inger on his lips, in
those of Nicomedia; a horned moon and star in that of Epirot
Nicopolis. One Philadelphian coin is distinguished by Antinous in a
temple with four columns; another by an Aphrodite in her cella. The
Sardian coins give Zeus with the thunderbolt, or Phoebus with the
lyre; those of Smyrna are stamped with a standing ox, a ram, and the
caduceus, a female panther and the thyrsus, or a hero reclining
beneath a plane-tree; those of Tarsus with the Dionysian cista, the
Phoebean tripod, the river Cydnus, and the epigraphs 'Neos
Puthios,' 'Neos Iacchos;' those of the Tianians with Antinous as
Bacchus on a panther, or, in one case, as Poseidon.

It would be unsafe to suppose that the emblems of the reverse in
each case had a necessary relation to Antinous, whose portrait is
almost invariably represented on the obverse. They may refer, as in
the case of the Tarsian river-god, to the locality in which the
medal was struck. Yet the frequent occurrence of the well-known type
with the attributes and sacred animals of various deities, and the
epigraphs 'Neos Puthios' or 'Neos Iacchos,' justify us in assuming
that he was associated with divinities in vogue among the people who
accepted his cult--especially Apollo, Dionysus, and Hermes. On more
than one coin he is described as Antinous-Pan, showing that his
Arcadian compatriots of Peloponnese and Bithynia paid him the
compliment of placing him beside their great local deity. In a Latin
inscription discovered at Tibur, he is connected with the sun-god of
Noricia, Pannonia and Illyria, who was worshipped under the title of
Belenus:--

Antinoo et Beleno par aetas famaque par est;
Cur non Antinous sit quoque qui Belenus?

This couplet sufficiently explains the ground of his adscription to
the society of gods distinguished for their beauty. Both Belenus and
Antinous are young and beautiful: why, therefore, should not
Antinous be honoured equally with Belenus? The same reasoning would
apply to all his impersonations. The pious imagination or the
aesthetic taste tricked out this favourite of fortune in masquerade
costumes, just as a wealthy lover may amuse himself by dressing his
mistress after the similitude of famous beauties. The analogy of
statues confirms this assumption. A considerable majority represent
him as Dionysus Kisseus: in some of the best he is conceived as
Hermes of the Palaestra or a simple hero: in one he is probably
Dionysus Antheus; in another