Nonnus

by

Gianfranco Agosti

• LAST MODIFIED: 27 February 2019
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195389661-0332

Introduction

Nonnus of Panopolis (approximately 400–460/470 CE) is the undisputed protagonist of the flourishing of Greek poetry in Late Antiquity. He composed the Dionysiaca, the longest extant Greek epic poem on the life of Dionysus, his war and triumph over the Indians, his progress from the Near East to Thebes, and his eventual apotheosis (more than twenty-one thousand verses, in forty-eight books, the sum of the Iliad and the Odyssey). The poem begins with the abduction of Europa and a long section about Cadmus, and then describes the birth and youth of Dionysus (Books 1–12). Books 13–24 are devoted to the first part of the war against Indians, with the catalogues of the troops and the first battles. After a second prologue, the conclusion of the war against Indians is narrated, with the final battle and the death of the Indian king Deriades (Books 25–40). This section “rewrites” the Iliad in a very innovative way. In Books 40–48 the poet deals with Dionysus’ return to Phrygia, his visits to Tyre and Beirut, and also Thebes, Naxos, and Phrygia again, and his apotheosis. Nonnus is also the author of a long metrical Paraphrase of St John’s Gospel, where he displays a deep theological knowledge (around 3,700 hexameters). Recent research demonstrated that the coexistence of a mythological and a Christian poem was perfectly acceptable. Nonnus was a Christian, addressing the cultivated mixed elites of Alexandria. He introduced into the tradition of epic poetry a new style, based on manneristic exuberance and imaginative language, as well as a reform of the hexameter based on regularity and stress accents. Nonnus was very popular in Late Antiquity. His style was followed by several poets of the 5th and 6th century CE, who recognized in him a new classic to imitate. Among these followers, there are Pamprepius of Panopolis, Musaeus, Colluthus of Lycopolis, Christodorus of Coptos, John of Gaza, Agathias, Paul the Silentiary and the “minor” epigrammatists of Agathias’s Cycle, as well as several metrical inscriptions and fragmentary poems transmitted by papyri. In the subsequent centuries, some Byzantine literates found it appealing and profited from its exuberant vocabulary. From the Renaissance onward Nonnus had his admirers (especially during the Baroque age). After a period of classicizing prejudice, in scholarship there is now a growing interest for his works.

General Overviews

The best introductions to Nonnus are Vian 1976 (dealing mainly with the Dionysiaca), Gigli Piccardi 2003, and Accorinti 2013. Livrea 1989 is important for the Paraphrase. Although there are no comparable overviews in English, students can confidently use Shorrock 2005, focused especially on the Dionysiaca, and the sympathetic presentation by Schmitz 2009. Chuvin 2018 is a convenient introduction to the main literary and religious questions. Students should also consult general surveys of Greek poetry in Late Antiquity, which give a broader picture of Nonnus’s cultural and literary context: Agosti 2012, Cameron 2016, Whitby and Roberts 2018.

• Accorinti, Domenico. 2013. Nonnos von Panopolis. In Reallexicon für Antike und Christentum. Vol. 25. Edited by Georg Schöllgen, 1107–1129. Stuttgart: Hiersemann.

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  According to the format of the Reallexicon entries, biographical data, religion, works, and reception are concisely, but exhaustively, treated. In German.

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• Agosti, Gianfranco. 2012. Greek poetry. In The Oxford handbook of Late Antiquity. Edited by Scott Fitzgerald Johnson, 361–404. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  Introduction to Greek poetry from the 4th to the 6th century CE, focusing on literary and sociocultural aspects, with a signposted bibliography of editions and translations as well as secondary literature.

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• Cameron, Alan. 2016. Poetry and literary culture in Late Antiquity. In Wandering poets and other essays on late Greek literature and philosophy. By Alan Cameron, 163–184. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  Revised edition of the chapter already published in 2004 in Approaching Late Antiquity: The transformation from Early to Late Empire. Edited by Simon Swain and Mark Edwards, 327–354. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Greek and Latin poets in a broader framework are considered.

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• Chuvin, Pierre. 2018. Introduction: Nonnus, from our time to his: A retrospective glance at Nonnian studies (notably the Dionysiaca) since the 1930s. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 1–18. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  An excellent overview of the main critical problems raised by Nonnus’s poems (authorship, religion, style, and literary features) and the scholarly debate since the 1930s.

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• Gigli Piccardi, Daria. 2003. Nonno di Panopoli. Le Dionisiache. Volume I. Canti 1–12. Milan: BUR Rizzoli.

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  A detailed introduction to the poet, his works, and cultural project, at pp. 7–101. In Italian.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1989. Nonno di Panopoli: Parafrasi del Vangelo di San Giovanni, Canto XVIII. Naples, Italy: D’Auria.

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  Offers the best introduction to the Christian poem at pp. 1–35. For experienced students of Nonnus. In Italian.

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• Schmitz, A. Thomas. 2009. Nonnus and his tradition. In Reading the Bible intertextually. Edited by Richard B. Hays, Stefan Alkier, and Leroy Andrew Huizenga, 171–191. Waco, TX: Baylor Univ. Press.

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  English translation of a German paper of 2005 (“Nonnos und seine Tradition.” In Die Bibel im Dialog der Schriften. Konzepte intertextueller Bibellektüre. Edited by Stefan Alkier and Richard B. Hays, 195–216. Tübingen, Germany: Francke). General introduction to the poet and his works, through an analysis of select passages from both of his poems. Focuses on Nonnus’s engagement with the literary tradition, as well as the purpose of the Paraphrase, and its possible audience.

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• Shorrock, Robert. 2005. Nonnus. In A companion to ancient epic. Edited by John Miles Fowley, 374–385. Oxford: Blackwell.

  DOI: 10.1002/9780470996614.ch28Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A suitable introduction to the Dionysiaca written by a great specialist, providing information about the author, the form, and content of the poem, on its intertextuality, metapoetic tendencies, and reception.

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• Vian, Francis. 1976. Nonnos de Panopolis. Les Dionysiaques. Tome I. Chants I-II. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

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  A readable and rich survey on the poet and his biography, the structure of the poem, the style, and meter (pp., IX–LV). In French.

