EROMENOS: a novel of Antinous and Hadrian (18 page)
Read EROMENOS: a novel of Antinous and Hadrian Online
Authors: Melanie McDonald
“What is gold?”
“The purchase of death.”
“What is silver?”
“The place of envy.”
“What is iron?”
“The implement of all arts.”
“What is that which man is not able to see?”
“Another heart.”
“By what thing do men err?”
“Cupidity.”
“What is liberty?”
“Innocence.”
“What is the best, and indeed, the worst?”
“A word.”
“What is a man?”
“Similar to a bath: The first room is the tepidarium, the warm bath, in which infants are born thoroughly anointed; the second room, the sudatorium, the sweat-room, is boyhood; the third room is the assa, the dry-room, the preference of youth; the fourth room, the frigidarium, the cold bath, is appropriate to old age, in which sense comes to all.”
“What is a man?”
“Similar to a fruit: Fruits that hang on trees, thus even are our bodies: when ripe they fall, or else they become embittered.”
“What is a man?”
“As a lamp placed in the wind.”
“What is a man?”
“A stranger of place, the image of law, a tale of calamity, a slave of death, the delay of life; that with which Fortune would frequently make its own game.”
“What is heaven?”
“The summit of boundlessness.”
“What is heaven?”
“The atmosphere of the world.”
“What are stars?”
“The destiny of humans.”
“What are stars?”
“The omens of navigators.”
“What is the sea?”
“The way of doubt.”
“What is a boat?”
“A wandering house.”
“What is sleep?”
“An image of death.”
“What is love?”
“The annoyance of heart’s leisure, shamefulness in boys, reddening in virgins, fury in women, ardor in youth, laughter in age, it is worthlessness in the mocking of fault.”
“What is god?”
“That which maintains all things.”
“What is a sacrifice?”
“A lessening.”
“What is without fellowship?”
“Kingship.”
“What is a king?”
“A piece of the gods.”
“What is Rome?”
“The fount of authority of the sphere of the earth, mother of nations, possessor of things, the common-dwelling of the Romans, consecration of eternal peace.”
“What is that which is pleasing to some and displeasing to others?”
“Life.”
“What is the best life?”
“The shortest one.”
“What thing is most certain?”
“Death.”
“What is death?”
“Perpetual security.”
“What is death?”
“The fearing of many, if the wise man lives, inimical to life, the spirit of the living, the dread of parents, the spoils of freedom, the cause of testaments, the conversation after destruction, the end of woefulness, the forgetfulness after memory, the leading torch, the load of burial, the inscription of a monument; death is the end of all evil.”
Appendix II: Secundus Commenting on Hadrian
“You, too, Hadrian, are a human being like all the rest of us, subject to every kind of accident, mere dust and corruption. . .
“But you, Hadrian, as it happens, are full of fears and apprehensions. In the bellowing wind of winter you are disturbed too much by cold and shivering, and in the summer time you are too much oppressed by the heat. You are puffed up and full of holes, like a sponge. For you have termites in your body and herds of lice, that draw furrows through your entrails; and grooves have been burned into you, as it were, like the lines made by the fire of encaustic painters. Being a short-lived creature and full of infirmities, you foresee yourself being cut and torn apart, roasted by the sun and chilled by the wintry wind. Your laughter is only the preface to grief, for it turns about and passes into tears. . .
“Boast not that you alone have encircled the world in your travels, for it is only the sun and the moon and the stars that really make the journey around it. Moreover, do not think of yourself as being beautiful and great and rich and the ruler of the inhabited world. Know you not that, being a man, you were born to be Life’s plaything, helpless in the hands of Fortune and Destiny, sometimes exalted, sometimes humbled lower than the grave?”
Appendix III: Second Sibylline Oracle, from Phlegon’s Book of Marvels
“In my divinely-fashioned loom, and with multicolored weavings
Let holy Ploutonis be adorned, that there be a check against evils.
That which is most beautiful and wished for on earth
For mortals to see, let it be carried zealously
To the royal maiden as a gift mixed with the loom.
And when you pray to Demeter and pure Persephone
To ward off the yoke from your land forever,
Offer to Aidoneus Plouton the blood of a dark-haired ox Attired in splendid garments, with the help of a herdsman, who
Trusting in the oracle’s purpose will slaughter the ox
In the company of all other men in the land who trust in its purpose.
Let no disbeliever be present at the sacrifices,
But let him rather stand apart where it is customary for disbelievers to be,
And perform a sacrifice that is not eaten.
