BROTHERS OR LOVERS?
71
whether a posthumous painted portrait of the emperor and his beloved, perhaps displayed in an Antinoite public building dedicated
to the deified Antinoos, might have provided inspiration for the private portraits on the tondo.27
In contrast to the volubility of Graeco-Roman sources, the
Pharaonic Egyptian record, both literary and artistic, is comparatively silent on the subject of homosexuality. For this reason, it is
worth noting that one of the rare Dynastic homoerotic texts, the
Tale of Neferkare and Sasenet, provides a native Egyptian royal
paradigm for, if not an exact parallel to, the male-male relationship
of Hadrian and Antinoos. In this tale, preserved in manuscripts
that date from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-Fifth Dynasties, the
Old Kingdom Pharaoh Neferkare enjoyed a sustained affair with
his military commander Sasenet.28 Neferkare clandestinely visited
the general's home every night for trysts that lasted four hours,
during which time the pharaoh "did what he desired" with Sasenet.
The tone of this tale is surprisingly non-judgmental, given the predominately condemnatory attitude toward homosexuality found in
other Pharaonic sources, such as wisdom or didactic literature.
Satisfying same-sex desires without negative consequences may
have been a royal prerogative. R.B. Parkinson has concluded that
the Egyptians recognized sexual desire between men "... and the
low-key presentation of the relationship in the Tale of Neferkare
and Sasenet implies that there were liaisons between men in elite
circles, despite public disapproval."29 In view of this background, it
is not inconceivable that a second-century C.E. portrait of two educated and elite male lovers from Antinoopolis in Egypt could have
27 See M. Nowicka, Le Portrait dans la peinture antique (Warsaw 1993) 35-6
for discussion of Fronto, Ep. 4.12.35, a passage often cited as evidence for the
prevalence and popularity of painted portraits of the emperor in the Roman empire.
28 G. Posener, "Le Conte de Neferkare et du General Sise6n (Recherches
litteraires IV)," RdE 11 (1957) 119-37; J. van Dijk, "The Nocturnal Wanderings of
King Neferkare," in C. Berger et al. (eds.), Hommages a Jean Leclant IV (Cairo
1994) 387-93; and R.B. Parkinson, "'Homosexual' Desire and Middle Kingdom
Literature," JEA 81 (1995) 57-76.
29 Parkinson, ibid. 76. See also Montserrat, Sex and Society (above, n. 3)
136-62, and especially 139-44.
