Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis Brill’s Companions in Classical Studies The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bccs Brill’s Companion to Nonnus of Panopolis Edited by Domenico Accorinti LEIDEN | BOSTON Cover illustration: Panel with the Triumph of Dionysus from Akhmim (Panopolis), 4th–6th century. Tapestry weave in wool and linen, 22 cm high × 34 cm wide. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of George F. Baker, 1890, inv. no. 90.5.873. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Collection Online (url: http://www.metmuseum.org). Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC). Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Accorinti, Domenico, editor. Title: Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis / Edited by Domenico  Accorinti. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Brill’s companions in  classical studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015047330 (print) | LCCN 2015049109 (ebook) | ISBN  9789004310117 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9789004310698 (E-book) Subjects: LCSH: Nonnus, of Panopolis—Criticism and interpretation. Classification: LCC PA4252 .B75 2016 (print) | LCC PA4252 (ebook) | DDC  883/.01—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015047330 Want or need Open Access? Brill Open offers you the choice to make your research freely accessible online in exchange for a publication charge. Review your various options on brill.com/brill-open. Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1872-3357 isbn 978-9004-31011-7 (hardback) isbn 978-9004-31069-8 (e-book) Copyright 2016 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner. In memory of Rudolf Keydell (1887–1982) and Francis Vian (1917–2008) ⸪ Contents Acknowledgements xi List of Abbreviations xvi List of Illustrations xix List of Contributors xxiii Introduction: Becoming A Classic 1 Domenico Accorinti Part 1 Author, Context, and Religion 1 The Poet from Panopolis: An Obscure Biography and a Controversial Figure 11 Domenico Accorinti 2 Nonnus’ Panopolis 54 Peter van Minnen 3 The Religious Background of Nonnus 75 Jitse H.F. Dijkstra Part 2 The Dionysiaca 4 Nonnus and Dionysiac-Orphic Religion 91 Alberto Bernabé and Rosa García-Gasco 5 The Poet of Dionysus: Birth of the Last among the Gods 111 Pierre Chuvin 6 Major Themes and Motifs in the Dionysiaca 125 Fotini Hadjittofi 7 Minor Characters in the Dionysiaca 152 Berenice Verhelst viii contents 8 Narrative and Digression in the Dionysiaca 173 Camille Geisz 9 The Psychology in the Dionysiaca 193 Ronald F. Newbold Part 3 The Paraphrase of St John’s Gospel 10 Nonnus and Biblical Epic 215 Mary Whitby 11 Approaching the ‘Spiritual Gospel’: Nonnus as Interpreter of John 240 Roberta Franchi 12 Nonnus’ Paraphrastic Technique: A Case Study of Self-Recognition in John 9 267 Scott Fitzgerald Johnson 13 Nonnus and Christian Literature 289 Christos Simelidis 14 Nonnus’ Christology 308 Fabian Sieber 15 The Mystery Terminology in Nonnus’ Paraphrase 327 Filip Doroszewski Part 4 Metre, Style, Poetry, and Visual Arts 16 The Nonnian Hexameter 353 Enrico Magnelli 17 Nonnus’ Conventional Formulaic Style 372 Gennaro D’Ippolito Contents ix 18 Nonnus and the Play of Genres 402 Anna Maria Lasek 19 Nonnus’ Poetics 422 Daria Gigli Piccardi 20 Nonnus and the Poetry of Ekphrasis in the Dionysiaca 443 Riemer A. Faber 21 Nonnus and the Art of Late Antiquity 460 Troels Myrup Kristensen Part 5 Nonnus and the Classical Tradition 22 Nonnus and the Homeric Poems 481 Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll 23 Composing the Masters: An Essay on Nonnus and Hellenistic Poetry 507 Benjamin Acosta-Hughes 24 Nonnus and Imperial Greek Poetry 529 Calum Alasdair Maciver 25 Nonnus and the Novel 549 Laura Miguélez-Cavero Part 6 An Interpretation of Nonnus’ Work 26 Christian Themes in the Dionysiaca 577 Robert Shorrock 27 Pagan Themes in the Paraphrase 601 Konstantinos Spanoudakis