L'Antiquité Classique

As Multiform as Dionysus:: New Perspectives on Nonnus’ Dionysiaca

Author(s): Berenice VerhelstSource: L'Antiquité Classique , T. 82 (2013), pp. 267-278
Published by: L'Antiquité Classique

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 CHRONIQUES – KRONIEKEN – CHRONICLES

As Multiform as Dionysus:
New Perspectives on Nonnus’ Dionysiaca

The study of Greek hexametric poetry of late Antiquity is a field of research in

full development. Much of this research today is centred on Nonnus of Panopolis, the
author of both the long epic Dionysiaca and the hexametric Paraphrase of the Gospel
of John. After a long period of neglect the ambitious project led by Francis Vian to
produce a fully commented 18 volumes edition of the Dionysiaca (Budé) was a water-
shed for Nonnus studies.1 Since the start of this project in 1976 there has been a
gradual increase in scholarly activity about Nonnus and his contemporaries.2 The
current vitality of the field, as can be seen in the great number of recent publications
by an increasing group of scholars3 can be explained as the combination of several

1
F. VIAN et al. (edd.), Nonnus de Panopolis, Les Dionysiaques, Paris, 1976-2006 (Les
Belles Lettres), XVIII vols. + index general (= ABK 9). The volumes did not appear in order
and with variable intervals. The last volumes (Tome XII and Tome XV respectively by
H. FRANGOULIS and M.-C. FAYANT and P. CHUVIN) were published in 2006. In the meantime a
group of Italian scholars started a similar project for the Paraphrase of the Gospel of John. The
first volume appeared in 2000: E. LIVREA (ed.), Parafrasi del Vangelo di San Giovanni: canto
B. Nonno di Panopoli, Bologna, 2000. 7 volumes have already been published. Partly the same
group of scholars is also responsible for the BUR-edition of the Dionysiaca: D. ACCORINTI,
G. AGOSTI, D. GIGLI PICCARDI and F. GONNELLI, (edd.), Nonno di Panopoli. Le Dionisiache,
Milano, 2003-2004 (BUR) IV vols (= ABK 10). The added value of this affordable edition, in
which the text of the Budé-edition (where available) is copied, is the excellent running
commentary.
2
In this period studies were published on various themes, often previously neglected.
Some of the highlights: D. GIGLI PICCARDI, Metafora e poetica in Nonno di Panopoli, Firenze,
1985 (= ABK 25); P. CHUVIN, Mythologie et géographie dionysiaques. Recherches sur l'œuvre
de Nonnos de Panopolis, Clermont-Ferrand, 1991 (= ABK 29); R. SHORROCK, The Challenge
of Epic. Allusive engagement in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, Leiden, 2001 (= ABK 33). In 1994
Nonnus scholars for the first time joined forces to publish a collection of articles on the
Dionysiaca: N. HOPKINSON, Studies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus, Cambridge, 1994 (= ABK
30). The collection of articles that was published as a tribute to VIAN when he was accorded
emeritus status in 2003 is also important for its section on Nonnus: D. ACCORINTI, P. CHUVIN
(edd.) Des géants à Dionysos : mélanges de mythologie et de poésie grecques offerts à Francis
Vian, Alessandria, 2003 (= ABK 35).
3
Besides the strong French and Italian tradition, we now also see a strong Spanish tradi-
tion of Nonnus studies and individual researchers or smaller research groups in many other
European universities. During the last five years no fewer than four monographs have been

L’Antiquité Classique 82 (2013),

p. 267-278.

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268 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

factors. With two recent editions (Budé and BUR), that are in many ways comple-
mentary, anyone studying the Dionysiaca now has an excellent basis to start from.
However, much work remains to be done.
This review article provides an overview of the most important publications on
Nonnus’ Dionysiaca over the last five years (2008-2012). In order to accentuate
frequent themes and points of discussion, I shall use a thematic approach and divide
my overview of recent publications into three categories: “Nonnus in context”,
“Structure and poetics in the Dionysiaca” and “Nonnus and his literary examples”.
For the period of 1980-2010 it is also possible to consult the Forschungsbericht on
Nonnus’ Dionysiaca by Herbert Bannert, Nina Aringer and Nicole Kröll (the Austrian
research group working on the Dionysiaca).4