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• Whitby, Mary, and Michael Roberts. 2018. Epic poetry. In A companion to late antique literature. Edited by Scott McGill and Edward J. Watts, 222–240. London: John Wiley.

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  A survey of late antique epic poetry, organised by literary genres (mythological poetry, panegyrical or occasional, didactic, and Christian), with a rich bibliography.

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Biography and Cultural Milieu

We do not have any ancient account of Nonnus’s biography (Accorinti 2016 is now the reference treatment, with a scrutiny of all the evidence). He probably lived between the beginning of the 5th century to about 470 CE (the date of the first followers of Nonnus’s style). An epigram in the Greek Anthology (9.198), probably penned by the poet himself, informs us that he came from the city of Panopolis (Upper Egypt, modern Achmîm), and composed (or recited?) his poems in Alexandria (the island of Pharos is mentioned also in Dionysiaca 1.13). Albert Wifstrand rightly interpreted this epigram as a “book epigram” (Wifstrand 1933: 166–167, cited under Meter), which, as brilliantly argued by Enrico Livrea, referred to both poems (Livrea 1989, cited under Textual Tradition; see now Castelli 2017 for a reappraisal of the epigram). Nonnus’s hometown, Panopolis, was a living center of Greek culture and education, and the homeland of several pagan and Christian poets from the 3rd to the 5th century CE (Miguélez Cavero 2008, cited under Language and Style; van Minnen 2016). The most talented and ambitious of these usually were attracted to Alexandria, as a great opportunity to boost their career (Cameron 2016a) and Nonnus was no exception. This is all that we know about him. It is possible to infer a personal knowledge of Tyre and Berytus (Beirut) from the descriptions of their sites in the major poem (Livrea 1987). Livrea 2003 identifies the poet with Nonnus bishop of Edessa from 449 to 451 and 457 to 471, mentioned in the Life of St Pelagia, but elaborate theory has been disputed (Cameron 2016b). Nor he is likely to be identified with the abbot Nonnus (6th century CE?), author of a mythological commentary on some of Gregory of Nazianzus’s Sermons (see Accorinti 2016: 34–37). The Paraphrase was surely composed after the publication of the Commentary on John’s Gospel by Cyril of Alexandria (425–428 CE), one of the major exegetical sources of Nonnus’s interpretation of the Gospel (Golega 1930). The fiercely discussed problem of the relative chronology of the poems has been solved by Francis Vian (Vian 1997), who argued that Nonnus initiated the composition of the Paraphrase first, but soon began that of the Dionysiaca before this was completed, and the two overlapped for some years (some doubts, however, are cast by Sieber 2018). Many scholars now favour the period 430–450/60 CE.

• Accorinti, Domenico. 2016. The poet from Panopolis: An obscure biography and a controversial figure. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 11–53. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  A rich survey of the ancient evidence and modern research on Nonnus’s life. Special attention is devoted to the biographical notices in Byzantine lexica.

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• Cameron, Alan. 2016a. Wandering poets: A literary movement in Byzantine Egypt. In Wandering poets and other essays on Late Greek literature and philosophy. Edited by Alan Cameron, 1–35. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190268947.003.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Revised edition of the seminal article of 1965 (published in Historia 14: 470–509), reconstructing the life and career of the professional poets in Late Antiquity, most of whom were of Egyptian origin (on Nonnus see pp. 4–19, 19–20).

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• Cameron, Alan. 2016b. The poet, the bishop, and the harlot. In Wandering poets and other essays on late Greek literature and philosophy. Edited by Alan Cameron, 81–90. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  Revised edition of the article with the same title published in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 41 (2000), 175–188. Disputes Livrea’s identification of Nonnus with the bishop of Edessa. According to Cameron, there is no serious proof that the Nonnus mentioned in the Life of St Pelagia is the bishop of Edessa, and it is quite improbable that a bishop devoted his spare time to compose a secular poem like the Dionysiaca.

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• Castelli, Emanuele. 2017. Il titolo taciuto. Sull’epigramma IX, 198 dell’Anthologia Palatina e la trasmissione dei Dionysiaca di Nonno di Panopoli. Byzantinische Zeitschrift 110:631–644.

  DOI: 10.1515/bz-2017-0017Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The epigram AP 9.198 refers only to the Dionysiaca, with precise references to the beginning (Book 1) the middle (Book 25) and the end of the work (Book 48). Its authorship is far from being certain, as well as its function as editorial epigram. In Italian.

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• Golega, Joseph. 1930. Studien über di Evangeliendichtung des Nonnos von Panopolis. Ein Beitrag zu der Geschichte der Bibeldichtung im Altertum. Breslau, Poland: Verlag Müller & Seiffert.

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  The fundamental monograph on the Paraphrase discusses at length the chronology of the poem, and demonstrates Nonnus’s dependence on Cyril of Alexandria’s commentary on John’s Gospel (see pp. 88–115). In German.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1987. Il poeta e il vescovo. La questione nonniana e la storia. Prometheus 13:97–123

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  Offers a date of 445–450 CE for both poems and identifies Nonnus with the bishop of Edessa, also arguing that the latter is the same Nonnus involved in the repentance of a famous dancer according to the 5th/6th century Life of St Pelagia the Harlot. Reprinted in Livrea 1991, pp. 439–462 (cited under Collections of Essays). In Italian.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 2003. The Nonnus question revisited. In Des Géants à Dionysos: Mélanges de mythologie et de poésie grecques offerts à Francis Vian. Edited by Domenico Accorinti and Pierre Chuvin, 447–455. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.

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  An answer to Cameron’s objections, reaffirming the identification of the poet with Nonnus of Edessa.

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• Sieber, Fabian. 2018. Words and their meaning: On the chronology of the Paraphrasis of St John’s Gospel. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 156–165. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  The paper points out that it is impossible to interpret the dogmatic terms of the Paraphrase as a clear expression of dogmatic thought. Questions the relative chronology proposed by Vian 1997, suggests that the poem fits better in a post-Chalcedonian context (i.e., after 451 CE).

