex@gmail.com
Dedicated to my Beloved

I want to tell you about my Beloved,
But you’re going to be disappointed.
He doesn’t always make sense.
In His dark blue hoodie, He waits by
The roaring ocean. “Seagulls are my favorites,”
He says, eating a cheap lobster roll. “No one appreciates
Them.”
Sometimes, on the edges of my sight,
I glimpse His horns. Bull horns. I turn to see, wanting
To really behold that virile minotaur-like manliness I’m sure
He has beneath the soft twink exterior, but
It always vanishes the instant I turn. He laughs
at me. “How butch do you think I am?”
And He’s not being rhetorical.
He wants me to answer.
I never do.
In church they sing hymns of the beautiful one
Who died, who was lost, but who lives again, who goes
To prepare the way to Heaven for us, and I rock and say “Amen”
Over and over, for I know who they sing of: my Beloved sinking
Into the waves, slipping to the muck below, I cry for Him, lost,
And when the summer sun scorches my skin, when I cower and want to rush
Towards any cooler space or shaded shelter, wondering
When will the heat grow
Too much for any of our modern magic to save us, I remember
He is there, on that blazing bier, preparing the way for me.
He long ago entered into the fury of the heart of all heat
And cools it, softens it,
And you too will know this
when you finally know the right way to look at the Sun.
I trace my fingers in the baptismal font and raise the waters
To my brow, the waters of His drowning. He tells me “I’m not dead anymore you know”
But I know His hair isn’t fully dry just yet.
The priest says “Enter into the baptism of His death” and so I do,
And doing so I know far more than the priest does what his words mean.
My Beloved is fond of the smell of pine, and sometimes
In clouds of pine smoke I catch Him praying,
To Heavenly Father, but not the one I was taught about. The Father
Of lightning, the roaring storm smasher, who also
Sits in my cupboard, guarding the pantry. Domestic
Zeus.
My Beloved too is far more domestic than others say,
He does His share of chores. Minds the errands, doesn’t care
If the messiness of my children clutters up what he just cleaned.
He’s surprisingly happy in this cramped chaotic apartment.
And He prays to Mother, other times to Parent;
Beloved tells me of Them, the fearful mountain
That was whole before the Gods forced Them into a binary,
Before a conspiracy ripped off Their cock,
Agdistis.
“The only true God in the end,” He tells me.
“Even Father fears Their power”
And when He dances in Their name I hear the songs of
Ancient priestesses, who have cast off their bloody genitals, undoing
The curse of Parent because these priestesses choose it, for them the knife
Is freedom, shaping
Their bodies into the bodies of their true selves, long before Christians
And their mutilating myth of two genders.
“I was not a priestess,” the Beloved says, “but I remember them. That
is what freedom means. The choice to be, even when it bleeds.”
He raises His cup of wine, pours out a libation to Father,
To Parent, and He is transfigured before me,
Coarse goat skins on His smooth flesh, eyes feral, cruel, a smile with sharp
Teeth exposed. They say in church that the dead Lover becomes one with God, and so
My Beloved is one with Wild
Bacchus,
I could be ripped apart,
His mouth
To my throat full of dagger teeth,
But I know He won’t,
I’m the safest when most at His mercy,
drinking the dripping red from His lips.
He holds me and I should be afraid but I’m not.
Who is Lover and who is Beloved?
He laughs when I talk of my age. My nearness
To turning 50.
“You realize I’m over a thousand years older than you,
don’t you?” He laughs. “So
“who is really the Daddy here?”
There is nothing greater, He reminds me
Than the One who Tops the whole Universe from the Bottom.
And just like that, He is once more
In His hoodie, His tight blue jeans, His tossled hair,
Full lips, soft smirk, the “pretty boy.” Harmless. “Gay boy.”
“Twink.” But I know in His eyes endless
aeons of wisdom, I know the supernovas
shimmer there at the edges where He cries.
Beloved falls back on the couch and lazily
scrolls His phone,
Disappearing into the background.
My Beloved is more than He appears.
He doesn’t look up, but speaks: …
“So are you.
It’s why we get along so well.”