1. Nonnus in context

“Nonnus of Panopolis in context” is the title of a recently initiated series of

biennial conferences (1st in 2011).5 The title reflects a general interest in contextuali-
sation, which is also apparent in many recent publications. The recent books by Laura
Miguélez Cavero and Robert Shorrock are clear examples. Miguélez Cavero’s book is
an exploration of the literary and educational context of Nonnus and his contem-
poraries.6 Shorrock discusses the religious context for their poetry.7 The broader
context of late antique hexameter poetry is also the subject of two volumes of articles
that appeared in 2008, respectively edited by Sergio Audano and Katerina Carvounis,
and Richard Hunter.8

published on the subject. These books will be discussed in this review article together with the
most important recent articles.
4
N. ARINGER, H. BANNERT, N. KRÖLL, “Nonnos von Panopolis, 1. Bericht: Dionysiaka,
umfassend im Wesentlichen die Jahre 1980–2010,” Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 64
(2011), p. 1-44. This overview gives a summary of 88 different publications (articles, collec-
tions, books) dealing with Nonnus’ Dionysiaka or the broader literary and religious context of
late antiquity, including an important number of publications from before 1980. The publica-
tions are divided into categories, numbered and each treated separately. When discussing a
publication that was also included in this Forschunsbericht, I use as an abbreviated reference
“= ABK” followed by the matching number.
5
The proceedings of the first Nonnus conference in Rethymno (2011) are due to appear
shortly (K. SPANOUDAKIS [ed.], De Gruyter). The series will continue with a second conference
in Vienna (September 2013).
6
L. MIGUÉLEZ CAVERO, Poems in Context: Greek Poetry in the Egyptian Thebaid 200-
600 AD, Berlin/New York, 2008 (= ABK 83).
7
R. SHORROCK, The myth of paganism: Nonnus, Dionysus and the world of late
antiquity, Bristol, 2011. This book is also discussed in a book review by Willy EVENEPOEL in
this volume (p. 328-330).
8
S. AUDANO (ed.), Nonno e i suoi lettori (Hellenica 27), Allessandria, 2008 (= ABK 40);
K. CARVOUNIS, R. HUNTER (edd.), Signs of life? Studies in later Greek poetry, Bendigo, 2008
(= Ramus 37).

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 B. VERHELST 269

a. Literary context and educational background

In her monograph Poems in Context, an expanded and reworked version of her

doctoral dissertation of 2006, Miguélez Cavero covers a very broad subject and does
so in great detail.9 The greatest merit of this book is that it widens the scope of
research from Nonnus and the few other late antique Egyptian poets of whom work
has survived through the manuscript tradition, to virtually every single trace of poetic
activity (names, titles, fragments) we still have from the Egyptian Thebaid from 200
to 600 AD. A detailed overview is given in the first chapter in which she questions the
existence of the so-called school of Nonnus. She discusses the relation between the
Egyptian poets and states that school education is the most important factor and
probably the best explanation for their unity in style.
This basic assumption is further developed throughout the next three chapters.
In the second, the common stylistic features are further explained, ranging from late
antique metrics over the use of adjectives and neologisms to the poetics of ποικιλία
(variation). “Each word is meant to be a focus of attention” (p. 121). Although
Nonnus’ Dionysiaca is mentioned most frequently in this chapter, Cavero takes care
that examples are also provided from the smaller poems (mainly the epyllia by
Triphiodorus, Musaeus and Colluthus) and from the papyri listed in the first chapter.
The observations on style are very much in line with earlier publications on Nonnus
and the “Nonnians”, but the incorporation of a bigger and heterogeneous corpus of
texts makes Cavero’s treatment a valuable contribution to this field of studies.
Miguélez Cavero proves her mastery of another discipline in the third chapter,
which provides a history of the role of culture and education in Egypt and, more
specifically, Panopolis from the third to the sixth century AD. Her laudable ambition
of exhaustivity, however, also causes digressions from the main subject. For example,
apart from a detailed survey of the literary and rhetorical education, she also adds a
long section “training in other fields” ranging from mathematics, alchemy and medi-
cine to philosophy.
In the fourth chapter, Miguélez Cavero combines the texts from the first
chapter and the knowledge of the school system from the third to examine the school
influence on the poetic composition. For this purpose she uses the progymnasmata
handbooks by Theon, Aphtonius, Nicolaus and Hermogenes. After a discussion of
narrative (διήγημα), ekphrasis, paraphrase, ethopoea and encomium in the handbooks
and in poetic practice, her main conclusion is that a direct relationship between the
treatises and the literary production cannot be established but that all the poetry consi-
dered in her survey “was built upon the foundation work laid down at school”
(p. 370). In an article of 201, Miguélez Cavero continues in the same vein as this
fourth chapter, when she gives a survey of the invective (ψόγος) in the Dionysiaca. In

9
The book consists of four main chapters. A fifth chapter reads as a summary of the
entire book and therefore does not need a separate treatment here. The book is completed with
an up-to-date bibliography and a user-friendly general index and index locorum.