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• Van Minnen, Peter. 2016. Nonnus’ Panopolis. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 11–53. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  An insightful outline of the cultural rise of Panopolis in Late Antiquity, with an account of the major protagonists, including Coptic culture, and a brief view on intellectuals active under the Arabs. Explains the flourishing of paideia in the city (and in Egypt) in sociocultural terms (creation of a new urban elite, increased social mobility, and clusters of Panopolitan intellectuals).

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• Vian, Francis. 1997. ΜΑΡΤΥΣ chez Nonnos de Panopolis: étude de sémantique et de chronologie. Revue des études grecques 110:143–160.

  DOI: 10.3406/reg.1997.2715Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Through a detailed study of the stock phrases with martys (witness), very frequent in both Nonnian poems, the author demonstrates that the Paraphrase came first and that the two poems have probably been composed in parallel during several years. Reprinted in Francis Vian, L’épopée posthomérique: Recueil d’études. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 565–584. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso, 2005). In French.

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Collections of Essays

The wide-ranging essays collected in Domenico 2016, integrating chapters by senior and younger scholars from sixteen different countries, attests to the renaissance of Nonnian studies. Hopkinson 1994 was the first important miscellaneous book on Dionysiaca and significantly contributed to the renewal of interest in Nonnus’s poetry. Audano 2008 collected essays on both the poems and cultural context. The first international conference ever devoted to the poet was promoted in 2011 by Konstantinos Spanoudakis (see Spanoudakis 2014). This became a recurring event: Nonnus of Panopolis in Context II (Vienna 2013: see Bannert and Kröll 2018), III (Warsaw 2015), and IV (Ghent 2018). The collected papers of three leading scholars in Greek poetry, Enrico Livrea, Rudolf Keydell, and Francis Vian, deserve a special mention for being an invaluable mine of erudition, philological and literary criticism. Keydell 1982 and Vian 2005 are mainly devoted to the Dionysiaca, while Livrea 1991, Livrea 1993, and Livrea 1995 are of special importance for the text and interpretation of the Paraphrase.

• Audano, Sergio, ed. 2008. Nonno e i suoi lettori. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.

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  A collection of essays in Italian on the poet and his world, ranging from close readings to general studies on visual arts, audience, and the debated relations between Nonnus and some of his contemporaries.

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• Bannert, Herbert, and Nicole Kröll, eds. 2018. Nonnus of Panopolis in Context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Twenty essays dealing with literary and religious aspects of the Nonnian poems, as well as their reception.

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• Domenico, Accorinti, ed. 2016. Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Thirty-two chapters, dealing adequately with any aspect of Nonnian scholarship, from biography to style and language, structure and themes of the poems, literary and religious problems. It will be the reference handbook on Nonnus for many years.

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• Hopkinson, Neil, ed. 1994. Studies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. Cambridge, UK: The Cambridge Philological Society.

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  Seven essays by specialists of poetry and history of Late Antiquity, focusing on Nonnus’s relations to Homer (Hopkinson, a seminal paper), the imitation of Hellenistic poetry (Hollis), Nonnus and bucolic poetry (Harris), the structure of the Indian war (Vian), the evolution of Nonnian style (Whitby, a groundbreaking chapter), Dionysus a epic hero (Bowersock), local traditions in the poem (Chuvin).

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• Keydell, Rudolf. 1982. Kleine Schriften zur hellenistischen und spätgriechischen Dichtung (1911–1979). Edited by Werner Peek. Leipzig: Zentralantiquariat der DDR.

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  Chapters on Nonnus pp. 131–154, 225–237, 392–581, 695–696. In German.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1991. Studia Hellenistica. 2 vols. Florence: Gonnelli.

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  Chapters on Nonnus pp. 27–28, 439–490. In Italian.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1993. ΚΡΕϹϹΟΝΑ ΒΑΣΚΑΝΙΗϹ. Quindici studi di poesia ellenistica. Messina and Florence, Italy: D’Anna.

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  Chapters on Nonnus pp. 201–234. In Italian.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1995. Da Callimaco a Nonno: Dieci studi di poesia ellenistica. Messina, Italy: D’Anna.

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  Chapters on Nonnus pp. 133–148. In Italian.

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• Spanoudakis, Konstantinos, ed. 2014. Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Proceedings of the first international conference on Nonnus (Rethymno, Crete, 13th–15th May 2011). Eighteen essays dealing with style, language, meter, poetics, relation with visual arts, reception.

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• Vian, Francis. 2005. L’épopée posthomérique: Recueil d’études. Edited by Domenico Accorinti. Alessandria, Italy: Edizioni dell’Orso.

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  Chapters on Nonnus pp. 379–608. In French.

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Bibliographies

One of the many merits of D’Ippolito 1964 is to provide a comprehensive bibliography of Nonnian scholarship from the Renaissance up to 1964. For the years 1980–2016, four detailed bibliographical surveys on the contribution to the major poem are now available: Bannert and Kröll 2011, Bannert and Kröll 2016, Verhelst 2013, and Lauritzen 2013–2014. Combining all these bibliographies, scholars have almost a complete list of all that has been published on the Dionysiaca. The Christian poem is not well served, although the bibliographies found in editions of single books (cited under Editions, Translations, and Commentaries) give a substantially complete list up to 2013. The L’Année Philologique database and the A Hellenistic Bibliography database are always useful.

• L’Année Philologique. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1924–.

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  The reference bibliography for classics and ancient history. Also available online.

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• A Hellenistic Bibliography.

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  Extremely useful tool edited by Martine Cuypers. Last update July 2012, but it is in progress. Bare titles.

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• Bannert, Herbert, and Nicole Kröll 2011. Nonnos von Panopolis 1. Bericht: Dionysiaka, umfassend im Wesentlichen die Jahre 1980–2010. Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 64:1–44.

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  Painstaking survey of eighty-eight items, with abstract and discussion. In German.

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• Bannert, Herbert, and Nicole Kröll 2016. Nonnos von Panopolis 2. Bericht: Dionysiaka, umfassend die Jahre 2010–2016. Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaft 69:129–174.

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  Continues Bannert and Kröll 2011 (items from 89 to 145). In German.

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• D’Ippolito, Gennaro. 1964. Studi Nonniani. L’epillio nelle Dionisiache. Palermo, Italy: Presso l’Accademia.

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  Lists 375 items, at pp. 271–289. In Italian.

