The Egyptian Nonnus of Panopolis (5th century AD), author of both the âpaganâ Dionysiaca, the longest known poem from Antiquity (21,286 lines in 48 books, the same number of books as the Iliad and Odyssey combined), and a âChristianâ hexameter Paraphrase of St Johnâs Gospel (3,660 lines in 21 books), is no doubt the most representative poet of Greek Late Antiquity. Brillâs Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis provides a collection of 32 essays by a large international group of scholars, experts in the field of archaic, Hellenistic, Imperial, and Christian poetry, as well as scholars of late antique Egypt, Greek mythology and religion, who explore the various aspects of Nonnusâ baroque poetry and its historical, religious and cultural background.
Domenico Accorinti, Ph.D. (1992), Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, is an independent researcher and teaches Classics at the Gymnasium Galilei, Pisa. He has published on late Greek poetry, mythology, and the history of religions, including Raffaele Pettazzoni and Herbert Jennings Rose, Correspondence 1927â1958, Brill (2014).
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
List of Illustrations
List of Contributors
Introduction: Becoming A Classic
Domenico Accorinti
Part 1 - Author, Context, and Religion
1 The Poet from Panopolis: An Obscure Biography and a Controversial Figure
Domenico Accorinti
2 Nonnusâ Panopolis
Peter van Minnen
3 The Religious Background of Nonnus
Jitse H.F. Dijkstra
Part 2 â The Dionysiaca
4 Nonnus and Dionysiac-Orphic Religion
Alberto Bernabe and Rosa Garcia-Gasco
5 The Poet of Dionysus: Birth of the Last among the Gods
Pierre Chuvin
6 Major Themes and Motifs in the Dionysiaca Fotini Hadjittofi
7 Minor Characters in the Dionysiaca Berenice Verhelst
8 Narrative and Digression in the Dionysiaca Camille Geisz
9 The Psychology in the Dionysiaca
Ronald F. Newbold
Part 3 â The Paraphrase of St Johnâs Gospel
10 Nonnus and Biblical Epic
Mary Whitby
11 Approaching the âSpiritual Gospelâ: Nonnus as Interpreter of John
Roberta Franchi
12 Nonnusâ Paraphrastic Technique: A Case Study of Self-Recognition in John 9
Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
13 Nonnus and Christian Literature
Christos Simelidis
14 Nonnusâ Christology
Fabian Sieber
15 The Mystery Terminology in Nonnusâ Paraphrase Filip Doroszewski
Part 4 - Metre, Style, Poetry, and Visual Arts
16 The Nonnian Hexameter
Enrico Magnelli
17 Nonnusâ Conventional Formulaic Style
Gennaro DâIppolito
18 Nonnus and the Play of Genres
Anna Maria Lasek
19 Nonnusâ Poetics
Daria Gigli Piccardi
20 Nonnus and the Poetry of Ekphrasis in the Dionysiaca Riemer A. Faber
21 Nonnus and the Art of Late Antiquity
Troels Myrup Kristensen
Part 5 - Nonnus and the Classical Tradition
22 Nonnus and the Homeric Poems
Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kroll
23 Composing the Masters: An Essay on Nonnus and Hellenistic Poetry
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
24 Nonnus and Imperial Greek Poetry
Calum Alasdair Maciver
25 Nonnus and the Novel
Laura Miguelez-Cavero
Part 6 - An Interpretation of Nonnusâ Work
26 Christian Themes in the Dionysiaca Robert Shorrock
27 Pagan Themes in the Paraphrase Konstantinos Spanoudakis
28 Nonnus and Prophecy: Between âPaganâ and âChristianâ Voices
Jane L. Lightfoot
29 Nonnus and Late Antique Society
Gianfranco Agosti
Part 7 - The Transmission and Reception of Nonnusâ Poems
30 Brief Notes on the Manuscript Tradition of Nonnusâ Works
Claudio De Stefani
31 The Reception of Nonnus in Late Antiquity, Byzantine, and Renaissance Literature
Francesco Tissoni
32 The Influence of Nonnus on Baroque and Modern Literature
David Hernandez de la Fuente
Bibliography
General Index
Index of Principal Nonnian Passages
All interested in Nonnus of Panopolis, late antique poetry and poetics, Christian literature, Greek mythology and religion, as well as scholars and students of Classical Antiquity and late antique Egypt.