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270 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

her opinion, the presence of invective brings the general encomiastic structure of the
epic poem into balance.10
As a whole, Miguélez Cavero’s well-organised, detailed and critical survey of
late antique Greek hexameter poetry has the potential of becoming an important work
of reference for further research in the field.
The idea that the poets of late antiquity shared a common educational and
cultural background is also the subject of a recent article by Gianfranco Agosti.11 Like
Miguélez Cavero, he rejects the idea of a “school of Nonnus”, but more than
Miguélez Cavero he also stresses the importance of Nonnus’ influence on the other
authors. Nonnus’ Dionysiaca was for the later authors “un nouveau classique”, read at
school and thus also part of the common educational background.
Another important element of this educational background is, according to
Agosti, the shared knowledge of the contemporary visual arts (p. 110), for which it is
also possible to refer to two earlier articles of the same author (2006 and 2008).12

b. Religious context

The religious context of late antique poetry is the central issue of Shorrock’s
The myth of paganism (2011), his second monograph on the subject of Nonnus.13 This
book is a strong plea to study Christian and non-Christian culture from late antiquity
not separately, but with a constant emphasis on the dialogue between the two and the
underlying similarities. He chooses to make a distinction between “Poets of the
Muses” and “Poets of Christ” instead of between “secular” and “Christian” authors.
The distinction does not concern the authors, but the poetic persona that the authors
adopt in their work and the source of inspiration they invoke. Shorrock’s comments
on the conflict between Paulinus of Nola and Ausonius serve as an illustration. How-
ever much Paulinus claims to break with classical “pagan” culture “his claims of

10
L. MIGUÉLEZ-CAVERO, “Invective at the Service of Encomium in the Dionysiaca of
Nonnus of Panopolis.” Mnemosyne 63 (2010), p. 23-42. For the encomiastic structure of the
Dionysiaca see V. STEGEMANN, Astrologie und Universalgeschichte, Studien und Interpreta-
tionen zu den Dionysiaka des Nonnos von Panopolis, Leipzig, 1930 (= ABK 20); E.D. LASKY,
“Encomiastic Elements in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus,” Hermes 106 (1978), p. 357-76;
L. MIGUÉLEZ-CAVERO, o.c. (n. 6), p. 355-366.
11
G. AGOSTI, “Niveaux de style, littérarité, poétiques: pour une histoire classicisante au
e
VI siècle,” in P. ODORICO et al. (edd.), «Doux remède...» Poésie et poétique à Byzance, Actes
du IVe colloque international philologique, Paris, 2009, p. 99-119. In his article Agosti
announces that he also is preparing a book on the subject.
12
G. AGOSTI, “Immagini e poesia nella tarda antichità. Per uno studio dell’estetica visuale
della poesia greca fra III e IV sec. d. C.,” Incontri Triestini di Filologia Classica IV (2006),
p. 351-352 and G. AGOSTI, “Le Dionisiache e le arti figurative. Appunti per uno studio
dell’estetica nonniana,” in S. AUDANO (ed.), o.c. (n. 8), p. 17-32 (= ABK 40).
13
R. SHORROCK, o.c. (n. 2) concerned the structure of the Dionysiaca. Much of the mate-
rial and ideas in R. SHORROCK, o.c. (n. 7) could already be read in his article of 2008:
R. SHORROCK, “Nonnus’ Dionysiaca and the World of late Antiquity,” in K. CARVOUNIS,
R. HUNTER (edd.) o.c. (n. 8).

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 B. VERHELST 271

rupture and radical innovation are undermined by a deep continuity with the well-
springs of Classical inspiration” (p. 20). “Poets of the Muses” on the other hand, like
Claudianus, emphasize the continuity with classical culture, but should nevertheless
be placed in the same late antique context.
Nonnus, who takes on the persona of a classicizing “Poet of the Muses” in the
Dionysiaca and adopts a Christian persona in the Paraphrase, is Shorrock’s principal
example of the dialogue between both traditions. He jestingly compares the question
of which of the two poems came first with the chicken or egg dilemma and concludes:
“What if Nonnus wrote the two texts contemporaneously?” (p. 51). Consequently, the
central chapters of his book constitute a search for traces of mutual intertextuality, for
“Dionysiac” elements in the Paraphrase and Christian elements in the Dionysiaka.
However, seeking to ensure the validity of his observations with respect to the
unsolved question of the order in which both works were written, he emphasises that
he approaches the question of intertextuality not through the idea of authorial intent
but through the eyes of an active reader of both works.
The fact that Nonnus wrote a hexameter paraphrase of the Gospel of John is,
according to Shorrock, already an invitation “to see the interconnectedness between
the Classical representations of the vine, between the very figures of Jesus and Dio-
nysus.” (p. 57). He discusses in detail the role of wine/the vine in the Paraphrase.14
On the other hand the figure of the benevolent god Dionysus in the Dionysiaca also
inevitably brings about associations with Christ.
According to Shorrock, too little attention has been paid in the past to possible
Christian resonances in the Dionysiaca, especially by the French school of Nonnus
scholars, since they wanted to rehabilitate Nonnus in research by emphasising the
continuity between the Dionysiaca and the Classical tradition. Shorrock praises the
Italian scholars of the BUR-edition for breaking with this tradition and places himself
in their line. He gives a Christian interpretation of a number of passages and explains
that “a late antique ‘Christian’ perspective has the power to affect profoundly our
reading of what might otherwise be considered to be a ‘traditional’ mythological
scene” (p. 85).
Shorrock acknowledges the often raised counter-argument that the Dionysiaca,
when we agree to see Dionysus as a Christ-figure, would give a perverse image of
Christianity, preaching drunkenness and rape. However he does not consider this to
be a problem for his interpretation. He regards the Dionysiaca and the Paraphrase as
“two parts of a provocative diptych” (p. 118), encouraging us to look beyond the rigid
distinctions between ‘pagan’ and Christian, and reflecting the concerns of the age.
Concluding his book with an application of his overall approach to Ausonius’
Cento nuptialis and Mavortius’ De ecclesia, Shorrock also demonstrates the wider
applicability of his method. The Myth of Paganism is an accessible and well-written
study, raising important questions about the entanglement of classical tradition and
Christian beliefs in late antique poetry. Although not all of Shorrock’s observations