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• Lauritzen, Delphine, ed. 2013–2014. Bulletin critique: La floraison des études nonniennes en Europe (1976–2014) Revue des Études Tardo-antiques 3:299–321.

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  Geographically organized (sections also on Poland and Georgia). Contributions on both Nonnian poems are scrutinized. In French.

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• Verhelst, Berenice. 2013. As multiform as Dionysus: New perspectives on Nonnus’ Dionysiaca. L’Antiquité Classique 82:267–278.

  DOI: 10.3406/antiq.2013.3840Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Review of articles and books on the Dionysiaca, from 2008 to 2012.

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Textual Tradition

The text of the Dionysiaca is transmitted by a small group of manuscripts that all stem from the Laurentianus 32.16 (where the poem is anonymous), copied in 1280 CE in the atelier of Maximos Planudes. On the history of the textual tradition readers should first consult Keydell 1959 and Vian 1976. The existence of a second family represented by a lost manuscript A (few lines from an Athos manuscript now lost copied by the humanist Ciriaco D’Ancona in 1444) is controversial. The only ancient witness, a papyrus of the 6th/7th century CE with portions of Books 14–16, suggest the circulation of single books before the compete edition (Castelli 2017), and dramatically shows how corrupted the medieval tradition is. The Laurentianus also transmits a summary in verses, consisting in a couplet of hexameters for every book (see Zuenelli 2016). The manuscripts of the Paraphrase divide into two families. The first is represented by a single manuscript of the 10th century (abbreviated as L), where the text is anonymous. The description by Scheindler 1881 is still valid. However, the revision of the manuscript tradition by Livrea 1989, and then by other editors of single books, greatly contributed to clarify difficult points (all cited under Editions, Translations, and Commentaries). The excellent survey by De Stefani 2016 offers all key information and relevant bibliography, also dealing with the first circulation of the poem in the modern age.

• Castelli, Emanuele. 2017. I canti separati. Il Pap. Berol. 10567 e la più antica tradizione dei ΔΙΟΝΥΣΙΑΚΑ di Nonno di Panopoli. Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 204:47–54.

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  The papyrus P.Berol. inv. 10567 points out that the Dionysiaca circulated in single book-editions.

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• De Stefani, Claudio. 2016. Brief notes on the manuscript tradition of Nonnus’ works. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 671–685. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Comprehensive and detailed survey of the tradition of both poems. As regards the Paraphrase he points out that the relations between witnesses of the second family is more problematic than usually admitted and proposes two new, alternative, stemmas.

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• Keydell, Rudolf. 1959. Nonni Panopolitani Dionysiaca. 2 vols. Berlin: Weidmann.

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  The section “De codicibus” at pp. 11*–27* is fundamental for the accurate description of the orthographical features of the Laurentian manuscript. In Latin.

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• Livrea, Enrico. 1989. Nonno di Panopoli: Parafrasi del Vangelo di San Giovanni, Canto XVIII. Naples, Italy: D’Auria.

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  New description of the manuscript tradition, with several improvements, at pp. 69–83. In Italian.

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• Scheindler, Augustinus. 1881. Nonni Panopolitani Paraphrasis S. Evangelii Joannei accedit S. Evangelii textus et index verborum. Leipzig: Teubner.

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  Description of the manuscripts and study of their relations at pp. V–XXXV. In Latin.

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• Vian, Francis. 1976. Nonnos de Panopolis. Les Dionysiaques. Tome I. Chants I-II. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.

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  The section “Histoire du Texte”, pp. LXV–LXVIII offers a very clear presentation of the manuscript tradition. Vian inclines to think that manuscript A represented a different branch of the transmission. In French.

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• Zuenelli, Simon. 2016. Die Perioche der Dionysiaka als Mittel der Selbstinszenierung. Mnemosyne 69:572–596.

  DOI: 10.1163/1568525X-12341875Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  On Nonnian authorship of the couplets (periochae) summarizing each book. Suggests that Nonnus aimed at giving his poem the status of a canonical work, imitating the practice of editorial epigrams. In German.

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Editions, Translations, and Commentaries

The study on the text of Nonnus’s poems has considerably progressed and students can consult several excellent editions, as well as commentaries. Modern translations are also available.

Lexica

Both Nonnus’s poems are searchable in the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae online (text according to Keydell 1959, cited under Dionysiaca and Scheindler 1881, cited under Paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel). The lexicon edited by Werner Peek is a fundamental tool for any serious research on Nonnus’s language (Peek 1968–1975). Since these tools are based on Scheindler and Keydell’s text, students should always check the quotations against most recent editions. Espinar Ojeda 2002 is a lexicon of neologisms. As for the Paraphrase, readers should use the index of Greek words in Scheindler 1881 (cited under Paraphrase of St. John’s Gospel) and the concordance by Coulie and Sherry 1995.

• Coulie, Bernard, and Lee Francis Sherry. 1995. Thesaurus Pseudo-Nonni quondam Panopolitani. Paraphrasis Evangelii S. Ioannis. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.

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  Printed text and microfiches. Authors support the opinion (rejected by almost all scholars) that the Paraphrase is an anonymous cento (patchwork) of Nonnus’s Dionysiaca.

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• Espinar Ojeda, José Louis. 2002. La adjetivación en las Dionisíacas de Nono de Panópolis: Tradición e innovación. Hapax absolutos y no absolutos. PhD. diss., Málaga Univ.

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  Comprehensive treatment of Nonnian coinages, divided into two categories: new words that appear just once (absolute hapax) and new words that are used more than once in both Nonnian poems. In Spanish.

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• Peek, Werner. 1968–1975. Lexikon zu den Dionysiaka des Nonnos. Herausgegeben von einer Arbeitsgruppe des Instituts für Klassische Philologie an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg unter Leitung von Werner Peek. Berlin and Hildesheim, Germany: Akademie-Verlag/Olms.

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  Occurrences of the words in different positions of the hexameter, the various meanings, and quotations of the context. Nonnian coinages are marked with an asterisk (several of them, however, occur already in previous poets, as recent research pointed out, compare Espinar Ojeda 2002). In German.

