Explanation: The Emperor Hadrian had a wife, though one would struggle to eke out any personal reasons for being married. Hadrian was… famously inclined towards men, and deified his dead 19-year-old male lover (pictured in the bust of the young man in the meme) as the god of male beauty and love.
… Hadrian and his wife were not particularly close, as one might guess.
One should note: When Hadrian first met him, Antinous was probably about 13 years old. On the other hand, the Historia Augusta describes that Hadrian “wept like a woman” for Antinous, so he probably was more than just a pretty boytoy for an Emperor to start ugly-crying over his loss.
tbf, ‘first met’ here does not likely mean started an affair, but ‘was one of a number of provincials Hadrian met in passing when they were sent off for imperial education’. 15-16 is the more accepted ‘early’ date for when Hadrian may have begun the affair, and 17 the ‘definitely by or during this age they were screwing’.
But in all cases, yeah, not exactly a great look by modern standards, especially considering Hadrian would have been pushing 50.
