Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and Cultural Milieu in Late Antiquity with a Section on Nonnus and the Modern World

Description

Nonnus of Panopolis (fifth century CE) composed two poems once thought to be incompatible: the Dionysiaca, a mythological long epic with a marked interest in astrology, the occult, the paradox and not least the beauty of the female body, and a pious and sublime Paraphrase of the Gospel of St John. Little is known about the man, to whom sundry identities have been attached. The longer work has been misrepresented as a degenerate poem or as a mythological handbook. The Christian poem has been neglected or undervalued. Yet, Nonnus accomplished an ambitious plan, in two parts, aiming at representing world-history. This volume consists mainly of the Proceedings of the First International Conference on Nonnus held in Rethymno, Crete in May 2011. With twentyfour essays, an international team of specialists place Nonnus firmly in his time's context. After an authoritative Introduction by Pierre Chuvin, chapters on Nonnus and the literary past, the visual arts, Late Antique paideia, Christianity and his immediate and long-range afterlife (to modern times) offer a wide-ranging and innovative insight into the man and his world. The volume moves on beyond stereotypes to inaugurate a new era of research for Nonnus and Late Antique poetics on the whole. Preface Abbreviations List of Contributors I: Introduction Revisiting Old Problems: Literature and Religion in the Dionysiaca II: Nonnus and the Literary Past Peitho in Nonnus’ Dionysiaca: the Case of Cadmus and Harmonia Oracles in the Dionysiaca Nonnus and the Orphic Argonautica Orpheus and Orphic Hymns in the Dionysiaca Ovidian Metamorphosis and Nonnian poikilon eidos Image-Making and the Art of Paraphrasing: Aspects of Darkness and Light in the Metabole III: Nonnus and the Visual Arts Contextualizing Nonnus’ Visual World Personifications at the Service of Dionysus: the Bacchic Court IV: Nonnus and Late Antique Paideia Faith and Fidelity in Biblical Epic The Methaphrasis Psalmorum, Nonnus, and the Theory of Translation Nonnus’ Mystic Vocabulary Revisited: Mystis in Dionysiaca 9.111–31 Neoplatonic Form and Content in Nonnus: Towards a New Reading of Nonnian Poetics Rhetorical Elements in the Ampelus-episode: Dionysus’ Speech to Ampelus (Nonn. Dion. 10.196–216) Appositives in Nonnus’ Hexameter V: Nonnus and Christianity Judaic Orgies and Christ’s Bacchic Deeds: Dionysiac Terminology in Nonnus’ Paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel City and Landscape in Nonnus’ Paraphrase 12.51–69: Poetry and Exegesis A Classical Myth in a Christian World: Nonnus’ Ariadne Episode (Dion. 47.265–475) The Shield of Salvation: Dionysus’ Shield in Nonnus Dionysiaca 25.380–572 VI: The “School” of Nonnus The End of the “Nonnian School” Poetic Inspiration in John of Gaza: Emotional Upheaval and Ecstasy in a Neoplatonic Poet Nonnus in Gaza The Expansion of Modern Poetry from Egypt to Palestine in the Early Sixth Century CE A Learned Spiritual Ladder? Towards an Interpretation of George of Pisidia’s Hexameter Poem On Human Life VII: Nonnus and the Modern World Simone Weil, Reader of the Dionysiaca The Heros’ Quest of Dionysus as Individuation of an Age Approaching the Dionysiaca under the Aspect of Jungian Archetypes and the Monomyth of Joseph Campbell Bibliography List of Figures Index of Greek Words or Phrases Index of Passages General Index