🪷 #Antinous had left #Bithynia #AsiaMinor as a nobody, but he returned as a celebrity influencer at the side of Emperor #Hadrian on arrival in #Nicomedia (modern Ízmet Turkey) in early 129 AD. Read all about his triumphant homecoming here: antinousstars.blogspot.com/2026/01/anti... 🪷

🪷 #Lanuvium relief shows #Antinous and dog. March 30 is the ancient Armenian feast of the dog goddess Baba and the #haralez "ghost dogs" who lick dead warriors back to life. #Antinoos likely knew of these #Bithynia Armenia "perpetual lickers" spirit dogs: antinousstars.blogspot.com/2024/03/anti... 🪷

🪷 This exquisite jasper intaglio reminds us of the day in 129 AD when #Hadrian and #Antinous slew a wild boar in the forests of #Antinoos homeland #Bithynia. Boars are sacred to #Adonis, whom #Diana loved and with whom Antinous is equated. #BoarHunt Ring art courtesy @doccrom.bsky.social 🪷

Children of the Central Girls' School of Ortaköy, 1912. Very few of the children survived the genocide. Ortaköy (Gr: Mesohori) was a town of some 10,000 (7,000 #Greeks, 3,000 #Armenians) situated 120 km SE of #Constantinople (#Istanbul) in Ottoman #Turkey and withni the historic region of #Bithynia.

🪷 27 Nov is Antinous' birthday. Enjoy baklava and pistachio sweets from #Antinous' birth land #Bithynia Turkey. Try cinnamon spiced #sahlep, a drink made from #Bithynian mountain orchid bulbs which the Greeks and Romans said was an aphrodisiac. More: antinousstars.blogspot.com/2021/11/the-... 🪷