14
See also: H. FRANGOULIS, “L’eau et le vin dans le mythe d'Ampélos,” in D. AUGER and
E. WOLFF (edd.), Culture classique et christianisme. Mélanges offerts à Jean Bouffartigue,
Paris, 2008, p. 285-291.

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272 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

on the Paraphrase and the Dionysiaca are equally convincing, he launches in this
book a great number of invigorating ideas and reopens the discussion on the religious
and cultural context of both poems.
Among the instigators of this discussion we also have to count Konstantinos
Spanoudakis with his influential article “Icarius Jesus Christ”15 and his recent article
“Αἰῶνος λιταί (Nonn. Dion. 7.1-109)”.16 Whereas Shorrock emphasises the bigger
picture, Spanoudakis gives a very detailed analysis of selected passages from the
Dionysiaca. His study of the Icarius-episode (D. 47, 1-264) only deals with Christian
influences, but in his analysis of the supplication of Aion (D. 7, 1-109) he presents
Nonnus’ original version of the myth of Icarius as a late antique synthesis of both
Orphic and Christian elements.
According to Spanoudakis, the observations of both Orphic and Christian sym-
bols in the Dionysiaca – alongside magical and astrological practices and motives that
may refer to Neo-Platonism, point towards a syncretic combination of several
influences. Orphism in the Dionysiaca was also the subject of the PhD-research of the
Spanish scholar Rosa García-Gasco (2007), who afterwards published a number of
articles on the subject.17 A Neo-Platonist interpretation of the Dionysiaca is presented
in a recent article by David Hernández de la Fuente.18
Another side of the multifaceted issue of the religious context of the Diony-
siaca, which recently received scholarly attention, is Nonnus’ presentation of the
traditional gods of Greek mythology with regard to his own Christian background. In
Laura Miguélez Cavero’s article “The Appearance of the Gods in the Dionysiaca of
Nonnus” Nonnus’ humorous attitude towards his divine protagonists is associated
with his Christian beliefs.19 Hermes is the only male god who is not presented as
cowardly, imposturous or effeminate in the Dionysiaca. As Miguélez Cavero

15
K. SPANOUDAKIS, “Icarius Jesus Christ? Dionysiac Passion and Biblical Narrative in
Nonnus’ Icarius Episode (Dion. 47, 1-264),” Wiener Studien 120 (2007), p. 35-92.
16
K. SPANOUDAKIS, “Αἰῶνος λιταί (Nonn. Dion. 7.1-109),” Aitia 2 (2012). The editorial
board of the electronical journal Aitia. Regards sur la culture hellénistique au XXIe siècle
decided to dedicate their second issue to the memory of Francis Vian († 2008). This thema-
tically organised issue contains a section of five contributions on Nonnus.
17
R. GARCÍA-GASCO, Orfeo y el Orfismo en las Dionisíacas de Nono, Madridn 2007
(PhD. diss.); R. GARCÍA-GASCO, “Un ritual dionisíaco: Dionisíacas de Nono 9.111-131,” Res
Publica Litterarum (2010); R. GARCÍA-GASCO, “Dionysism in Late Antiquity: The Three
Dionysos in the Dionysiaca,” in D. HERNÁNDEZ DE LA FUENTE (ed.), New Perspectives on Late
Antiquity, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2011, p. 367-379.
18
D. HERNÁNDEZ DE LA FUENTE, “The One and the Many and the Circular Movement:
Neo-Platonism and Poetics in Nonnus of Panopolis,” in D. HERNÁNDEZ DE LA FUENTE (ed.), o.c.
(n. 17), p. 305-326.
19
L. MIGUÉLEZ-CAVERO, “The Appearance of the Gods in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus,”
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 49 (2009), p. 557-583 (= ABK 49).