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Language and Style

There is still no systematic account of Nonnus’s language. The excellent paragraph in Keydell 1959, and the chapters in the editions of single books of the Paraphrase (all cited under Editions, Translations, and Commentaries), provide all relevant information on morphology and syntax. Plentiful studies have been devoted to Nonnus’s style and his poetics of variation (poikilia). The most convenient introduction in English is Braden 1978, while Miguélez Cavero 2008 is much more analytical and rich in examples. Gigli Piccardi 1985 is a pivotal study of Nonnian metaphors. Mannerism, variation, and formularity have been explored at large respectively in Riemschneider 1957, String 1966, and D’Ippolito 2016. For repetition, see Schmiel 1998, and for ekphrasis Faber 2016. Whitby 1994 offers an admirable survey of the progressive development of Nonnus’s style from late Hellenism.

• Braden, Gordon. 1978. The classics and English Renaissance poetry. Three case studies. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale Univ. Press.

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  In the chapter devoted to the fortune of Musaeus’s Hero and Leander offers a perceptive and effective description of the main linguistic and rhetorical features of Nonnian style (pp. 55–71).

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• D’Ippolito, Gennaro. 2016. Nonnus’ conventional formulaic style. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 372–401. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_019Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Full study of Nonnus’s formulaic style in both of his poems, dealing with formulas for introducing and closing speeches, descriptions of dawn and sunset, and physiognomic descriptions. The comparison with Homeric formulaic language betrays Nonnus’s effort to achieve creative originality.

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• Faber, Riemer. 2016. Nonnus and the poetry of ekphrasis in the Dionysiaca. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 444–459. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Sound work on the interrelationship between the visual arts and Nonnian poetry, focusing on the meta-literary meaning of ekphrasis, which draws the reader’s attention to the artistic qualities of the poem.

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• Gigli Piccardi, Daria. 1985. Metafora e poetica in Nonno di Panopoli. Florence, Italy: Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità “G. Pasquali”.

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  A groundbreaking and thorough study of metaphors in Nonnian poetry. Literary antecedents and models of metaphoric fields are meticulously examined. The appendix on the influence of oracular language on the Dionysiaca is particularly important.

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• Keydell, Rudolf. 1959. Nonni Panopolitani Dionysiaca. 2 vols. Berlin: Weidmann.

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  Detailed description of morphology and syntax (Volume 1, pp. 43*–71*). Fundamental. In Latin.

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• Miguélez Cavero, Laura. 2008. Poems in context: Poetry in the Egyptian Thebaid 200–600 AD. Berlin: De Gruyter.

  DOI: 10.1515/9783110210415Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A valuable, detailed study of Greek poetry flourishing in the Thebaid region in Egypt and the so-called “school of Nonnus,” with chapters on education and social aspects. The second part offers a comprehensive treatment of the main features of the style of Nonnus and his followers: meter, adjectives, vocabulary, rhetoric, poetics (pp. 106–190, 264–366). Packed with bibliographical references.

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• Riemschneider, Margarete. 1957. Der Stil des Nonnos. In Aus der byzantinistischen Arbeit der DDR, I. Edited by Johannes Irmscher, 46–70. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag.

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  Classical study on some fundamental components of Nonnus’s style, like the line, the movement, the illusory image, and the paradox. In German.

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• Schmiel, Robert. 1998. Repetition in Nonnos’ Dionysiaca. Philologus 142:326–334.

  DOI: 10.1524/phil.1998.142.2.326Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Scrutinizes various kinds of repetitions and their functions.

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• String, Martin. 1966. Untersuchungen zum Stil der Dionysiaka des Nonnos von Panopolis. PhD diss., Univ. of Hamburg.

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  A thorough study of the major poem, focusing on the principle of variation. In German.

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• Whitby, Mary. 1994. From Moschus to Nonnus: The evolution of the Nonnian style. In Studies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. Edited by Neil Hopkinson, 99–155. Cambridge, UK: The Cambridge Philological Society.

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  A seminal article, demonstrating that the progressive elaboration behind Nonnian style and the creation of the new hexameter should not be viewed as parallel. The style was the result of a gradual process, starting already in the middle and late Hellenistic age, which Nonnus brought to completion, while the reshape of the hexameter was his own original creation.

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Meter

Scholarship of the 19th century painstakingly described rules and restrictions in Nonnian hexameter (Ludwich 1889). Wifstrand 1933 made a decisive step further, realizing that Nonnus used regulation of stress accent in the middle and at the end of the verse, and restrictions of word ends. Dactyls by far predominate and the verse is structured into two parts (cola) with the minimum possible rhythm patterns (only nine) and a regular number of syllables (Jeffreys 1981). Agosti and Gonnelli 1995 set Nonnus’s hexameter in a broader context. Recently, other refinements to hexameter have been brought to light (Magnelli 2016).

• Agosti, Gianfranco, and Fabrizio Gonnelli. 1995. Materiali per la storia dell’esametro nei poeti cristiani greci. In Struttura e storia dell’esametro greco. I. Edited by Marco Fantuzzi and Roberto Pretagostini, 289–434. Rome: Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale.

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  A thorough study of the meter of Greek Christian poets from the 4th to 6th century, considered against the paradigm of Nonnian metrics. Paraphrase at pp. 299–358.

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• Jeffreys, Michael J. 1981. Byzantine Metrics: Non-literary strata. Jahrbuch der Österreischen Byzantinistik 31:313–334.

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  A few, but illuminating pages on the function of Nonnian hexameter (pp. 315–319). Stress accents and regular number of syllables helped the audience to recognize the inner structure.

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• Ludwich, Arthur. 1889. Der Hexameter des Nonnos. In Theorie der musischen Künste der Hellenen, III/2: Griechische Metrik. Edited by A. Rossbach-R. Westphal, 55–79. Leipzig, Germany: Teubner.

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  Summary of the 19th-century research, with figures. In German.

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• Magnelli, Enrico. 2016. The Nonnian hexameter. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 353–370. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  An up-to-date presentation of the main features of Nonnus’s verse. Arrangement of dactyls and spondees, prosodic rules, accents, pauses and bridges, and other minor features. Suggests that the success of Nonnus’s hexameter was due to its potential ambivalence, since one can read it both according to the classical prosodic principles and to the stress accent regulation.