But whoever comes to it knowing our oracle,
Let him seek out holy lord Phoibos in sacrifices,
Zealously burning rich thigh-bones on his altars,
Sacrificing the youngest of the bright goats. And , you know,
Let the suppliant garland his head and beseech Phoibos Paieon
For a release from the evil that is impending,
And when he returns from this, let him beseech royal mistress Hera,
Sacrificing a white cow according to the ancestral custom in the land. . .
I covered my lovely eyes with my veil when I picked
Glorious leaves of the fruitful grey olive-tree. . .
Let them establish an image of holy Queen Hera
And a temple in the ancestral manner.
The evil will come—if you do all this and trust in my words,
Going to the most holy queen with sacrifices and
Performing the wineless rites for as many days as there are in the year,
Long and into the future—but not in your time.
The man who does this will have power forever.”
Appendix IV: Astrological Information for Antinous and Hadrian
The ancients were fascinated with the constellations and astrology. In his
Astronomica
, Marcus Manilius recorded his theories on the signs of the zodiac, the twelve unmoving temples (houses), and instructions for calculating horoscopes, for both individuals and countries (for example, Italy was considered to be governed by Libra, Greece by Virgo).
With Hadrian’s horoscope having survived in manuscript form, it is known that he was born with the Sun, Moon, and Jupiter in Aquarius, Saturn and Mercury in Capricorn, and Venus and Mars in Pisces. An astrologist’s interpretation would reveal an individual who was ambitious, preoccupied with power, arrogant, stubborn, and with a strong sense of justice, while in personal relationships, inclined to be ruled by emotion. Those with the moon in Aquarius also were considered to have a flair for astrology. (Hadrian was, in fact, interested in the practice.)—from
www.meta-religion.com
.
According to practicing astrologist Vicki Dickens, if Antinous was indeed nineteen at the time of his death, as some sources believe, he would have been born with the Moon in Cancer, Mercury and Mars in Scorpio, Venus and Jupiter in Capricorn, and Saturn in Pisces, with Sagittarius ascendant. If born on November 27, 111 AD, he may have been Aquarius rising, with the Moon in Taurus and the Sun in Sagittarius. These signs would indicate an independent, original thinker, likeable but capable of remaining aloof; one whose romantic nature inclined toward ardent, impulsive, devoted behavior.
These two individuals’ readings taken together would indicate a couple who were compatible, if volatile, within a highly charged emotional and sexual relationship.
There is no easy way to the stars from Earth.
—Seneca
T
HANKS TO MY
publisher, Seriously Good Books, and my editor, Vinnie Kinsella. Thanks to Ellery Harvey for the book design and layout, and artist Megan Chapman for the ravishing cover photo.
Thanks to Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers for a 2008 Fellowship granted for
Eromenos
; to Vermont Studio Center for a 2002 residency; eternal thanks to Sue Kennington for three residencies at her home in Tuscany with Mimi and the boys, and thanks to Kim Alter and Vincent Dawans for letting me hang out in Portland, OR.
Thanks to Marian George, Victoria Costello, Anne Korkeakivi, Kim Alter, Allison Wolcott, Louise Farmer Smith, Fiona Mackintosh, and Gimbiya Kettering for manuscript readings and encouragement. Thanks to Vicki Dickens, who cast a horoscope for Antinous. Thanks to all of my teachers and fellow students in the creative writing program at the University of Arkansas, most especially Joanne Meschery, who directed my thesis. Thanks to Drs. Johnny and Susan Wink, English professors and inspirations. Love and thanks to friends, family, Sean, and Mom, for their love and encouragement.
Most of all, my love and gratitude to Kevin.
Permissions and Quotations:
The opening Catullus quotation, Epigram 85, is from
Eros the Bittersweet
by Anne Carson (Champaign, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2003), p. 6.
The quoted poems by Florus and Hadrian are from
Following Hadrian: A Second-Century Journey Through the Roman Empire
by Elizabeth Speller (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, paperback, 2004), p. 83.
The quotation by Secundus regarding Hadrian is from
Life of Secundus the Philosopher,
translated by Ben Edwin Perry, monograph
Historia de Segundo
, American Philological Association (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1964), no. 22.
The dialogue of Hadrian and Epictetus is from
Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi
, translated in
The Phillupic Hymns
by P. Sufenas Virius Lupus (Eugene, OR: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, 2008), pp. 233-237, with notes on p. 271.