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 B. VERHELST 273

suggests, it seems no coincidence that adjectives and formulas used for Hermes in the
Dionysiaca can also be found in the Paraphrase, for Christ.20

c. Political Context

Finally, an aspect of contextualisation that has received a more limited atten-

tion in recent research is the political context of the Dionysiaca. The book by Pierre
Chuvin remains the most important contribution to this field.21 For the last five years
two article contributions can be mentioned. Both Fotini Hadjittofi and Daniele Mazza
stress the Eastern Roman Empire as the political frame within which the Dionysiaca
has to be understood.22 As Mazza proves convincingly, this is most clearly visible in
the fact that the distinction of what is “barbarian” and what is not in Nonnus’ coin-
cides with the borders of the empire.23

2. Structure and poetics in the Dionysiaca

The apparently chaotic and, in many ways, disturbing structure of the Diony-
siaca as a whole has since long been an incentive for scholars either to assume the
absence of a clear plan of composition or the unfinished state of the epic, or to search
for hidden structures and methods of composition.24 In more recent studies, the idea
has been launched that not one overall structure has to be identified, but that the many
intra- and intertextual resonances, repetitions and recurring motives create continuity
in the story.25

a. Structure and ideology

The recent monograph Bakkhos anax of the Spanish scholar David Hernández
de la Fuente, however, although it lies to a large extent in the line of Gennaro

20
Cf. D. ACCORINTI, “Hermes e Cristo in Nonno,” Prometheus 21(1995), p. 24-32. On the
role of Hermes see also: P. NIZZOLA, “Ermes come connettore narrativo nelle Dionisiache di
Nonno: testo e macrotesto”, Acme 63 (2010), p. 101-19.
21
P. CHUVIN, o.c. (n. 2).
22
F. HADJITTOFI, “Res Romanae: Cultural Politics in Quintus Smyrnaeus’ Posthomerica
and Nonnus’ Dionysiaka,” in M. BAUMBACH, S. BÄR (edd.), Quintus Smyrnaeus. Transforming
Homer in the Second Sophistic Epic, Berlin/New York, 2008, p. 357-378; D. MAZZA,
“L’impero romano nelle Dionisiache di Nonno di Panopoli (III 188-201, 358-371 e XLI 155-
184, 387-399),” RCCM 52 (2010), p. 145-63.
23
D. MAZZA (n. 22), p. 161-163.
24
See: R. KEYDELL, “Zur Komposition der Bücher 13-40 der Dionysiaca des Nonnos”,
Hermes 62 (1927), p. 393-434; P. COLLART, Nonnos de Panopolis. Études sur la composition et
le texte des Dionysiaques, Le Caire, 1930 (= ABK 19); V. STEGEMANN, o.c. (n. 10). A good
overview of this discussion can be found in R. SHORROCK, o.c. (n. 2), p. 10-23.
25
This idea can be found in R. SHORROCK, o.c. (n. 2), but the basic assumption was
already present in, for example, the work of G. D’'IPPOLITO, Studi Nonniani. L'epillio nelle
Dionisiache, Palermo, 1964 (= ABK 21) and F. VIAN, “Dionysus in the Indian War: a contribu-
tion to a study of the structure of the Dionysiaka,” in N. HOPKINSON, o.c. (n. 2), p. 86-98.

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274 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

D’Ippolito’s (1964) thematically arranged study of recurring motives, launches a new

attempt to identify a structural element that encompasses and helps to interpret the
entire epic, despite its diversity.26
Hernández gives a long and well-documented introduction on the Dionysiaca,
with emphasis on the literary and religious context, but also on Nonnus’ “literary syn-
cretism” (“sincretismo literario”, p. 35: combination of elements from different lite-
rary genres), his claim of ποικιλία and the metapoetical symbol of the fawnskin
(νεβρίς). After this, he sets out to analyse the Dionysiaca as a whole by dividing the
episodes into six “cycles” of recurring mythical patterns (“seis ciclos correspon-
dientes a seis patrones míticos”, p. 59).
Hernández’s division into cycles is not a novelty. The myths of love
(“Ciudades y amores” p. 79-116, connected by Hernández with foundation myths),
hospitality (“La hospitalidad de la vid” p. 117-130) and punished hubris (“El deseo y
la soberbia” p. 167-182) in the Dionysiaca had already been treated separately by
D’Ippolito.27 Several scholars have also connected the stories of Lycurgus, Deriades
and Pentheus (“Los enemigos del dios”, p. 131-165) or the myth of Typhon with the
“cosmic” mission of Dionysus (“El orden contra el caos”).28 Hernández’s sixth cycle
(“Resurrecciones dionisíacas”, p. 183-205), however, is a more original idea, in which
he connects the story of Tylus with the resurrection of Zagreus as Dionysos, who is
succeeded by Iacchus after his ascension.
In his concluding chapter “Las Dionisíacas. Una Interpretación” (p. 209-226)
he eventually brings this theme of cyclic life and resurrection into prominence as the
key to an overall interpretation of the Dionysiaca. He cleverly combines the material
he developed in the first (introduction) and second part (cycles) of his book, to
conclude that the unity of the Dionysiaca lies in an ideologically based underlying
structure. He states that the idea of the cyclic life and resurrection also manifests itself
in the other cycles (for each in different ways) and gives the poem a teleological