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• Wifstrand, Albert. 1933. Von Kallimachos zu Nonnos: metrisch–stilistische Untersuchungen zur späteren griechischen Epik und zu verwandten Gedichtgattungen. Lund, Sweden: Gleerup.

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  A pivotal work, still fundamental for any research on Greek epic of the imperial age and Late Antiquity. Chapters on the role of stress accents, on the development of stylistic trends in late antique epic poetry and epigram. In German.

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Literary Studies

The only monograph covering both Nonnian poems is that by Shorrock, who convincingly advocates an interpretation of Nonnus’s works as a unitary project. Readers should also consult Domenico 2016 and the proceedings edited by Spanoudakis 2014 and Bannert and Kröll 2018 (all cited under Collections of Essays) for several chapters dealing with literary analysis that are not here fully quoted.

• Shorrock, Robert. 2011. The myth of paganism: Nonnus, Dionysus and the world of Late Antiquity. London: Bristol Classical Press.

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  Emphasizes the interconnectedness between Christian and secular culture in Nonnus’s oeuvre. Offers several examples of mutual intertextuality between the two poems and sets them in the broader context of late antique high-literary culture.

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Models and Poetics

Nonnus had an impressive knowledge of the literary tradition and several studies focus on his engagement with it, especially with Homer (Shorrock 2001, Bannert and Kröll 2016, cited under Bibliographies) Hellenistic poetry (Hollis 1994, Massimilla 2016), and the novel (Frangoulis 2014). Fauth 1981 is a pivotal study on his poetics, based on variation (poikilia) and metamorphosis; Accorinti 2009 focuses on Nonnus’s claims for originality. Gigli 2018 points out the importance of Pindar as a model for Nonnian poetics, while Hernández de la Fuente 2014 explores its Neoplatonic background. Miguélez Cavero 2013 examines the concept of novelty in the Dionysiaca as expressed by the poet himself. A detailed list of the authors known and imitated by Nonnus, with bibliographical indications, can be found in Accorinti 2013: 1118–1120 (cited under General Overviews).

• Accorinti, Domenico. 2009. Poésie et poétique dans l’oeuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis. In ‘Doux remède . . .’: Poésie et poétique à Byzance. Actes du IVe colloque international philologique ‘ΕΡΜΗΝΕΙΑ,’ Paris, 23–24–25 février 2006. Edited by Paolo Odorico, Panagiotis A. Agapitos, and Martin Hinterberger, 67–98. Paris: De Boccard.

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  Focuses on the originality of Nonnus’s poetry within the context of late antique and proto-Byzantine poetry.

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• Bannert, Herbert, and Nicole Kröll. Nonnus and the Homeric poems. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 481–505. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Well-informed survey on Nonnus’s attitude toward the Homeric poems, focusing on proems and closures.

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• Fauth, Wolfgang. 1981. Eidos Poikilon: Zur Thematik der Metamorphose und zum Prinzip der Wandlung aus dem Gegensatz in den Dionysiaka des Nonnos von Panopolis. Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht

  DOI: 10.13109/9783666251627Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  The seminal monograph on variation (poikilia) and metamorphosis as key concepts of the poem. In German.

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• Frangoulis, Hélène. 2014. Du roman à l’épopée: influence du roman grec sur les «Dionysiaques» de Nonnos de Panopolis. Besançon, France: Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comté.

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  Offers a comprehensive and detailed study of the influences of novelistic themes and techniques on the Dionysiaca, especially focusing on Achilles Tatius and Longus.

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• Gigli, Daria. 2018. Nonnus and Pindar. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 256–270. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Shows the importance of Pindar as antecedent and model of Nonnian poetics and style.

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• Hernández de la Fuente, David. 2014. Neoplatonic form and content in Nonnus: Towards a new reading of Nonnian poetics. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 375–402. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Brilliant reappraisal of the question of the influence of Neoplatonic metaphysics in allegories, metaphors, vocabulary, and poetics.

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• Hollis, Adrian S. 1994. Nonnus and Hellenistic poetry. In Studies in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. Edited by Neil Hopkinson, 43–62. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Philological Society.

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  On Nonnus’s engagement with Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes, and other Hellenistic poets. A fundamental article.

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• Massimilla, Giulio. 2016. Nel laboratorio del parafraste: i richiami alla poesia ellenistica nella Parafrasi del Vangelo di San Giovanni di Nonno di Panopoli. Prometheus 5:249–279.

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  Detailed study of select passages where influence of Hellenistic poets can be detected. Argues that borrowings of words and phrases enhances the exegesis of the Gospel.

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• Miguélez Cavero, Laura. 2013. Rhetoric of novelty in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. In The Theodosian Age (AD 379–455): Power, place, belief and learning at the end of the Western Empire. Edited by Rosa García-Gasco, Sergio González Sánchez, and David Hernández de la Fuente, 191–195. Oxford: Archaeopress.

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  The analysis of the rhetorical elements of novelty in programmatic passages of the Dionysiaca.

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• Shorrock, Robert. 2001. The challenge of epic: Allusive engagement in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.

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  An important book, focusing on the coherence of the poem, and on Nonnus’s engagement with Homer.

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Religion

The coexistence of a “pagan” poem and an overtly Christian poem caused a long critical debate about Nonnus’s religion and his possible conversion (suggested in either direction). Recent research on relative chronology of the poems (composed in parallel, but Paraphrase started first, see Biography and Cultural Milieu), and the dismissal of the equation mythology = paganism, brought new light on the question. Current views agree that Nonnus was a Christian who did not find mythological poetry problematic. Recent cross-readings of Dionysiaca and Paraphrase point out the unity of Nonnus’s ideological project (Dijkstra 2016; Accorinti 2018). Nonnus emphasizes some affinities between Dionysiac religion and Christianity but from a Christian perspective: see the elaborate analyses by Spanoudakis 2007 and Spanoudakis 2014, and Hadjittofi 2014. Lightfoot 2018, however, underscores the consistency of the conceptual systems of the two poems. Studies on the Paraphrase highlighted the deep knowledge of patristic literature by its author (Doroszewski 2016, Simelidis 2016). A crucial issue for the study of the Paraphrase is Nonnus’s Christology, on which the clear pages by Grillmeier and Hainthaler 1995 are the best introduction, while Sieber 2016 is a more detailed analysis.