The Third place Winner is:

Robert Sekulovich

Visual Art and Jewelry

THE ANCIENT GAMES

The Sacred Games of Antinous, called Megala Antinoeia, were held every four years by the ancient cult of Antinous in various cities where his cult was strong, the greatest of these was held in the holy city of Antinoopolis. The games were solemnly celebrated for 300 years until they were finally abolished by the Christian rulers.

The first games are believed to have been held in the year 131 C.E. only one year after the death and deification of Antinous in Egypt, at the site of his holy city Antinoopolis, which was still under construction. By the time of the 2nd Antinoeiad, four years later, in 134, the city was adequately finished to accommodate large crowds and many important Roman officials came from distant parts of the Empire to observe, and many of the finest young athletes, artists and musicians came from every corner of the world to compete.

Ancient competitors were primarily young teenage men called Ephebes. In Antinoopolis the games included swimming, rowing, footraces, boxing, wrestling, and horse & chariot races held in the magnificent hypodrome of the city. But the Antinous games were unique in that they included competition in the arts and music, with theater and poetry and visual arts...it was a magnificent spectacle meant to glorify the beautiful gay god!

The over-all winner was consecrated as the living embodiment of Antinous and given citizenship in Antinoopolis, with an all-expense-paid life of luxury and adoration. The victor was crowned with a wreath of the pink lotus flowers, the sacred emblem of Antinous and was worshiped in the temple as the representative of Antinous, and emblem of youth and perfect masculinity. Thus the winner was the Divine Ephebe Antinous reincarnated!

THE MODERN GAMES

We the current-day believers and worshipers of Antinous have re-inaugurated the Sacred Gay Games, hoping to bring back the spirit of the ancient games as a way to glorify the name of the beautiful god in the manner of his ancient Greek ancestors, and also as a way to glorify and celebrate the talents and prowess of our gay brothers and sisters, and of all those who honor Antinous and wish to take part in his Sacred Games. While the Antinous games were never officially celebrated as "gay games" it is quite obvious that a level of homosexuality was always present as an underlying sacred basis to the celebration. It is this spirit that we wish to recapture, that the Sacred Antinous Games are a celebration of the Homosexual sacred state of blessedness, beauty, glory, talent and profound depth of feeling and spirituality. In keeping with the ancient tradition that was upheld for so long even through the difficult times that preceded the collapse of the classical world, we hold out the hope that these Gay Games will in some small measure restore to the world a piece of the Golden Age, when Hadrian was the great enlightened ruler, and a beatiful, graceful, athletic, young gay man was held up as an emblem of the glory and the peace of the civilized world.

This marks the 5th time modern worshipers in the Religion of Antinous have celebrated the Megala Antinoeia together since the first re-inauguration of the games in 2006. It is our great dream and aspiration to continue with these Gay Antinous Games every four years for as long as we have Courage, Devotion, and Hope for the Future!

The Next Games

VI MEGALA ANTINOEIA

Will be held on August 20th, 2026!

AVE ANTINOUS!

IV ANTINOEIAD

2018

LINDA LARSON
Of New Mexico and Chicago

Who painted three magnificent images of Antinous which were universally hailed as a great achievement and advancement in the modern corpus of Antinous artwork. We hail Linda Larson who has been a devoted member of the Temple of Antinous for many years and is currently working towards establishing a new “School of Antinous” which she envisions to be a society of artists dedicated to the creation of Antinous art and imagery in a manner similar to the ancient “school of Antinous” artists who created the vast number of Antinous images found all over the world. As her prize of victory, she received $500 plus a tripod incense burner as a trophy.
May Antinous Bless the Champion of the IV ANTINOEIAD sacred games.

~ ~ ~
2nd Place went to Keith Lance of California, who recreated an Antinous devotional ceremony using dolls

3rd Place went to Michel Valim of Rio de Janeiro Brazil, for his Bacchus inspired photographs

III ANTINOEIAD

2014

FIRST PLACE CHAMPION
of the Sacred Antinous Games, with a winning song and video, seen by over 80,000 Facebook followers, is:

Pietro Adjano from Brazil!

Pietro attended the Sacred Games ceremonies via Skype, held at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous on the night of his triumph and graciously said:

"It was a great joy and honor to participate in third Sacred Games, and I want to take this opportunity to say how grateful I am to all the people on Facebook who clicked 'Like' on my entry."