26
D. HERNÁNDEZ DE LA FUENTE, “Bakkhos Anax”. Un estudio sobre Nono de Panópolis,
Madrid, 2008; G. D’IPPOLITO, o.c. (n. 25).
27
G. D’IPPOLITO, o.c. (n. 25), p. 86-149, 150-163 and 164-190 respectively. Yet another
thematic approach to the entire Dionysiaca can be found in V. GIRAUDET, “Les ‘Dionysiaques’
de Nonnos de Panopolis: un poème sous le signe de Protée”, Bulletin de l'association
Guillaume Budé 2005, p. 75-98 (= ABK 37). His “lecture verticale”, based on the metamor-
phoses of Proteus in the prologue, is further developed in his (unpublished) Ph.D. dissertation:
V. GIRAUDET, Le monstre et la mosaïque. Recherches sur la poétique des Dionysiaques de
Nonnos de Panopolis (Ph.D.), Paris, 2010. The loves of Dionysus have been studied as a series
by Francis VIAN (F. VIAN, “Théogamies et sotériologie dans les Dionysiaques de Nonnos,”
Journal des Savants 1994, p. 197-233), who also gave these episodes a structurally and ideolo-
gically important role in his interpretation of the whole. See more recently: F. HADJITTOFI, “The
death of love in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca: the rapes of Nicaea and Aura,” in K. CARVOUNIS,
R. HUNTER (edd.), o.c. (n. 8), p. 114-135.
28
Mostly ad loc. in the commentaries (Budé and BUR, o.c., n.1) but also in G. BRADEN,
“Nonnos’ Typhoon: Dionysiaca, Books I and II,” Texas Studies in literature and language 15
(1974), p. 851-879 and F. VIAN, “Préludes cosmiques dans les Dionysiaques de Nonnos de
Panopolis,” Prometheus 19 (1993), p. 39-52.

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 B. VERHELST 275

structure. This structure reaches its end and culmination in the short scene of Dio-
nysus’ ascension in book 48, at the end of the Aura-episode, in which, moreover, all
six themes are combined. The emphasis on resurrection and cyclic life is, according to
Hernández, closely connected with the religious developments of late antiquity and
the complex relationship between pagan beliefs and Christianity.29 Nonnus is “un
hombre de su tiempo” (p. 225).
The last chapter reads as an appendix but is presented as a second chapter in
the conclusive part. It gives a good overview of the reception of Nonnus’ Dionysiaca
during the Byzantine period. With its long introduction and this extra chapter on the
reception of Nonnus, Bakkhos Anax can be read as a first introduction to the Diony-
siaca. Whereas the structure of the book serves this introductory goal very well, it
also makes it less attractive for anyone who is already well-informed on the subject.
Hernández does not reveal his most important thesis before his conclusive chapter
(i.e. after more than 200 pages), with the risk that a reader looking for new insights
might stop before reaching it.

b. Structure through genre

Also in the recent book Nonnos’ Spiel mit den Gattungen in den Dionysiaka,
by the Polish scholar Anna Maria Lašek, the structural debate plays an important,
though not a central role.30 It is Lašek’s main goal to explain and illustrate the ways
Nonnus’ poetry relates to the literary traditions and how he incorporates and plays
with different genres. The structural debate is, however, the starting point for her
investigations, to which she returns in the very last chapter and to which she adds an
extra structural element, which, she claims, has to be taken into account. She shares
Shorrock’s view that there is not one single structural frame in the Dionysiaca, but a
series of different intersecting structural elements.31
In her introduction, Lašek defines the terminology in the title of her book.
According to her “Spiel” in a literary sense is “eine Betätigung, die dem Leser Freude
bereitet” (p. 9). Unexpected or strange elements are provocations to the reader and
“play” with his patterns of expectation. “Gattungen” are considered concepts in per-
manent metamorphosis. Every author writing in a genre participates in this dynamic
process and can change the genre by playing with its conventions. As she indicates
with a brief status quaestionis, a full treatment of the subject of genres and generic
play in the Dionysiaca was still missing, though quite a few scholars had already

29
Hernández also points out the thematic similarities of Dionysiaca and Paraphrase and
discusses a few remarkable parallels. His observations are very similar to those of SHORROCK
(o.c., n. 7), but Shorrock does not mention Hernández’s book in his bibliography. Hernández
also refers to the philosophic school of Neo-Platonism as an important component of the
intellectual context. See also: D. HERNÁNDEZ DE LA FUENTE, l.c. (n. 18).
30
A.-M. LAŠEK, Nonnos' Spiel mit den Gattungen in den Dionysiaka, Poznan, 2009.
31
R. SHORROCK, o.c. (n. 2), p. 22-23.