• Accorinti, Domenico. 2018. Die Versuchung des Nonnos. Der Mythos als Brücke zwischen Heiden- und Christentum. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 43–69. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Argues that the treatment of the myths constituted a bridge between “paganism” and Christianity that made Nonnus’s poems acceptable to a Christian audience. Offers a close reading of the similiarities between Dionysiaca Book 5 and Paraphrase Book 20. In German.

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• Dijkstra, Jitse H. F. 2016. The religious background of Nonnus. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 75–88. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_005Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Informative survey of Nonnus’s religion and the coexistence of cultural Hellenism and Christian faith in Egyptian poets of Late Antiquity.

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• Doroszewski, Filip. 2016. The mystery terminology in Nonnus’ Paraphrase. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 327–350. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_017Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Focuses on the reuse of mystery terminology (with some comparisons with the major poem).

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• Grillmeier, Aloys, and Theresia Hainthaler. 1995. Christ in Christian tradition. Vol. 2, From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590–604). Part Four: The Church of Alexandria with Nubia and Ethiopia after 451. Translated by O. C. Dean Jr. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

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  Assessment of Nonnus’s Christology at pp. 92–96, with emphasis on his dependence from Cyril of Alexandria.

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• Hadjittofi, Fotini. 2014. Erotic fiction and Christian sexual ethics in Nonnus’ episode of Morrheus and Chalcomede. In The ancient novel and the frontiers of genre. Edited by Marília Pulquério Futre Pinheiro, Gareth L. Schmeling, and Edmund Paul Cueva, 187–204. Eelde, The Netherlands: Barkhuis.

  DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt20d8733.16Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Reappraises Dionysiaca 33–35 and shows the influence of Christian ethics on Nonnian narrative.

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• Lightfoot, Jane L. 2018. In the beginning was the voice. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 43–69. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Important article on prophecy, arguing that in the Paraphrase the author does not show any compromise with pagan prophecy as treated in the Dionysiaca. Suggests that interpretive models based on the notion of syncretism are inadequate.

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• Sieber, Fabian. 2016. Nonnus’ Christology. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 308–326. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_016Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  A reassessment of Nonnus’s Christology through a closer inspection of the concepts of Logos, envoy, and majesty.

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• Simelidis, Christos. 2016. Nonnus and Christian literature. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 290–307. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Close readings of select passages discussing the theological knowledge of Nonnus and his awareness of contemporary debates, and patristic exegesis. The second part of the chapter focuses on Nonnus’s engagement with Gregory of Nazianzus.

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• Spanoudakis, Konstantinos. 2007. Icarius Jesus Christ? Dionysiac passion and biblical narrative in Nonnus’ Icarius Episode (Dion. 47, 1–264). Wiener Studien 120:35–92.

  DOI: 10.1553/wst120s35Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Brilliantly shows that the resurrection of Christ is the hypotext of the narrative of the death and “resurrection” of Ikarios.

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• Spanoudakis, Konstantinos. 2014. The shield of salvation: Dionysus’ shield in Nonnus Dionysiaca 25.380–572. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 333–371. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Interprets the ekphrasis on the shield of Dionysus and especially the story of the resurrection of Tylus in the light of the resurrection of Lazarus, emphasizing the interconnectedness between the narration in the Dionysiaca and the rewriting of John 11 in the Paraphrase, and the influence of Cyrillian exegesis.

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Nonnus and Late Antique Culture and Society

Research on Nonnus’s relations with his own society proved to be particularly productive. After the seminal studies by Bowersock 1990, Chuvin 1991, Liebeschuetz 1996, scholars focused on the presence of Egypt in the poems (Gigli Piccardi 1998) and the impact on audience (Agosti 2016). Relations with contemporary figurative arts are studied in, among others, Kristensen 2016 and Miguélez Cavero 2017.

• Agosti, Gianfranco. 2016. Nonnus and Late Antique society. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 644–668. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_031Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Examines the possible social role of Nonnian poetry and its capacity of responding to contemporary cultural and ideological instances, focusing on descriptions of cities, allusions to Egypt, and impact on audience.

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• Bowersock, Glen W. 1990. Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press.

  DOI: 10.3998/mpub.9381Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Chapter 4 (“Dionysus and his World”) vividly outlines Nonnus’s major poem against the background of late antique society.

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• Chuvin, Pierre. 1991. Mythologie et géographie dionysiaques: Recherches sur l’oeuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Adosa.

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  A masterful study, combining archaeological, numismatic, and literary evidence, on the geography of the Dionysiaca. A reference work not only for Nonnus, but also for any research on late antique geographical and ethnographical lore. In French.

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• Gigli Piccardi, Daria. 1998. Nonno e l’Egitto. Prometheus 24:61–82, 161–181.

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  An insightful contribution, collecting plenty of evidence of allusions to Egyptian world in both the poems. In Italian.

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• Kristensen, Troels Myrup. 2016. Nonnus and the art of Late Antiquity. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 460–478. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_023Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Focuses on Dionysiac themes in mosaics and textiles, discussing the meaning of mythological images in the frame of late antique culture and its relevance to understand Nonnian poetry.

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• Liebeschuetz, John H. W. G. 1996. The use of pagan mythology in the Christian empire. In The sixth century: End or beginning? Edited by Pauline Allen and Elizabeth Jeffreys, 75–91. Brisbane: Australian Association for Byzantine Studies.

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  Deals with the problem of the coexistence of traditional Greek culture and Christianity. After discussing the rhetorical and philosophical background of the Dionysiaca, Liebeschuetz suggests that it was essentially a literary poem and not a pagan apologetic work.

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• Miguélez Cavero, Laura. 2017. Harmonia’s necklace (Nonn. D. 5.135–189): A set of jewellery, ekphrasis and a narrative node. In Rhetorical strategies in Late Antique literature: Images, metatexts and interpretation. Edited by Alberto J. Quiroga Puertas, 165–197. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004340114_011Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Through a detailed analysis of the description of Harmonia’s necklace, compared with contemporary jewelery, explores the possible reader response and Nonnus’s ekphrastic strategies. Successfully demonstrates that ekphraseis in the poem play the role of disseminating clues to the development of the narrative plot.