The symptoms and treatment of lycanthropy are from
On Lycanthropy
by Marcellus Sidetes, translated by Daniel Ogden in
Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A Sourcebook
(New York, NY: Oxford University Press, paperback 2002), pp. 185-186, Ch. 8, Section 142.
The quotes regarding the physiognomy of Favorinus and of Hadrian are from
De Physiognomica by Polemo of Smyrna
, translated by Maud W. Gleason in
Making
Men: Sophists and Self-Presentation in Ancient Rome
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995), p. 7 and p. 45.
The quotations on hunting dogs are from
On Hunting with Hounds
by Arrian of Bithynia, translated by Malcolm M. Willcock, in
Xenophon and Arrian on Hunting
, ed. A.A. Phillips and Malcolm M. Willcock (Wiltshire, UK: Aris & Phillips Ltd.), section 5-16 and sections 33-34.
The spell from the
Egyptian Book of the Dead
is a brief paraphrase based on the
Negative Confessions from the Papyrus of Ani
, used in ancient Egyptian preparations for the afterlife, from the
Book of the Dead
, translated by Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, British Mus. No. 10477, Sheet 22.
The spell by the magician in Egypt is paraphrased from a spell called “Pancrates’ Spell for Hadrian,” translated by Hans Dieter Betz in
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition
(Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 82-85.
I also want to note the following works, which provided inspiration and information during the research and writing of this novel:
Memoirs of Hadrian
, a novel by Marguerite Yourcenar;
Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous
by Royston Lambert;
Hadrian: The Restless Emperor
by Anthony R. Birley;
The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire
by Shadi Bartsch;
Sexuality in Greek and Roman Culture
by Marilyn B. Skinner;
The History of Sexuality, Vol. I, An Introduction
by Michel Foucault;
The History of Sexuality, Vol. II, The Use of Pleasure
by Michel Foucault;
Men in Love: Male Homosexualities from Ganymede to Batman
by Vittorio Lingiardi, M.D.;
Bisexuality in the Ancient World
by Eva Cantarella;
Greek Homosexuality
by K.J. Dover;
Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life
by Carl Kerenyi;
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter
by Thomas Cahill;
Phaedrus by Plato
, translated by Christopher Rowe;
Dialogues of Plato (The Jowett Translations)
, edited by Justin D. Kaplan;
Plato and Platonism
by Walter Pater;
The Greek Philosophers
by Rex Warner;
Life in Ancient Rome
by F.R. Cowell;
Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome
by Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins;
Daily Life in Ancient Rome
by Jerome Carcopino;
The Oxford History of the Roman World,
edited by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray;
The Ancient City: Life in Classical Athens and Rome
by Peter Connolly and Hazel Dodge;
Travel in the Ancient World
by Lionel Casson;
The Greek Way, The Roman Way,
and
Mythology
by Edith Hamilton;
Bulfinch’s Mythology
modern abridgment by Edmund Fuller;
Caesar Against the Celts
by Ramon L. Jimenez;
Ancient Egypt
by Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin;
Apologia Contra Arianos,
St. Athanasius , ca. 350 AD (Parker translation, 1713), and
Dio’s Rome, Volume V, Book 69
by Cassius Dio (Project Gutenberg EBooks).
Q
UESTIONS FOR
R
EADERS
’ G
ROUP
D
ISCUSSIONS
:
1. Though a member of the Imperial Court of Rome, Antinous was Greek. How might his nationality have affected his perceptions of Roman culture?
2. What effect did class differences have on Antinous’ relationships with other students at the Imperial School? What effect did they have on his relationship with Emperor Hadrian?
3. How would Antinous’ coming of age—“taking on the white toga”—impact his relationship with Hadrian?
4. In what ways were Roman society’s perceptions and assumptions about homosexuality similar to those of contemporary society? In what ways might these perceptions and assumptions differ from those of today?
5. Controversy still exists today over whether the actual death of Antinous was a murder, a suicide, or an accident. How does the author of this novel choose to portray his death? What incidents in the novel might be seen as factors that contribute to the character’s choice to sacrifice himself in devotio suicide?
Melanie McDonald won a 2008 Hawthornden Fellowship for
Eromenos
. She has an MFA in fiction from the University of Arkansas. Her work has appeared in
New York Stories, Fugue
,
Indigenous Fiction
, and online. She has pursued the craft of writing in New York, Galway, Paris, and in Italy while at work on this novel. An Arkansas native, she now lives in Virginia with her husband, Kevin McDonald, author of
Above the Clouds: Managing Risk in the World of Cloud Computing.