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276 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

observed the presence of elements from other genres.32 Lašek wants to fill this gap,
but limits her scope to the bucolic, the epigrammatic and the hymnic genres.
In the first chapter, she discusses hymns and hymn-like passages in the Diony-
siaca. After the introduction, in which she attempts to give a clear definition of the
genre, she states that she intends to treat the passages in four separate groups. The
first group consists of those passages that have most clearly a hymnic character, as
“direkte Götteranrufungen”. The second group is not a real group, but only consists of
the double “hymnic” request to Eros and Cadmus (D. 1.378-407), which is an excep-
tion to the general rule of the first group that a hymn only addresses a god. The third
group, conversely, consists of two panegyrics of cities, which cannot be completely
equated with hymns. Finally, the fourth group, announced as a collection of hymn-
like passages, does not receive any further treatment. Although much attention has
been paid to definitions, this division into groups already indicates how difficult this
proves to be. The distinction between hymn and prayer or encomium is often very
subtle.
In her analysis, Lašek pays much attention to the connectedness of the hymn
with the story-line and to its status as a unit. Important factors hereby are the presence
of an introduction and capping formula and whether or not it is possible that it could
be read and understood separately. However, not all of her analyses with regard to
this aspect are equally convincing. For example, a hymn is almost always introduced
in the Dionysiaca as an instance of direct speech by one of the characters, which
already explains the presence of an introduction and capping formula. Furthermore,
largely because of the lack of a conclusive paragraph, this chapter does not really
fulfil its promise of pointing out Nonnus’ playful or creative use of hymnic material.
Most of these remarks apply equally to the second chapter (on epigrammatic
passages) and the third (on bucolic passages). Lašek clearly struggles with problems
of definition and classification and consequently fails to show adequately the dynamic
process of Nonnus’ play with generic conventions. Instead, she sometimes leans too
heavily on the results from previous research, which prevents her from following one
method of analysis of her own with consistency. Whereas, for example, she hardly
discusses stylistic elements and tropes for other passages, she extensively paraphrases
the stylistic analysis of another scholar on the Nicaea-passage (p. 125-127).33 This
shift in the focus of her argument only obscures her own research objectives.
Near the end of the third chapter, Lašek repeats the conclusions of Byron
Harries regarding the death of the character Hymnus (book 15) and the end of the
32
For epigrammatic passages: P. COLLART, “Nonnos Épigrammiste,” Revue de Philologie
37 (1913), p. 133-142. For encomiastic influences: E.D. LASKY, l.c. (n. 10). For novelistic
influences: R. DOSTALOVÁ-JENISTOVÁ, « Nonnos und der Griechische Roman,” in F. STIEBITZ,
R. HOŠEK (edd.), Charisteria Francisco Novotný Octogenario oblate, Praha, 1962, p. 203-207.
For bucolic influences: B. HARRIES, “The pastoral mode in the Dionysiaka,” in N. HOPKINSON
(ed.), o.c. (n. 2), p. 63-85; B. HARRIES, “The drama of pastoral in Nonnus Colluthus,” in
M. FANTUZZI, T. PAPANGHELIS (edd.), Brill's Companion to Greek and Latin Pastoral,
Leiden/Boston, 2006, p. 515-547.
33
The article used is: J.-F. SCHULZE, “Beobachtungen zu Hymnos und Nikaia bei Nonnos
(Dion. 15.169-422),” Ziva Antika-Antiquité Vivante 18 (1968), p. 223-226 (= ABK 57).

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 B. VERHELST 277

bucolic influences in the Dionysiaca.34 She agrees with Harries about Hymnus’
function as a metapoetical symbol for bucolic poetry but also connects his meaningful
name with the presence of hymnic passages in the Dionysiaca, which, she claims,
increase in number after the bucolic death of Hymnus. This observation is further
elaborated in the last, conclusive chapter, where she also connects it with the famous
statement of the poet in the prologue “ποικίλον ὕμνον ἀράσσω” (D. 1.15). Her
pregnant reading of “ὕμνον” leads her to the hypothesis that the Dionysiaca as a
whole is conceived as a long hymn to Dionysus. The broad range of meanings for
which the word ὕμνος is used in the Dionysiaca is not taken as a counterargument for
its pregnant reading in the prologue, but as a proof that “ὕμνος” can also be a symbol
for the metamorphoses of genres in the Dionysiaca.
Lašek supports her thesis about the structure of the Dionysiaca mainly by
taking over the arguments that had already been used by Lasky, to state that the
structural frame of the Dionysiaca is that of the encomium.35 She adds as extra argu-
ments that the Dionysiaca is largely constructed in a ring-composition, like many
hymns are, and that, as in hymns, many epithets are used. However, these arguments
are rather poorly substantiated and not very convincing. Moreover, also in this
conclusive chapter no satisfactory explanation is provided concerning the research
questions in the introduction. Although many interesting observations are made in this
book, that tries to fill a real gap in Nonnus research, Lašek’s monograph does not
succeed in living up to the expectations raised in the highly promising introduction.

