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The Antinoopolitan Lovers A funerary portrait found at Antinoopolis portrays two men, referred to as the Tondo of the Brothers, who were perhaps buried together. It shows a light skinned young man standing beside a darker skinned man, but there is no physical resemblance between them, which casts doubt on their relationship as brothers and raises another possibility, that they are lovers. The Tondo has been dated between 130-150 AD which would place them as nearly contemporaries of Antinous, living in his holy city during the height of the Religion of Antinous. But of even more significance are the small images of Greco-Egyptian gods placed above their shoulders. The darker man is guarded by Hermanubis, a god of the underworld adored in the nearby city of Hermopolis. The Lighter skinned and more beautifully dressed boy is watched over by a deity at first identified as Harpocrates, but now believed to be OsirAntinous, the patron god of Antinoopolis. This would make the Tondo of the Lovers the only painting of Antinous to have survived, and the only image of two probable members of his cult. The small inscription beneath the image of OsirAntinous reads 15 Pachon, which is a date of the Greek calendar that corresponds to the 10th of May. Whether this refers to the date of their death is unknown, but it is honored here as the day of their consecration.
