Antinous was purely and profoundly Homosexual, even if the concept of Homosexuality in ancient Rome was quite different from our modern definition, Antinous never-the-less was understood to be of essentially the same nature as a modern homosexual. He was deified and worshiped as a god because he had been the beautiful lover of Hadrian, Emperor of Rome. Many other attributes of divinity were attributed to Antinous, but the foundation of his divine nature was based on his homosexual beauty. In his short life, Antinous affected the course of human history in that he became the first historical person to be declared a god because of his beauty and homosexuality, the first and last for whom a Roman Religion was declared and implemented, which lasted for several hundred years. The effect of his religion prompted our Christian enemies to react against homosexuality in ways that continue to affect us to this day. The beauty of Antinous is timeless. He is as perfect to our modern eyes as he was 1900 years ago. He has captivated lovers of male. Antinous was the first and the longest lasting Male supermodel. There are very few gods in history that have been worshiped as gods of homosexuality, the most important being the beautiful boy Ganymede, whom Jupiter loved. But Ganymede was never widely worshiped, no powers were attributed to him, he was identified rather as the archetype of men who loved men. In Latin the Romans pronounced his name Catamitus, and over time all effeminate men who engaged in the receptive role of gay sex were called Catamites. Antinous was compared to Ganymede because of his relationship with Hadrian and was later denounced as a Catamite by later writers, and the Star of Antinous was located within the Constellation of the Eagle, thereby demonstrating that the divinity of Antinous was as though Ganymede had come into being in the form of Antinous. The humanity of Antinous brought him closer to our human soul, he was widely worshiped and understood to be the deified beautiful boy of the Divine Emperor Hadrian. Antinous was endowed with sublime power over homosexuals, He is neither myth nor legend?He is one of us, and he was understood to be so in antiquity and was worshiped as essentially the God of Homosexuals. Antinous is a true god, immortal, ineffable, mysterious and able to affect the lives of living beings. Antinous is free to bless whom-so-ever He chooses, independent of the ethereal beings. For this reason, and because He was born of a woman, lived, and died in a time and in a place of historical reality, Antinous exceeds many other gods who are revered as the benefactors of homosexuality, because Antinous is neither a myth nor a fantasy, but a beautiful boy who really lived and really brought about an era of peace and sacredness for homosexuals throughout the Roman empire and by extension for all people...Antinous was the Spirit of Peace for the whole world, which was Hadrian's dream, a dream that was realized during the high point of the ancient cult of Antinous. Antinous is the essence of Homosexuality. He is the spirit of those qualities that call our attention to other males, Antinous is the intrinsic love for our own gender that arises within our hearts of it's own accord. Even when we are children, though we do not understand His language, we hear His voice calling, producing a longing that we cannot resist without emotional pain, suffering and socially inflicted self-loathing. The call of Antinous draws us to the beauty of our own kind, our own sex, compelling us to break away from the expectations of traditional society. In our adolescence, the desire of Antinous may take on the aspect of a torment. We are forced to choose between the courageous act of revealing our truth or of conforming to the general order of society. Antinous is the force of Gay Love that demands that we be truthful with ourselves and with all those around us. When one who has felt the calling of the Gay God within his heart, ignores and resists, the result can lead to a life of self-delusion and misery, a sordid existence of self-deception and social dishonesty. But when one answers the call of the Gay God, and rises to the truth within themselves and is open and honest even in the face of rejection or disapproval, the result is Freedom, and the joyous virtue of being self-honest and truthful towards society...the result of embracing Antinous is coming to terms with the emotion of love and desire, of finding love within one's self and then expressing that love to the world around us. All love to those who embrace Antinous and seek after Him. All who search for Antinous in the beauty of the world will find Him...within themselves. Antinous sets the hearts of all who love Him free. To follow Antinous is to walk away from the natural order of the world, to become a Sacred Homosexual, to possibly resign from the perpetuation of the human species, which is threatened by over-population, and to live instead for Love and Beauty, in a state of freedom, pleasure, and bliss, and then share this joy of life with the rest of the world. By natural impulse we are compelled to reject the mechanisms of natural reproduction, we are drawn away from the opposite sex by a longing for our own kind and brought instead to forms of love that do not procreate, that are no more than the joy of the body, and of the heart. Antinous removes the weight of procreation, setting us free to find the other joys of life, for the benefit of all. Antinous, by sanctifying mankind with the benediction of Homosexuality, leads us towards the love of our own kind, same-love, which is an extension of the love of the self. Antinous is the lover who dwells within, the purest beauty after whom we spend our lives searching and longing. We find rays of His form shinning through the visage of beautiful men and boys...But we will never find the whole and complete Antinous. The lovely faces that grace the world are for us parts and emanations of the one true Antinous who dwells within our hearts. We find His components here and there, and gathering them together, we are led on a journey of reverence and adoration. Antinous is the Beloved, whose countenance is beautiful, and we through the valor and love-joy of our homo-sacred being, are made one with Him. We are His Lovers and He is our Lover, and it is through Antinous that we learn to be Lovers, how to share the love that we hold in our heart with other gay men...in a sacred manner. Seek then after the one whose voice awoke us from the dreams of childhood, and drew us to our gay brothers in love and flaming desire. Open your heart for Antinous, whose beauty cannot be covered, and joyfully suffer the scorn of a world which is blind to the beauty of homo-sanctity. We are blessed, and sanctified through Antinous, who was assumed into the Nile, who arose to the heroic sphere and accomplished our deification. We are living in the most glorious age of gay men, the turning point, and our enemies have chosen to hold onto the past...the future is therefore ours for the taking...the dream of Antinous is spread out before us. Lift up your hearts to Homo Deus Antinous, the gay god who is one with us, our same-god, who draws us toward His ineffable and perfect beauty. Joyfully we find that we are all one with Him, that no unnatural effort is needed to follow His will, because at the very moment of our birth His gentle ways were inscribed upon our pious hearts. We have only to embrace Him, we have only to break away from fear and shame, and self-loathing, and live freely as the Companions of Antinous, desirous of Him, as we find Him in the world and within our selves. Antinous is the Spirit of Homosexuality...he is a person and a name that has been used to describe a feeling that glows within us, a unifying force that we all share in common. Homosexuality existed long before Antinous was born, but Antinous is the only person who was ever consecrated as a god for being a gay man. Antinous is the only person for whom temples and sacred statues were created to receive the devotion of gay men. Antinous represents a time when being gay was once considered a sacred thing, and now, as the world begins to change...Antinous deserves to be recognized as a crucial element in our ancient gay spirituality, because he represents so many beautiful, mysterious forces within us. And by opening our heart to Antinous, we can begin to unfold the beauty of gay spirituality within ourselves.