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Reception in Late Antiquity

See Accorinti 2013: 1126–1127 and Agosti 2012: 383–385 (both cited under General Overviews) for an orientation. Gonnelli 2003 and Tissoni 2016 provide concise but effective overviews of the immediate popularity of Nonnus in Late Antiquity. We still lack a comprehensive monograph on Nonnus’s influence in the 5th and 6th centuries CE. Cameron 2016 discusses the early impact of Nonnus and is worth reading for methodology. Lauritzen 2014 offers a detailed study on John of Gaza. Insightful research has been done on the epigrammatists of the 6th century CE (collected in Agathias’ Cycle) and on George of Pisidia, the last who had a remarkable command of Nonnus’s style and imagery (De Stefani 2014; Whitby 2016).

• Cameron, Alan. 2016. The empress and the poet. In Wandering poets and other essays on late Greek literature and philosophy. By Alan Cameron, 37–80. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.

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  In this magisterial study of the poet Cyrus of Panopolis, Cameron discusses possible engagement of Cyrus with Nonnus’s poetry (pp. 44–46). Revised edition of the paper published in 1982 (“The Empress and the Poet: Paganism and Politics at the Court of Theodosius II.” Yale Classical Studies 27: 217–289).

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• De Stefani, Claudio. 2014. The end of the “Nonnian school.” In Nonnus of Panopolis in Context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 375–402. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Insightful discussion of the decline of poetic production poetry and the death of Nonnian style in the 7th century CE, after George of Pisidia (pp. 375–381). Highlights the importance of political and social changes, as well as the collapse of education system as possible reasons.

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• Gonnelli, Fabrizio. 2003. Per una storia della fortuna di Nonno. In Nonno di Panopoli. Le Dionisiache. Volume terzo (canti XIII-XXIV). 7–40. Milan: BUR.

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  A readable and informative survey of Nonnus’s reception up to the 20th century. Late Antiquity at pp. 7–11. In Italian.

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• Lauritzen, Delphine. 2014. Nonnus in Gaza. The expansion of modern poetry from Egypt to Palestine in the early sixth century CE. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 421–423. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Philological analysis of the propagation of Nonnus’s poetry in the effervescent cultural milieu of Gaza in the 6th century.

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• Tissoni, Francesco. 2016. The reception of Nonnus in Late Antiquity, Byzantine, and Renaissance literature. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 691–711. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

  DOI: 10.1163/9789004310698_033Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Well-informed survey of the reception of both Nonnian poets in Late Antiquity (pp. 691–695) and in the subsequent centuries, up to the Renaissance. Rich bibliography.

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• Whitby, Mary. 2016. A learned spiritual ladder? Towards an interpretation of George of Pisidia’s Poem On human life. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 435–460. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Reappraisal of the ninety hexameters of George of Pisidia’s poem, with a thorough inspection of its Nonnian features.

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Later Reception

Nonnus enjoyed a certain popularity also in Byzantium, especially in the Comnenian age and in the 14th century. De Stefani 2014 and Tissoni 2016 (both quoted in Reception in Late Antiquity) provide rich overviews, critical remarks, and bibliographical references. There is no comprehensive study on Nonnus’s reception in modern literature. Hernández de la Fuente 2016 offers a brilliant survey, while how much can be done in this field is brilliantly shown by Accorinti 2014 and Hernández de la Fuente 2018. Van Opstall 2014 is a brilliant comparison between Nonnus and Marino, who heavily imitated the Greek poet (Minuto 2015). Influence on visual arts is demonstrated in Bull 1998, Hernández de la Fuente 2016, and Shorrock 2018.

• Accorinti, Domenico. 2014. Simone Weil, reader of the Dionysiaca. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context: Poetry and cultural milieu in Late Antiquity with a section on Nonnus and the modern world. Edited by Konstantinos Spanoudakis, 435–460. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.

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  Solid philological analysis of Simone Weil’s interest in the Dionysiaca, also including several samples from the annotations on Nonnus from her unpublished Notebook.

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• Bull, Malcolm. 1998. Poussin and Nonnos. Burlington Magazine 140:724–738.

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  Discusses some paintings of Nicholas Poussin inspired by the Dionysiaca, known to the painter through the French translation of Boitet de Frauville.

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• Hernández de la Fuente, David. 2016. The influence of Nonnus on Baroque and modern literature. In Brill’s companion to Nonnus of Panopolis. Edited by Domenico Accorinti, 712–754. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Well-informed overview, providing also new information, of the influence of Nonnus in the literature of the Baroque age, the rediscovery of the poet in 18th and 19th century, and his fortunes in the 20th. Discusses Nonnian themes in visual arts (Poussin and Lorraine) at pp. 718–721.

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• Hernández de la Fuente, David. 2018. The quest for Nonnus’ life. From scholarship to fiction. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 355–373. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Focuses on the biographical accounts created by the well-known forger Konstantinos Simonides (19th century), and in two novels, respectively by Richard Garnett (1888) and the Nonnian scholar Margarete Riemschneider (1970).

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• Minuto, Cristiano. 2015. Giovan Battista Marino lettore di Nonno di Panopoli: l’episodio della nascita di Amore (Adone VII 141–48). Aevum antiquum 89:745–757.

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  Analyzes Marino’s engagement with Nonnus, showing that Marino both paraphrases and varies his model known through a Latin translation. In Italian.

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• Shorrock, Robert. 2018. Ut poesis pictura. Nonnus’ Europa Episode as Poetry and Painting. In Nonnus of Panopolis in context II: Poetry, religion, and society. Edited by Herbert Bannert and Nicole Kröll, 374–392. Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston: Brill.

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  Analyzes the parallels between Noël-Nicolas Coypel’s painting The Abduction of Europa (1727) and Nonnus.

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• Van Opstall, Emilie. 2014. The golden flower of youth: Baroque metaphors in Nonnus and Marino. Classical Receptions Journal 6:446–470.

  DOI: 10.1093/crj/clt029Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Makes a case for the term baroque applied to Nonnus’s aesthetics, comparing similar descriptions in the Dionysiaca and in Marino’s Adone. Suggests that comparative methodology can stimulate further research.

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