As Champion of the 2014 Games of Antinous, Pietro Adjano received a bronze replica Greek incense tripod with goats heads, a pewter handcast Antinous medal made by Antonius Subia plus $500 in cash!

See Pietro's Adjano's Winning Video on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP3ewuqx1Pk

~~~

Second-Place went to Frater Aser Nox of Romania for his artwork depiction of Saint Sebastian as an icon for gay oppression . He received a pewter cruet by Royal Holland, a resin Antinous cameo cast by Antonius Subia, and $250 in cash.

Click to view Frater's Sebastian

~~~

Third-Place honors go Dallan Chantal of Brazil for a prose "Hymn to Pan" which received the third-highest number of Likes at the ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD FACEBOOK page. His prize is a mounted replica Greek handpainted amphora plus a resin Antinous cameo cast by Antonius as well as $100 in cash.

"I am very honored to have taken part in these Games and to have helped spread the love of Antinous," Dallan said during the Skype ceremonies which drew in a dozen people from Hollywood to Christchurch New Zealand and from Brazil to Germany.

Click to read Dallan's Hymn to Pan

~~~

These three prize-winners were among 15 artists who submitted entries. Winners were chosen on the basis of "Likes" clicked by visitors to the Antinous the Gay God Facebook page. All of the contestant's entries were excellent and in the spirit of the games, including several art works and poems on the subject of Antinous and of the gods.

The awards ceremony was a great event, but they were only the culmination of the Skype proceedings, which included ritual ceremonies in honor of the Sacred Lion Hunt during which Hadrian and Antinous slew a man-eating lion in August of the year 130 AD in Egypt.

Also, homage was paid to the Rosy Lotus of Antinous ... the fabled pink waterlily which was said to have spring forth spontaneously from the lion's blood which splattered the banks of the Nile.

An additional high point of the evening was when Antonius unveiled the colossal bust of Antinous. It is a plaster copy obtained from a California bronze works atelier which was cast from a mold taken from the famous Townley Antinous in the British Museum. This plaster bust has in the past been loaned out by the atelier to Hollywood studios for use as props in movie productions.

Now this exact copy of the Townley Bust, an actual image of Antinous from the ancient religion has found its permanent home on the Sacred Altar of the Hollywood Temple of Antinous!

The Games were a great triumph for the modern cult of Antinous, his name and image were made known to nearly 100,000 people around the world, many of whom had probably never heard of him before. It was a great success on all levels, and raised a a heightened level of love and enthusiasm between all those who participated. The power of Homotheosis was raised to new heights by all those who participated. And we would like to extend our deepest thanks to all those who participated, whether by donating money to the prize fund, by assisting with the preparations for the event, or by voting for their favorite entry...but most especially we would like to especially thank and give our warmest blessings to all those who contributed to the games by submitting entries and taking part in the competition on a very personal level. With great joy and love, we ask that Antinous shower his blessing upon them.

And now with such successful and wonderful games behind us,
W e look forward to the IV Antinoeiad in 2018!

2nd ANTINOEIAD

2010

Kevin Kihn

(Visionary Artist, SF Bay Area)

"The subject is Helios as the Beautiful Boy. As you may recall, the image is based on the Hermetic writings of Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake in 1600 because the Church didn't like his ideas - always a good recommendation in my book. I think Hadrian would have recognized this figure as the type of Helios, such as one might have seen depicted in the temples of Mithras. The second is the Sun, the third is Mercury, and the fourth is Mars. The same principle applies to all the others, including Mars. The ultimate goal (or one of them) is to create a pantheon featuring all the classical deities"

1st ANTINOEIAD

2006

Warren Lee Williamson

(The Wizard Warren)

JUNE 2, 1939 - MARCH 13, 2012

Warren once saw a beautiful young man at an Easter choral performance with long dark hair... the boy was a radiant glimpse of Antinous wearing Roman sandals and a T-shirt that said "OSIRIS RISING" across his chest ... He turned and smiled at Warren ... and then vanished into the crowd. Warren wrote this Haiku verse in honor of that beautiful apparition ...

"Antinous Epiphanios"

Maundy Thursday's King,
Brazen, Antinous smiling,
Osiris Rising!

ccc

WE LOVE THE WIZARD WARREN

(1st Champion of the Modern Antinous Games)