3. Nonnus and his literary examples

The search in the Dionysiaca for traces of Nonnus’ literary examples, extant or
lost, has always been an important line of Nonnus research. The traditional “Quellen-
forschung” has now given way to a more modern approach to intertextuality. For the
last five years we can count ten articles dealing with the subject, the majority of
which study the relationship between Nonnus and his epic predecessors, but also his
Hellenistic models and the influence of the Greek novel on Nonnus’ poetry receive
ample attention.
Instead of focussing on the elements Nonnus copies from his predecessors, the
emphasis now more often lays on the elements that have changed and on the attitude
of the poet towards his models. A good example is the article by Marie-Christine
Fayant on the mechanisms of imitation and transformation used by Nonnus subtle to
provoke his reader to compare the Ampelos-episode with the Hellenistic sources
(Apollonius and Theocritus) on Heracles’ bereavement of Hylas. She describes
Nonnus’ modus operandi aptly as “il n’imite pas ses modèles, il se les approprie”.36

34
B. HARRIES (1994) and B. HARRIES (2006), l.c. (n. 32).
35
E.D. LASKY, l.c. (n. 10).
36
M.-C. FAYANT, “Ampélos, Carpos et Hylas. Nonnos face à Théocrite et Apollonios de
Rhodes,” Aitia 2 (2012). Another contribution on Nonnus and Hellenistic poetry: C. DE
STEFANI, E. MAGNELLI, “Callimachus and later Greek poetry,” in B. ACOSTA-HUGHES et al.
(edd.), Brill's Companion to Callimachus, Leiden/Boston, 2011, p. 534-565.

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278 AS MULTIFORM AS DIONYSUS: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON NONNUS’ DIONYSIACA

The appropriation of traditional epic material can mean a humorous transfor-

mation, as is shown in the articles of Hélène Frangoulis and Claudio De Stefani.37 It
can also mean an ideological transformation, as is demonstrated in the article by
Robert Shorrock. He points out the differences in the treatment of end-of-war-scenes
in Nonnus, Quintus and Homer. According to Shorrock, Dionysus’ benevolence
towards the defeated enemy is put in strong contrast with the attitudes of the Greeks
in Troy by constant intertextual references to Quintus and Homer.38
Hélène Frangoulis likewise stresses not only the use of novelistic motives in
Nonnus, but also their transformation. In the Nicaea-episode, for example, Nonnus
perverts the novelistic topoi of the “blessure d’amour” and the ever futile threats to
the heroin’s virginity. Breaking all novelistic laws, love-sick Hymnus actually dies by
Nicaea’s hand and a helpless Nicaea is brutally violated by Dionysus.39
In addition to these studies, which shed new light on already well-established
cases of intertextual play, recent articles also include research on the less obvious or
more obscure sources of Nonnus, like imperial oracular poetry or the Hellenistic poet,
grammarian and scientist Eratosthenes of Cyrene.40

Aspirant FWO-Vlaanderen Berenice VERHELST

Universiteit Gent

37
C. DE STEFANI, “Homeric Parody in Nonnus,” in B. ACOSTA-HUGHES et al. (edd.),
Homère revisité. Parodie et humour dans les réécritures homériques, Besançon, 2011, p. 65-
79 ; H. FRANGOULIS, “Réécritures parodiques et humoristiques d’Homère chez Nonnos,” in
B. ACOSTA-HUGHES et al. (edd.), o.c., p. 95-106.
38
R. SHORROCK, “Nonnus, Quintus and the Sack of Troy,” in M. BAUMBACH, S. BÄR
(edd.), o.c. (n. 22), p. 379-391. Another contribution on Nonnus and the epic tradition: F. VIAN,
“Echoes and imitations of Apollonius Rhodius in Late Greek Epic,” in T. PAPANGHELIS,
A. RENGAKOS (edd.), A Companion to Apollonius Rhodius, Leiden, p. 387-412.
39
H. FRANGOULIS, “Passion et narration: Nonnos et le roman,” in B. POUDERON, C. BOST-
POUDERON (edd.), Passions, Vertus et vices dans l'ancien roman. Actes du colloque de Tours,
19-21 octobre 2006, Lyon, 2009, p. 367-376 ; Another contribution on Nonnus and the Greek
novel : V. GIRAUDET, “Le rivage, la presqu’île et le marais: espaces baroques chez Achille
Tatius et Nonnos de Panopolis,” in R. POIGNAULT (ed.), Présence du roman grec et latin,
Clermont-Ferrand, 2011, p. 147-166.
40
H. FRANGOULIS, “La fondation de Tyr chez Nonnos. Influence d’Ératosthène,” in
C. CUSSET, H. FRANGOULIS (edd.), Ératosthène. Un athlète du savoir, Saint-Étienne, 2008,
p. 137-148 ; D. GIGLI PICCARDI, “Ancora su Nonno e la poesia oracolare,” Aitia 2 (2012).

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